Woodlands for Pheasants and Wildlife - GWCT Green Guide

An updated GWCT guide on how to create and manage a woodland habitat to benefit both game and wildlife. Hardback, 85 pages. Written by Alex Keeble and Joe Dimbleby, July 2022.

For a generation of gamekeepers and land managers, the Game Conservancy green guides were a revelation – giving them the guidance they needed to manage the countryside well.

One of the most popular of these was Woodland for Pheasants, first published in 1961 and rewritten by GWCT advisor Ian MacCall in 1988. With tree planting high on the public agenda, the last addition to the GWCT Advisory team, Alex Keeble, has rewritten the guide, refreshing it to reflect changes in best practice and bring the guidelines up to date.

The book also embraces the important role good game management can have for many other species and this is reflected in its new title, