Sir, Clive Aslet’s article on the good which shooting does for conservation is welcome. (What’s good for shooters is good for the RSPB). Shooting’s contribution to conservation can sometimes be conveniently overlooked, but it is significant. News reached me today of a project to protect sea trout spawning grounds in North Wales. Work to prevent livestock damage to river banks and siltation of the river been carried out by a local shoot. The work was supported by Natural Resources Wales and the Welsh Rivers Trust. This is but a small part in a much bigger picture. People who shoot are active conservationists. Their work can be small on-the-ground projects which rarely capture national attention, through to landscape-scale efforts to help habitats and species. When all of the day-in, day-out conservation work produced by shooting is calculated, the big picture emerges. Shooting leads to a quarter of a billion pounds being spent on conservation in the UK every year. People who shoot put in 3.9 million work days and it would take 16,000 full-time conservation jobs to replicate.
Mike Sherman
Vice-Chairman
The British Association for Shooting and Conservation
Marford Mill, Rossett, LL12 0HL