Creating the harmony between shooting, conservation and food production

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Stewart holding an award with an arm around his wife who is holding a bottle of champagne — Stewart McIntyre with partner Katie Hughes collecting the gold Purdey award for game and conservation (Stewart McIntyre)

By Stewart McIntyre, Estate, Sporting and Conservation Manager

It’s often overlooked how beneficial game shooting and its community is for conservation whether it’s predator control, habitat creation, management or restoration. Creating a plethora of insect rich habitat that supports a wide food chain and year round supply of food, nesting habitat and pest control.

Shoots the width and breadth of the UK are all playing a vital role in supporting ecosystems for a suite of species with habitat management and conservation carried out over 7.6m ha as a result of shooting.

Someone cradling an owl after it has been ringed and inspected — Barn owl ringing and box inspections to monitor breeding and health of population (Stewart McIntyre)

This work often unseen and under the radar from individual efforts, syndicate shoots, family run affairs to commercial shoots with 620,000 people actively involved in shooting related activities.

With the role of the modern gamekeeper now seen as more of a countryside warden, managing agri-environment schemes, public perception, complex habitats, education and producing healthy sustainable game meat for the food chain.

The gamekeepers role is evolving and for the better - public image of the portly faced tweed clad angry custodian is changing with many writing articles, hosting school visits, influencing on social media and YouTube channels. This once, often isolated role, is creating a more diverse community of individuals with the passion care and knowledge that far exceeds any stereotype. Managing flower meadows, hedge and woodland planting, creating wetlands, ponds and scrapes. Supplementary feeding for farmland birds during the winter hungry gap. Putting up bird and bat boxes, managing wild bird seed plots. Bird surveys, pest and predator management are just a few tasks shoot managers undertake on a daily basis.

Taking unproductive areas of land often needing high inputs of artificial fertiliser that still produces low yields is one way of finding areas for wildlife. This can also improve efficiency for farming operations.

The new value of shooting report was commissioned by 24 rural organisations with the report carried out by Cognisense a market research and data analytics company.

An aerial view of a series of ponds alongside a railway — A series of ponds created for wildlife with varying depths of water and “muddy edges” for waders and alike (Stewart McIntyre)

It focuses on three main areas:

Economic and societal benefits
Benefits to the environment/conservation
The benefits to participants health and wellbeing and the provision and promotion of game as food.

Some top line stats from the report indicate:

Shooting is worth £3.3 billion to the UK economy annually (gross value added).
Shooting generates £9.3 billion of wider economic activity in the UK economy.
Shooting activities generate the equivalent of 67,000 full time jobs.
Shooting providers and volunteers carry out conservation work to the value of £500m, equivalent to 26,000 full time jobs and 14m workdays each year.

A group of men and women of various ages posing in outdoor gear — A days beating is open to all ages and backgrounds, a great way to keep fit and explore the countryside (Stewart McIntyre)

The report highlights the importance of shooting in rural communities and economies while conserving the countryside as well as the physical and mental health benefits of the participants.

With the changes in agricultural policy, agricultural schemes, the shift to more sustainable food production and regenerative farming and the recent change in government rural communities face challenging and uncertain times ahead.

Countryside pursuits be it hunting shooting or fishing are often the glue that holds the most remote parts of the UK together.

An award that highlights the unsung work of gamekeepers, shoots and estates in the UK is the Purdey awards for game and conservation, since 1999 it has celebrated those within the shooting community that are delivering outstanding contributions to conservation.

Having hosted three of the Purdey award judges in August 2023 for a presentation and farm tour I was invited to Purdeys HQ in Audley Street, London on the 6th February 2024, where I was humbled to receive the gold award. The finest accolade for a gamekeeper turned estate manager and conservationist.

The article can be found here.

https://www.purdey.com/blogs/the-purdey-post/meet-the-purdey-gold-award-winner

So next time you’re driving through the countryside and encounter a line of guns in the distance, witness working dogs, see game on a pub menu or supermarket shelf remember it’s not all about pulling the trigger it's about farming sensitivity caring for nature and creating space for all.