Dr Lucy Mason

The impacts of non-native gamebird release in the UK: an updated evidence review

Recreational shooting of non-native gamebirds (pheasants and red-legged partridges) in the UK is
underpinned by a suite of management practices. A major aspect is the annual large-scale release
of birds to be shot, which is steadily increasing with an estimated 57 million birds released in 2016;
this scale of non-native gamebird release exceeds any similar activity in Europe or North America.

Approximately one third of released birds are shot, while the majority of the remaining birds die
from other causes during the year of release or survive in very low numbers to join the population
of pheasants and partridges now residing in the wild in the UK.

The number of gamebirds released has increased since the 1990s, while the number shot has
remained relatively stable, and this reduction in releasing-efficiency is potentially driven by a
reduction in gamebird survival and an increase in late winter shooting, meaning that more birds
must be released during autumn to ensure enough survive to be shot in January.
There is concern that this large and increasing release of gamebirds and associated shooting practices may be having negative impacts on the UK’s native wildlife. However, there may also be positive ecological, economic and social impacts of gamebird release activities.

Date

12 October 2020

RSPB Authors

Dr Lucy Mason, Dr Jen Smart, Dr Will Peach

Authors

Lucy R. Mason, Jake E. Bicknell, Jennifer Smart, Will J. Peach

Published in

RSPB Research Report No. 66

Are agri-environment schemes successful in delivering conservation grazing management on saltmarsh?

Grasslands occur around the globe and, in temperate regions, their natural management by fire, drought and wild herbivores has largely been replaced by grazing with domestic livestock. Successful management for agriculture is not always suitable for conservation and can have a detrimental effect on biodiversity. Conservation grazing of saltmarshes, delivered through agri-environment schemes, may provide a solution to counteract biodiversity loss by providing farmers with financial incentives to graze these internationally important coastal wetlands more sensitively.
To assess whether conservation grazing is being achieved and whether agri-environment schemes are effective in delivering this management, we conducted a national survey on English saltmarshes, scoring the management on each site as optimal, suboptimal or detrimental in terms of suitability for achieving conservation aims for five aspects of grazing: presence, stock type, intensity, timing and habitat impact.
Although most saltmarshes suitable for grazing in England were grazed, conservation grazing was not being achieved. Sites under agri-environment management for longer did score higher and approached optimal levels in terms of grazing intensity in one region, but sites with agri-environment agreements were no more likely to be grazed at optimal conservation levels than sites without them overall, indicating that agri-environment schemes, in their current form, are an ineffective delivery mechanism for conservation grazing on saltmarsh.
The low specificity of agri-environment prescription wording may contribute to this failure, with prescriptions either being vague or specifying suboptimal or detrimental management objectives, particularly for grazing intensity, timing and stock type. These objectives are often set too high or too low, during unsuitable periods or using stock types inappropriate for achieving conservation aims.
Synthesis and applications. Our national survey indicates that agri-environment schemes are not currently delivering conservation grazing on English saltmarshes. Agri-environment schemes are the only mechanism through which such grazing can be implemented on a national scale, so improving their effectiveness is a priority. Policymakers, researchers and managers need to work together to ensure better translation of conservation guidelines into schemes, increasing the specificity of management prescriptions and improving understanding of the need for management measures. A more detailed and reliable system of auditing to ensure that management activities are taking place would be beneficial or alternatively moving to a results-based scheme where payments are made on desirable outcomes rather than on evidence of management.

Date

20 April 2019

RSPB Authors

Dr Lucy Mason, Dr Jen Smart

Authors

Mason, Lucy R Feather, Alastair Godden, Nick Vreugdenhil, Chris C Smart, Jennifer

Published in

Journal of Applied Ecology

Tracking day and night provides insights into the relative importance of different wader chick predators

Poor reproductive success driven by nest and chick predation severely limits the population recovery of waders breeding on lowland wet grassland. Managing predation requires knowledge of the predators...

Date

02 January 2018

RSPB Authors

Dr Lucy Mason, Dr Jen Smart

Authors

Mason, L.R., Smart, J. & Drewitt, A.L.

Published in

Ibis 160 (1): 71-88

Consistent response of bird populations to climate change on two continents

Global climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. Large-scale analyses have generally focused on the impacts of climate change on the geographic ranges of species and on phenology, the timing of ecological phenomena. We used long-term monitoring of the abundance of ...

Date

01 April 2016

RSPB Authors

Dr Lucy Mason, Prof Rhys Green, Prof Richard Gregory

Authors

Stephens, P.A., Mason, L.R., Green, R.E., Gregory, R.D., Sauer, J.R., Alison, J., Aunins, A., Brotons, L., Butchart, S.H.M., Campedelli, T., Chodkiewic, T., Chylarecki, P., Crowe, O., Elts, J., Escandell, V., Foppen, R.P.B., Heldbjerg, H., Herrando, S., Husby, M., Jiguet, F., Lehikoinen, A., Lindstroem, A., Noble, D.G., Paquet, J.-Y., Reif, J., Sattler, T., Szep, T., Teufelbauer, N., Trautmann, S., van Strien, A.J., Van Turnhout, C., Vorisek, P. & Willis, S.G.

Published in

Science 352: 84-87

The use of predator-exclusion fencing as a management tool improves the breeding success of waders on lowland wet grassland

Waders breeding on lowland wet grassland have undergone dramatic declines across Europe in recent decades. Few species now achieve the levels of breeding success required for population stability and ...

Date

09 November 2012

RSPB Authors

Dr Jen Smart, Dr Lucy Mason

Authors

Malpas, L.R., Kennerley, R.J., Hirons, G.J.M, Sheldon, R.D., Ausden, M., Gilbert, J.C. & Smart, J.

Published in

Journal for Nature Conservation