How to win with conservation and PR

Farming clusters show what can achieved with joined-up thinking and the synchronised model could be easily adapted for shoots too

- DR MIKE SWAN

The big new story in agri-environment schemes and farmland conservation is farmer clusters — groups of neighbouring farmers working together to deliver landscape-scale conservation in a co-ordinated way.

Over the past few years, this approach has achieved an enviable reputation for delivering real conservation and biodiversity improvements, offering much better value for money when compared with the older schemes with their inflexible prescriptions.

So, why not shoot clusters as well? Groups of shoots that are still individual enterprises, but which are working together for a better countryside. In some ways, the idea does not sit too easily and keepers will be naturally concerned about issues such as encouraging straying where habitats are linked with those of neighbours. However, if we can overcome that, there is surely scope for enhancing both conservation and the public perception of what we do.

Linking habitats to help the wildlife get around is an age-old idea and perhaps the part of this cluster approach that holds the greatest fear for the keeper.

Wildlife corridors

Strips of attraction — new hedges, wild bird seed mix and such like that run towards the boundary — could easily help to lead our birds astray. That said, they could also help ones that wander to find their way to the heart of the shoot. To my mind, the key here is to make sure that the whole thing is integrated.

When they get up in the morning, our birds want to have a potter about. Pheasants, in particular, have a daily routine — coming off roost, going off to look for breakfast and eventually trundling quietly back towards their favourite roosting sites.