Farmland butterflies benefited from the best summer weather for seven years, a survey has revealed. 

The Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey (WCBS), which assesses the fortunes of common and widespread species, found that many farmland butterflies flourished as a result of long periods of warm, sunny weather last summer. 

Typical farmland species such as the Brimstone, Common Blue, Small Copper, Small Skipper, Large Skipper…

Remember when anything to do with Genetically Modified food (aka GM) guaranteed front page newspaper coverage?  It seems those days are well and truly past. Last week the EU approved GM "Maize 1507", the first new commercial GM crop to be grown in the EU since 1998, with the mainstream media hardly noticing.  What does this decision mean?

Maize is an important crop for the EU, covering 13 million hectares of European…

February. Even if you’re one of the lucky ones who still has a carpet, you’re soaked, it’s dark, and there’s still nearly a year to wait for Christmas. If it’s not the storms that are surging, then it’s the fog that’s freezing, and there’s no sign of any let-up in the near constant downpours.

Hardly seems the time to be thinking about summer flowers.

But for our migrant…

The most worthwhile thing in my opinion about working for a nature conservation charity is being able to share our learning and in turn learn from others. For over 10 years, I managed volunteers surveying farmland for the Volunteer & Farmer Alliance (V&FA) project.

In its later years, the project was funded by EU LIFE+ - supporting its UK wide spread and providing us with funding to attend many agricultural…

Just a reminder that the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust launch their first annual bird count today! All farmers and gamekeepers are invited to join in between now and 7 February - and all you need to do is spend about 30 minutes recording the species...