BBC criticised over coverage of rural issues

A review commissioned by the BBC Trust has highlighted the BBC’s shortcomings when it comes to covering rural issues.

One of the main criticisms levelled at the BBC was their over-reliance on a small number of charities and NGOs for stories, with the RSPB, NFU and National Trust among those highlighted. The RSPB in particular was singled out by report author Heather Hancock who wrote: “It is inappropriate for this one organisation [the RSPB] to have been the unprompted first response for all but three of the BBC programme makers or journalists to whom I spoke”.

The review also criticises the broadcaster for focussing on asking celebrities for their opinions and not granting enough airtime to explain facts surrounding certain issues, preferring to focus on stories of conflict.

Several recommendations have been made in the review including expanding the number and range of contacts on rural issues and re-establishing the role of rural affairs correspondent.

The BBC have been asked to report back in six months and then submit a written report in September 2015.

Subscribe to FREE GWCT News blog updates

Enter your email address:

This week's GWCT blog roundup - grouse shooting, hen harriers, game fair

Here are this week's blog posts from across the GWCT:

GWCT letter to The Times on grouse shooting published

Read our chairman's published letter to The Times in response to Simon Barnes's recent article on grouse shooting.

Has the RSPB found a silver bullet?

Andrew Gilruth explores whether failure to explain the situation is just perpetuating the hen harrier problem.

BBC criticised over coverage of rural issues

A review commissioned by the BBC Trust has highlighted the BBC’s shortcomings when it comes to covering rural issues.

We're gearing up for events in July...

With summer in full swing we look ahead to the Scottish Game Fair and CLA Game Fair.

Brown Hares are thriving - but not everywhere

Peter Thompson discusses the variation in brown hare population numbers in different parts of the country.

Advice by the spadeful

Chris Stoate discusses the importance of the Water Friendly Farming project and the issues involved.

Subscribe to FREE GWCT News blog updates

Enter your email address:

We're gearing up for events in July...

With Wimbledon underway and the World Cup motoring along nicely (despite England somehow managing to get knocked out in the first week), it can only mean one thing - game fair season is upon us.

The 26th GWCT Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace takes place between 4-6th July and offers something for all the family.

New headline events for 2014 include The Welsh Axemen who will don razor sharp axes and compete against each other in a tree felling simulation in the main ring arena with a terrifying tree climb finale you won’t want to miss!
Over 300 exhibitors will be at the Scottish Game Fair including some of Scotland’s top food and drink producers and a wealth of equipment and clothing shops.

For more details of what's on at the fair click here.

The CLA Game Fair takes place two weeks later at Blenheim Palace between 18-20th July. As always our stand will feature fascinating displays and demonstrations, informative talks and fabulous food and drink.

Mike Clarke, CEO RSPB, will be giving a presentation on conservation on shooting estates at 5pm on Friday 18th July in our Member’s Area and it will also be Happy Hour on our stand – join us for a Woodcock-tail!

The talks on our stand will cover subjects ranging from modern predator control, fishing, woodcock, improving shoot performance and the great conservation work undertaken by farmers.

In the meantime make sure you download your FREE voucher to get £2.50 off a full English breakfast at our stand. We look forward to seeing you there!

Subscribe to FREE GWCT News blog updates

Enter your email address:

Has the RSPB found a silver bullet?

by Andrew Gilruth - @AndrewGilruth - #hh2014

If you are happy to cherry pick your facts, birds of prey, and their long history of persecution by the hand of man, make them the press officer’s dream. When it comes to the hen harrier, is the failure to explain the situation just perpetuating the problem?

What’s wrong with a bit of emotional cherry picking?

“Long ago, we in the RSPB used to hold, in all honesty, to the view that a few hen harriers scattered around the uplands weren’t going to present a great threat to driven grouse shooting and that the grouse moor managers’ fears were greatly exaggerated. We were wrong.

It was the Langholm Study, more properly called the Joint Raptor Study [1992-1997], that showed how wrong we were [1].”

