Depicting local hedgelaying patterns is like reading a map. Walk over to a newly cut-and-laid hedge. If it is 4ft 6in high, with hazel stakes and woven hazel binders along the top, then you are in Midlands foxhunting country. If the stakes are of sawn timber and there are no…
The GWCT is headquartered just outside the charming Georgian town of Fordingbridge, untouched by Starbucks or Costa. Once this backwater might have been appropriate for the GWCT but today the organisation finds itself deep in the mid-current of conservation and environment politics. In her 21 years as chief executive, Teresa…
We all know honeybees, and the majority of us are equally familiar with bumblebees, even if we struggle to name them individually, but solitary bees? They are a huge group that most of us know little about but of the 270 species of bee found in Britain, nearly 250 of…
There’s a snuffling and a scuffling, a snort and a shove coming from the other side of a pig pen in a farmyard on the Doddington Hall estate, near Lincoln. Three Hungarian Mangalitza pigs, genetic cousins of the now extinct Lincolnshire Curly Coat, have just spent their first night at…
Many sporting dogs are helping with conservation and helping to protect endangered species such as bats and water voles in the UK. Earlier this winter, I was walking my spaniel along a footpath when she stopped as suddenly as if she had run into a brick wall. There was no…
The Moray Firth is home to some of the most iconic salmon rivers in the British Isles and, indeed, the world. Famous names such as the Spey, Deveron, Findhorn, Ness, Conon, Oykel and Shin resonate with the legendary status they hold and the special memories many anglers have of them.…
The 2019 Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation are back for another year, and now inviting entries. There’s not long left, so don’t miss your chance to enter. Entries close Monday 20 May 2019. For more on Purdey take a look around their factory in our exclusive tour, read the…
Langholm Moor Demonstration Project may have stopped short of its 10-year lifespan, but to view it as a failure is to be short sighted, argues Tim Baynes. One of Langholm’s successes was to keep all sides talking, as conservation projects are often shrouded by dispute. Rob Yorke says we must…
The Big Farmland Bird Count sees farmers record the number of birds they see on their farmland during half an hour each year. The results of the Big Farmland Bird Count are a good indicator as to species health and proliferation. While it may seem apparent to us that shooting…
