A shoot from scratch

Many times in my role as a GWCT adviser, I have been asked about where to put a pheasant pen on a bare farm with perhaps just one small wood on the boundary. My response is that we need to think about the potential of the ground before we address that; there could be lots of other options that do not involve any pheasant pens.

There is a little block of about 200 acres just over the hill in Wiltshire that is a typical example of the problem. It is basically a bare arable farm, running along a gentle valley, with a small spring-fed stream running through. There is hardly any woodland , just a small piece right on the eastern boundary, directly against a huge forest on the other side.

There are some nice hedges though, with