Send one email to save game shooting
The government is reviewing every aspect of game shooting in England. Conor O’Gorman provides an update and urges people to email Defra by 1 November.
New report shows what game shooting delivers for nature – now tell Defra
The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has published Game for Nature, a report that draws on decades of peer-reviewed research into released gamebird management.
The release of Game for Nature comes as Defra reviews every aspect of game shooting in England.
The report concludes that the habitat creation, winter feeding and predator control linked to releasing benefit farmland wildlife when they are carried out to best practice.
At the GWCT’s Allerton Project, 30 years of monitoring show that songbirds declined when gamekeeping stopped. Released gamebird management and predator control began in 2015, and by 2021 song thrushes had recovered from 15 to 60 pairs.
The research found that woodlands managed for pheasants held up to 32 per cent more wild birds and twice as many butterflies as typical woods.
A Scottish study recorded up to 100-times as many songbirds per hectare in winter game cover crops as in stubble, set-aside or conventional crops. A GWCT satellite survey of around 150 sites found that estates releasing gamebirds had 10–65 per cent more hedgerow per square kilometre.
Be the voice of shooting
Defra also needs first-hand evidence. All you need to do is email Defra a few paragraphs, in your own words, about what you see on your ground.
Visit the campaign page here for more guidance and a link to email Defra before midnight on 1 November or click the button below if you’re ready to send your experiences to Defra now.
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Mischief managed: the bias in Defra’s game shooting review
Dr Patrick O’Reilly, BASC’s head of social science, casts a critical eye over Defra’s approach to its call for evidence on game shooting.
What counts as evidence in Defra’s review of game shooting?
A review of game shooting has launched in England. Your everyday work in the countryside is the vital evidence that Defra needs to hear about, urges Conor O’Gorman.