Management Plan - North York Moors National Park

Business and Land Management4.5 Lowland ShootingLowland shooting, based primarily on pheasant and partridge,occurs over significant areas of farmland and woodland in theNational Park. These shoots vary from low key syndicates tohighly organised commercial operations. In almost all casesthey rely on the release of reared game birds. In common withupland shooting, most lowland shoots carry out varying degreesof predator control.Further research on this will be undertaken in partnership withlandowners and other organisations in order to develop a‘baseline’ for the activity against which future changes can bemeasured and environmental impacts assessed.Challenges● Intensification of shooting with greater densities of birdsreleased, more shooting days and higher bag numbers withassociated visual impacts and disturbance.In 15 Years Time…Management for reared bird shooting has been broadlybeneficial to the National Park’s environment.The wooded and steep sided valleys on the fringes of theNational Park have made the North York Moors internationallyknown for driven pheasant shooting and this brings significantincome to the area.Management for lowland shooting can be beneficial to theNational Park’s environment in particular where the focus is onwild rather than released game. However, there has been anincrease in shooting intensity in some areas of the National Parkwith larger numbers of birds released, inappropriate releasing andfeeding practices and more shooting days. This has had negativeimpacts including greater disturbance for local communities, thevisual impacts of rearing and release structures and cover crops,effects on highway safety and habitat degradation.The Code of Good Shooting Practice 63 and Guidelines forSustainable Game Bird Releasing 64 includes guidance onsustainable gamebird release and wider shoot management.These are based on minimising biodiversity loss, balancing it withimprovements elsewhere, good neighbourliness and maximumstocking densities.There is no readily available data on pheasant numbers in theNational Park or on the economic benefits of lowland shooting.63 Produced and updated by a range of shooting andland management organisations64 Produced by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust92 www.northyorkmoors.org.uk