Why our wildlife needs shoots

Cover crops grown for shooting dwarf the acreage of nature reserves and will be vital to our fauna in a post-brexit countryside, as Mike Swan explains

AS I converged with two beaters, working from the opposite end of the new cover strip, a covey of nine wild grey partridges flushed and slipped out of the side. Three of the corn buntings that had been in mind when the cover’s mix was selected watched proceedings from the telegraph wires, along with a mix of linnets, yellowhammers, chaffinches and goldfinches (pictured).

That strip may have been planted for the shoot but in common with thousands of others it was delivering a much broader wildlife benefit.

The 2016 report by consultants PACEC on the economic and environmental impact of game shooting estimates that deliberately planted game-cover crops amount to 25,000 hectares in total across the UK. With an average size of an acre, that means there are around 60,000 individual plots scattered across the country’s farmlands, each one providing both food and shelter for a range of wildlife species at the harshest time of year.

It is also fair to say that nearly all of these plots have been established by shoots that rely on reared and released pheasants and partridges for the bulk of their sport. So while it may be both fashionable and, to a degree, correct to laud wild game production as the most environmentally friendly approach, we should not underestimate the contribution that habitat planted and managed for released birds makes.

Nature reserves are wonderful places, very much the jewel in the UK’S conservation crown, but they make a limited contribution because they cover such a small part of the land. The great majority of our wildlife is found in the living and working countryside, where we grow food and timber. What is more, it’s my opinion that shoots have more than their fair share of this wildlife. Threeand-a-half decades of delivering game management advice on behalf of the GWCT leads me to the view that I see more wildlife on shoots than on unshot land.

This was brought home most strikingly 20 or so years ago when I was asked to look at some big Westcountry shoots to advise on conservation issues. This was a landscape of grass and grazing with relatively small fields and tall hedges but, in fact, the farming was mostly rather nearer ranching. While the roadside fences were well maintained, the rest were dilapidated and the hedges were outgrown and slowly collapsing. With free access to the hedge banks, the cattle and sheep were quietly destroying them.

The contrast with the shoots was dramatic. The hedges were being coppiced and the fences well maintained, so that the banks were covered with a rich and diverse mix of herbs and shrubs. This was done because the gamekeepers wanted the shelter and cover and shoot owners were prepared to invest money and effort to conserve them. There was another big plus, too: cover crops. Acres and acres of game cover were being planted to support and show driven pheasants and partridges – and from these hordes of finches and buntings would flush.

One of the most interesting aspects of all was the way in which the shooting was helping to maintain historical diversity. Files from the GWCT’S archives showed that 30 or 40 years earlier the little hill edge farms had supported a much more mixed agriculture, with fields of cereals and roots to help feed people and livestock. The pressures of modern farming had seen this all but disappear other than on the shoots. The new diversity from game crops may have been different from dairy kale, turnips and barley but it was no less real for that.

All this is great and we need to promote the conservation spin-off from released gamebird shooting far more actively that we do. However, most shoots could do better. Some years ago, the GWCT, in collaboration with the British Trust for Ornithology, carried out some detailed investigations into the relative value of different cover crops for a range of bird species. This showed some dramatic differences that all shoots should consider. For example, while maize helps our gamebirds – and pigeons, rooks and the odd greenfinch – kale and quinoa support more than twice as many species.

Kale deserves a special mention here, too, for its longer-term value. In its first winter it makes excellent game cover but it also provides damp conditions and soft soil for the invertebrate feeders such as song thrush, blackbird and dunnock. However, the full value is only realised in its second year. This results in wonderful nesting and broodrearing cover for lots of species during spring and summer, not to mention the value of its early spring flowers for pollinators such as bumblebees and hoverflies. It then sets its tiny seeds in tough little pods that hold up well in winter, to be picked apart by the likes of linnets, reed buntings, goldfinches and tree sparrows. If you add a few cereal grains such as triticale to the mix, or wheat from the gamebird feeders, then you can support other, larger-billed species, such as corn bunting, yellowhammer and chaffinch.

This growing contribution to conservation could become even more important. In a post-brexit world, where the British public’s appetite for ‘supporting agriculture’ will probably not match that of the EU, agrienvironment spending could fall. If it does, shoots could be the only ones left with the motivation to plant wildlife-friendly crops. Mike Swan is head of education and Southern England and Wales advisor for the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Shoots may well be the only ones left with the motivation to plant wildlife-friendly crops