Another successful nesting season for BASC’s osprey project
With a total of 15 chicks reared from six nest sites, BASC’s osprey project is heralding another hugely successful breeding season in the Lake District.
Four Seasons campaign: celebrating shooting’s year-round value
Shooting is often viewed too narrowly. For many outside the community, the focus is simply on pulling the trigger, but that overlooks the much wider contribution that shooting makes to conservation, as a source of seasonal wild food and supporting the rural way of life.
The truth is that sustainable shooting provides significant benefits for both people and the environment. From creating habitats for general wildlife and threatened species, to supporting personal wellbeing, capturing carbon dioxide in healthy woodlands, and managing problematic wildlife, shooting plays an important role in how our landscapes are managed for the better.
That is why BASC has launched a Four Seasons campaign to celebrate the all-year round positive work carried out by the shooting community and to encourage more people to share their stories and evidence.
The campaign is built around the changing seasons, highlighting different conservation activities and the benefits they bring throughout the year.
Spring has sprung
This spring, the campaign is focusing on several important themes.
Firstly, we have been highlighting grey partridge conservation, which not only supports this iconic farmland bird but also benefits a wide range of flora and fauna.
Moorland management will be another area of focus, highlighting how that maintains healthy red grouse populations while supporting species such as curlew, lapwing and golden plover. And we won’t be forgetting predator management in the lowlands and its role for farming and nature recovery.
We will also be looking at game cover crops being sown this spring for gamebirds that will be released in the summer. An estimated 25,000 hectares of cover crops are provided each year because of shooting. That is a massive resource for wildlife in general.
Importantly, BASC’s Four Seasons campaign is not just about telling positive stories – it is about the data that backs that up. BASC is encouraging members to gather evidence, take part in surveys such as the GWCT partridge count scheme or BASC’s duck nest tube programme.
With a bird quarry species review underway and potential reviews of gamebird shooting and releasing in the pipeline, it is more important than ever for the shooting community to demonstrate the environmental value it provides.
If shooting is to continue to thrive, the good it delivers for nature, people and the countryside must be seen, understood and accepted by society. We all have a role to play in making that happen, so join the campaign and share what you are doing.
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