Conservation and Game Management

Wildlife conservation and shooting may seem at first glance to be contradictory but there is actually a growing recognition that the two things go hand in glove. Game managers throughout the world have long maintained that they have a vested interest in conserving both game stocks and their environment so that they are able to reap another harvest in the future as well as what is being taken today. Most conservation organisations also recognise that the self-interest of the hunter gives a motivation for conservation, which can drive him very strongly, provided that the motivation is well managed.

In the United Kingdom a tiny percentage of the land surface is protected as nature reserves, but wildlife does not respect these boundaries. Most of our wildlife inhabits the ordinary countryside of farmland, woodlands, moors and marshes. This is a living and working countryside, producing food, timber and many other valuable products for the human economy. Much of the area is also shot over for game birds, wildfowl, deer, rabbits, hares and many other quarry species.

Through its 70 year history, The Game Conservancy Trust and its predecessors have researched the problems which face game populations in the United Kingdom and has also offered an Advisory Service to help game managers conserve and husband stocks. With its slogan of 'Conservation through Wise Use', the organisation has also maintained an abiding theme of considering the conservation of other species as well as the quarry.
More recently, the organisation has also tried to quantify some of the benefits of game management as far as non-quarry species are concerned. For example, Game Conservancy Advisors have encouraged many shoots to cut wide rides through their larger woods, to provide good places to show driven pheasants. Monitoring of these rides has shown that they contain many more butterflies than the narrow rides that are often present for purely forestry reasons. Most interestingly, the wide open rides also carry a greater diversity of species.

Another common practice for game habitat is the planting of special crops to provide both extra winter cover and drives for traditional game shooting. In association with the British Trust for Ornithology, The Game Conservancy Trust has been monitoring such crops over a wide part of the UK during the last few winters to establish how beneficial these areas might be for other bird species. Early indications are that a great range of song birds in particular benefit from the extra cover and food which these crops provide.

Control of predators by gamekeepers has always been a controversial subject and there is no doubt that historically, many rare species were brought to their knees by intensive game keeping. However, most of the really rare birds of prey and other species which keepers once threatened, have staged a dramatic recovery in more recent times. At the same time, gamekeepers still control common predators, such as crows, magpies and foxes which would otherwise have a serious effect on game populations. Many people have claimed that this is bound to be beneficial to much of the wildlife too, and in recent years The Game Conservancy Trust has been able to show that some other species do indeed benefit from perdition control. On their study farm in Leicestershire for example, breeding song thrushes are about three times more abundant than they were when research started eight years ago and this is attributed almost exclusively to the reduced perdition by crows and magpies.

It is important to remember, however, that everything that Shoots do is not necessarily beneficial to conservation. Excessive stocking, badly designed feeding areas and some other aspects of game management can have a damaging effect on conservation. However, the overall balance is certainly in favour of good game management and The Game Conservancy Trust helps to promote this in every way that it can. The organisation is entirely dependent on membership subscriptions to keep up its good work and details of how to join, along with further information about the work of the Trust, are available on their web site at www.gct.org.uk