                                                                    Former RSPB Conservation Director 1998-2011

So now we know: 4,000 jobs, reliant on the protection of wild grouse [2], can be directly threatened by high numbers of hen harriers which eat them. But harriers are protected and in England at least are at a low ebb. So how do we grow a raptor population whilst increasing their prey?

Could the hen harrier population be distracted from taking grouse chicks by diversionary feeding [3]? Well, the RSPB spent 6 years testing “whether [the] diversionary feeding of kestrels is effective at increasing little tern breeding success”. The results have yet to be published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Yet recent press releases here and here would suggest that diversionary feeding is the perfect silver bullet. Simon Barnes in his Wild Notebook [4] appears to like the idea that “Diversionary feeding is simple, effective and cheap, it reduces grouse predation by 86%”. Yes, predation by hen harriers was reduced but the grouse population did not recover.

Is there any evidence that diversionary feeding alone can overcome the root cause of the harrier-grouse conflict? No.

“The results suggest that supplementary [diversionary] feeding may provide a useful tool in reducing the number of grouse chicks taken by harriers. Further experiments are now necessary to see under what conditions this reduced predation will lead to increases in grouse density.”

                                                                     Journal of Applied Ecology [5] 2001

Shame - it would be so much easier to have a silver bullet to improve the lot of the hen harrier.

Perhaps it is time to stop perpetuating the problem and start supporting the more comprehensive Defra led Joint  Recovery Plan?

Join the discussion on Twitter - #hh2014

---

[1] Fighting for Birds - Mark Avery, 2012. Mark was the RSPB Conservation Director from 1998-2011.

[2] Where gamekeepers manage moors for grouse there is a significant increase in birds that are otherwise declining such as lapwing, curlew and golden plover. The GWCT are concerned about the impact of any job losses on these scarce birds.

[3] Diversionary feeding – placing dead rats and poultry chicks on a post near a harrier nest as an alternative food to grouse chicks for the harrier young. The idea has been tested at Langholm Moor

[4] Times – Saturday 14^th June
[5]Redpath, S M, Thirgood, S J, and Leckie, F M 2001 Does supplementary feeding reduce predation of red grouse by hen harriers? Journal of Applied Ecology38: 1157–1168.
 

Subscribe to FREE GWCT News blog updates

Enter your email address:

GWCT letter to The Times on grouse shooting published

 

Subscribe to FREE GWCT News blog updates

Enter your email address:

RSPB celebration?

by Andrew Gilruth - @AndrewGilruth - #hh2014

There are three¹ reported hen harrier nests in England this year – this is described as a “glimmer of hope” by the RSPB yesterday. Could this be a significant understatement? Are they being a bit modest? After all, the BBC were busy reporting the imminent extinction of hen harriers only 10 months ago; now we have three nests in England. I would call that a cause for celebration.

The absence of hen harriers in England has long been attributed to persecution, something the GWCT first published in 1998. Indeed, persecution was still seen as the biggest cause of absence, by some, last year.

@benjaminbittern @SongBirdSOS @alantilmouth @AndrewGilruth @RSPB_Skydancer @HuntingTim and there we know limiting factor is persecution
— RSPBSouthWest (@RSPBSouthWest) August 14, 2013

@AndrewGilruth @SteveOrmerod Pairs have disappeared all across the Region-persecution-now year round is the biggest cause.
— Stuart Housden (@StuartHousden) December 14, 2012

Yet, are things changing? I believe they are. If persecution was the biggest cause of the recent absence – is persecution coming to an end? The most recent bird crime figures support that view. The RSPB’s glossy report indicates that incidents reported² to them have fallen to an all-time low. It is easy to be modest, but I would call that a cause for celebration too.

Can we see further evidence of this change at Langholm on the Scottish border? On the moor this year we³ have seen an increase in hen harriers. As of mid-May we have six nesting females with four males in attendance. So what? If some of these birds hunt for food in England (their nests are some 10 miles from the English border) – could that only happen if persecution has ceased?

Will this pave the way for the biggest opportunity to celebrate this year?

