BAP species recovery advice Key achievements Tailored on-site advice on ‘our’ BAP species to over 40 properties. Over 200 land managers attended BAP evenings at demonstration sites. We had around 400 new recruits to the Partridge Count Scheme. Increased awareness of the value of the new Environmental Stewardship Schemes to game and wildlife. Mike Swan
A generous grant from the Ernest Cook Trust enables us to provide discounted advice for BAP species like the grey partridge. (Alexis de la Serre)
10
2004 was a vintage year for Game Conservancy Limited’s delivery of practical management advice, especially on Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) species. The Trust is lead partner for the grey partridge BAP, and joint lead partner for brown hare and black grouse with the Mammal Society and the RSPB respectively. We were therefore delighted to be awarded a £20,000 grant by the Ernest Cook Trust to allow our regional advisory team to offer discounted advisory visits for these three species, and to run a UK-wide series of demonstration events for farmers, keepers and other land managers keen to help them. This has been particularly timely in the period leading up to the Single Farm Payment and the associated new environmental and stewardship schemes, particularly the Entry Level Stewardship scheme in England. At last we are entering an era when all farmers can join a conservation scheme with potential to improve habitat for our BAP species. The Game Conservancy Trust has researched and developed many of the relevant prescriptions over the last few years. The Ernest Cook Trust grant enabled our regional advisors to visit over 40 properties across the country. Not surprisingly, the grey partridge was the main interest on 75% of these, but black grouse was the key species on a substantial minority, while the brown hare was the main focus on a few. On several, more than one of these species were present, and so were likely to benefit from the advised prescriptions. With an average of 4.6 people present on these visits, over 200 people with real influence should have benefited. Of the six demonstration events, one in each advisory region, the one in the north of England was aimed exclusively at black grouse with the remaining five targeted at grey partridges and brown hares. Joining working farmers, gamekeepers and other conservationists, we were especially delighted that senior officials from Defra in England and SEERAD in Scotland attended, and demonstrated their enthusiasm for these examples of best practice. In many ways, this package of subsidised advice was only the tip of the iceberg. Helping ‘our’ BAP species has been a key theme of advisory work, training courses,
Review of 2004