Shoot owner wins RSPB Telegraph Nature of Farming award 2012

Shoot owner Henry Edmunds is the winner of the RSPB Telegraph Nature of Farming award for 2012.

Henry, who owns the Cholderton Estate, a 1,600ha mixed organic farm in Wiltshire, is a lifelong member of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) and has been involved in several of its projects.

Professor Nick Sotherton, GWCT director of research, said: ?We are absolutely delighted that Henry Edmunds has won this award. His habitat management for farmland birds is inspirational and he combines this with the rigorous legal predator control which undoubtedly contributes to his remarkable success with vulnerable lapwings and other ground-nesting birds including grey partridges.?

Two of the other leading contenders for the prestigious award were long-term GWCT members Peter Knight from the Norfolk Estate in West Sussex and Rob Allan from Oxfordshire.

Of the Norfolk estate Professor Sotherton said: ?This is a shining example of how shooting and conservation go hand-in-hand. Without shooting, this conservation work may not have happened.?

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