Defra has brought the moor owners, gamekeepers and conservation groups together⁴ – and united them all – we need more hen harriers – this year. Not only that, they have been working on a hen harrier joint recovery plan. Defra is expected⁵ to make an announcement soon on whether the plan will go ahead

Join the discussion on Twitter – #hh2014

---

¹ Three reported nests. Two on the United Utilities Bowland Estate in Lancashire (one pair is currently raising chicks, the other the female is sitting on eggs), and a third pair nesting at another location in England.
² Birdcrime 2012 – Appendix 1 (p53) shows incidents reported to the RSPB have fallen from 632 in 2007 to 442 in 2012.
³ Langholm Moor Demonstration Project is a partnership between Buccleuch Estates, Scottish Natural Heritage, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Natural England.
⁴ In August 2012 Defra officials established the Hen Harrier Sub-Group of the Uplands Stakeholder Forum including representatives from Natural England, the Moorland Association, the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, the National Park Authority and the RSPB.
⁵ Reported in Keeping the Balance – the official magazine of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation.

Raising the biodiversity gain

Since the launch of our Campaign for Game last summer, which challenged shoots to demonstrate that they were delivering biodiversity benefits, several shoots have stepped up to the plate and commissioned the Advisory Service to undertake a Biodiversity Assessment. The aims of these surveys are to:

• Highlight areas where game management is already having a positive effect.
• Identify any potential negative impacts of game management activities and find a workable solution to them.
• To explore areas where there is potential for further biodiversity gain.

Our approach to measuring the environmental sustainability of pheasant shoots has now been adopted by Marks & Spencers which has commissioned our Advisory Service to work with its game suppliers.

To read a shoot owner’s perspective on the new assessment please click here.

Subscribe to FREE GWCT News blog updates

Enter your email address:


 

How Natural England see the GWCT

by Dave Webster, Chief Executive of Natural England (taken from the GWCT members' magazine Gamewise, summer 2014)

Successful conservation relies on strong partnerships and sound science. Throughout my tenure as chief executive of Natural England, the GWCT has been a shining example of both. Conservation across large areas of the English countryside poses many challenges, not least how best to help farmers and land managers to act in the best interests of the natural environment, while running a profitable farm or other businesses. GWCT’s contribution to meeting these challenges is huge. For example, research undertaken at the Allerton Project Farm, which I recently visited, showed how winter feeding can improve farmland bird numbers. And last winter’s Big Farmland Bird Count helped showcase the work farmers do and brought the issue into the public eye.

I saw real innovation when I visited the Marlborough Downs Nature Improvement Area. I was impressed by how the Trust has helped forge a new and ever strengthening bond between the farmers and the local authority, Wiltshire Council. It’s a new bottom-up approach to conservation that is already delivering real benefits to wildlife and people in and around the Marlborough Downs.

The work that the GWCT is leading on ‘cluster farms’ takes this approach forward. Again, the Trust is bringing people together to help deliver biodiversity and wider environmental improvements across the farmed landscape. All the feedback I’ve had suggests that there is real enthusiasm for this approach among landowners, and this is great news: conservation should be a source of pride not a burden, and we will achieve so much more when all sectors work together.

The local approach to farm clusters mirrors the approach we are taking at Natural England. Changes we’ve made recently to devolve power and decision making to our 14 new Area Teams will, I hope, support this approach, and enable our local advisors to work more closely with local communities and interests to get the best results for the local patch.

This exciting ‘farm cluster’ model is also helping to shape the design of the new Rural Development Programme. Innovations like ‘option bundles’ for certain groups of species like wild pollinators and farmland birds could make a real difference in the farmed environment. As well as benefiting wildlife, there is also potential for this work to reduce diffuse pollution and improve water quality. This integrated approach to the environment is exactly what is needed now.

We may not always agree on every issue, and nor should we, but the pragmatic approach the GWCT takes, aligned with its expertise and dedication to wildlife conservation, show how farming, shooting and nature can work in harmony.

Subscribe to FREE GWCT News blog updates

Enter your email address:

5 Top GWCT blog posts this week - hen harriers, countryside, woodcock & more

These are our most read new blog posts from the last 7 days. Perhaps not surprisingly our piece on hen harriers received the most views.

Defra about to save hen harriers?

