The UK’s largest shooting organisation has highlighted the benefits of game shooting ahead of the start of the pheasant shooting season on October 1st.
The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) points out some of the benefits of game shooting in an infographic.
Game shooting provides habitat and conservation management, delivers high-quality landscapes and provides tasty food.
Over 280,000 people work on shoots each year. The effort put into game management and pest control is equivalent to 7,800 full-time jobs and predator control contributes to reversing the declines seen in farmland birds.
Game shoots maintain 25,000ha of cover crops and these provide an important source of food and shelter for songbirds, particularly during Winter.
Shoots manage 500,000ha of woodland and 100,000ha of copses for game.
Glynn Evans, BASC’s head of game and deer management, said: “Game shooting is good for conservation, good for the economy and game meat is very good to eat.
“Research shows that land managed for shooting is richer in biodiversity and that songbirds, for example, benefit from pest control and the management of game such as pheasants and partridges.”
Peter Glenser, BASC chairman, said: “The British countryside would look very different without the sterling work that people who shoot put in. They act as an army of conservationists in effect, and these guardians of the countryside work tirelessly to protect and preserve the countryside for the benefit of a range of species that otherwise wouldn’t have a home and for future generations.”
To view the infographic, click below:
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