[quote=fairplay;577039]
My own view is that I do not support the shooting of pheasants where our own native wildlife has to be controlled (stoats and weasels and foxes).
True, a wood used for shooting game will be better for songbirds, but why must this be at the expense of the other native wildlife ?
Interesting that the RSPB admit to controling corvids,fox and rats!
There is also the argument that if a wood is not going to be used for shooting then it will be grubbed out and turned into arable. That may still be possible, but times have changed and I think today a landowner will find it very difficult to grub out a wood without a very good reason.
In fact, I'm certain the vast majority of landowners keep or plant new woods because they want to do their bit to help the wildlife, and it's somewhere nice to walk with the grandchildren.
Nonsense in 20 years of keepering I have never heard of a wood been grubbed out because it is not going to be shot all keepers need the maximum amount of pheasant habitat available as refuges and quiet areas it helps hold the birds on the shoot as a whole
Finally, I would like to say I do a lot of trespassing into remote woodlands looking for fungi to record, usually the wood at some time would have been used for pheasant rearing, so I would always do a circuit of the enclosure if one remains, looking for illegal traps or snares and years ago I used to find plenty, so I am pleased to say the last time I came across anything illegal was well over 10 years ago.
Perhaps if you asked the resident gamekeeper you would not have to trespass I allow most genuine people who ask if they can walk the many woods on this estate which equates to some 400 acres of unshot woodland (which we will not be grubbing out)we shoot on the other 2600 acres of the shoot but out of season I allow people to walk where they wish.
I admit many keepers don't take the same veiw as me but then perhaps everyones atitude needs to change.