Will you help protect the countryside?

First woodcock location updates for June

Just for the record - are you a "Twitcher"?

The mountain hare debate

Subscribe to FREE GWCT News blog updates

Enter your email address:


 

Defra about to save hen harriers?

by Andrew Gilruth - @AndrewGilruth

Defra takes the decline in hen harrier populations in England very seriously. I salute the Defra officials who set up a small multi-organisation group, in August 2012, to develop a plan to increase the English hen harrier population. It’s a tough one. The 2011 conservation framework report extends to 81 pages and contains a range of conflicting issues and knowledge gaps – to succeed where others have failed you will also need the support of those working on the ground. How would you do it?

For the hen harrier 2014 could be quite different.

Defra has brought the moor owners, gamekeepers and conservation groups together¹ - and united them all - we need more hen harriers – this year. Not only that, they have been working on a hen harrier joint recovery plan. Defra is expected² to make an announcement soon on whether the plan will go ahead.

The plan's aim is simple…get more hen harriers nesting successfully in England…

This unity is very significant. There has been a history of conflict between grouse shooting interests and hen harriers. That matters because grouse moors provide more than 50% of the most suitable habitat, in England, for breeding hen harriers.

The draft plan is not wild. It’s not reckless. It’s not rushed. To get there it has taken:

- 15 years
- 20 reports
- 3 Governments and
- 6 years of mediated conflict resolution talks

The hen harrier joint recovery plan³ package

1) Law enforcement, prevention and intelligence led by a senior police officer
2) Ongoing monitoring of breeding sites and winter roosts
3) Research of the movement of hen harriers using satellite tracking
4) Diversionary feeding of hen harriers to reduce predation on grouse chicks
5) Engagement study about reintroducing them to other parts of England
6) Brood management trial⁴ to avoid red grouse and hen harrier population swings⁵ 

Sign the petition asking Defra to publish the Joint Recovery Plan >

Most, and this means all sides, are not thrilled with every element. However as a ‘package’ they appear to balance. It is also interesting that they underpin sustainable conservation which is founded on three principles: economic, social and environmental elements. This simple logic appears to have kept everyone at the table.

Clearly we could all find problems with this package. We could drag this out. We could all press home our personal views. Alternatively we could urge those involved to push on. Keep going and deliver more breeding harriers in England – this year.

Should 2014 be the year of the hen harrier? Should we not encourage the police, Defra, Natural England, moorland owners, sporting tenants, gamekeepers, conservationists and volunteers to get on with it? Is not 2014 the year to sign and implement the joint hen harrier recovery plan?

If Defra officials are able to achieve, where so many others have failed – I feel they deserve to be congratulated by all.

Sign the petition asking Defra to publish the Joint Recovery Plan >

¹ In August 2012 Defra officials established the Hen Harrier Sub-Group of the Uplands Stakeholder Forum including representatives from Natural England, the Moorland Association, the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, the National Park Authority and the RSPB.
²  Reported in Keeping the Balance – the official magazine of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation
³ As discussed in the June 2014 edition of The Field
⁴ As discussed by Martin Harper (RSPB conservation Director) 16th April 2014 - National Gamekeepers’ Organisation AGM
⁵ Langholm Moor and the Joint Raptor Study (JRS) challenged scientific thinking on raptor predation

Subscribe to FREE GWCT News blog updates

Enter your email address:


 

Will you help protect the countryside?

By Katrina Candy, GWCT Scotland

It is truly uplifting to witness nature in all its glory at this time of year. Birds singing, hedgerows bursting into life, wildflowers blooming and people taking advantage of the milder weather to explore our beautiful natural heritage. The countryside is there to be enjoyed by all and indeed more people should be experiencing our rural environment and learning about nature’s bounty.

We at the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust have studied for decades the fragility of our wildlife and are extremely in tune with how vulnerable birds, mammals and insects are especially when nesting, hatching and rearing young. We therefore call upon all those countryside users to be aware of our rural environment and ask that simple measures are taken to prevent unnecessary disturbance of species such as skylarks, dunnocks and grey partridges.

