A new contraceptive which is aimed at helping to manage the grey squirrel population and allow the endangered red species to thrive is being developed by a partnership of leading conservation and forestry organisations.

Conservation group Wild Justice has launched a legal challenge to the general licences issued by Natural Resources Wales (NRW), which sanction the shooting of pest bird species.

Four leading shooting organisations have joined forces to fight Wild Justice’s latest judicial review against Defra on the legality of releasing game birds over designated sites.

Dorset is one of the counties to have improved the most from last year in a review of firearms licensing performance.

Volunteers have picked up 30 bags of rubbish – and a child’s garden side – from Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve.

Legal action by Wild Justice seeks to ban release of gamebirds near special protected areas but could have wider impact.

Sometimes it feels as though barely a month goes by without British children’s lack of knowledge about the countryside and farming making headlines.

There has been “some improvement” in firearms licensing performance by police forces across England and Wales according to the latest review by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC).

Huge improvements in dealing with firearms licenses in Lincolnshire have been recognised nationally.