Steps like keeping dogs on leads, avoiding walking, riding or cycling on rough, grassy areas and keeping to pathways are hugely beneficial at this time of year.

Many farmers and land managers invest time and money into providing suitable habitats for wildlife and we can all play our part in protecting this wonderful resource.

Thank you.

Subscribe to FREE GWCT News blog updates

Enter your email address:


 

Exclusive whisky tasting for 50 members

The GWCT Scottish Game Fair is delighted to announce an exclusive whisky event at this year’s 26th annual event at Scone Palace on Friday 4 July.

From 11am to midday, Ian Macleod Distillers will be staging an intimate complimentary tutored tasting of three of its finest Glengoyne Highland Single Malts: the 10 year old, 15 year old and 21 year old.

World renowned as one of the finest Highland malts with an illustrious heritage, Glengoyne has been producing exceptional single malt whisky for nearly 200 years. What makes this Highland single malt Scotch whisky so unique is a commitment to tradition and time-honoured craftsmanship.

Worth the wait

Almost to the letter, Glengoyne follows the principles its founders established. Glengoyne Highland Single Malt Scotch whiskies are handcrafted with time-honoured skills passed down from one generation of distillers to the next. The distillery boasts the slowest distillation process in Scotland with patience the key to the Glengoyne journey.

Glengoyne is a distillery like no other. Taking its name from the glen in which it sits – ‘Glen Guin’ or ‘Glen of the Wild Geese’ – it is highly regarded as Scotland’s most beautiful distillery, residing close to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park – nestled into Dumgoyne Hill.

The distillery emanates a sense of pride – a feeling that comes from doing things properly and not cutting corners, ensuring that every drop of Glengoyne is the best it can truly be.

The pure, clean water for the spirit comes from the waterfall at the distillery. The barley is dried by air, never peat, to produce a subtle yet complex spirit where all the delicate, rich and fruity flavours are freely expressed.

Tradition Preserved

An investment of time and care, this beautiful Highland malt collection is matured in the finest sherry oak casks from Jerez in Southern Spain. No other stage of the process has as great a bearing on the end flavour as these casks do.

Up to six years from oak forest to Highland distillery, that’s how long it takes before the hand-selected casks are ready to receive the precious Glengoyne spirit.

They are then stacked – only three high – for maturation in traditional cool stone-built dunnage warehouses for 10 to 20 years or more.

Glengoyne has an unmistakable natural colour with deep amber shades and a rich glow developed through time and wood alone. To change one element in the Glengoyne production would be to alter the unique taste of the malt.

Testament to the award-winning qualities of the malt, Glengoyne was recently awarded a double gold medal for its 18 Year Old and 21 Year Old malts, gold for its 12 Year Old and silver for its 15 Year Old at the prestigious 2014 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

BOOK NOW

To book a place at the Glengoyne whisky event, please email your name and contact details to talk@jigsawpr.com by 10 June. Places are limited to 50 Members and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

The mountain hare debate

by Adam Smith, GWCT Director in Scotland - @scotgrouse

Mountain hares are part of the sporting interest on many upland Scottish estates, where they are found at high densities, benefiting from the production of cover, young heather and few predators.

There has been a lot of media activity as contemporary moorland management for red grouse, notably culling mountain hares to prevent tick-borne disease transmission, is raising concern over the long-term conservation status of the species.

Through the National Gamebag Census, we can evaluate trends in mountain hare bags over much longer periods than any other monitoring scheme. Since the 1950s, when keepering increased again after World War 11, the bags show a clear cyclical pattern of peaks and troughs. Despite these large short- and medium-term changes, there is no discernible long-term trend in numbers of hares in the bag.

In 2008, in collaboration with Scottish Natural Heritage and the James Hutton Institute, we established that the Scottish range of mountain hare is not shrinking (range contraction is often the first sign of a population in trouble). The fact that we still commonly see hares even in areas where there are intensive culls suggests that the population may be more robust than some think. However, this cannot be taken for granted, and sustainable management of hares must go hand-in-hand with sustainable management of grouse.

Subscribe to FREE GWCT News blog updates

Enter your email address: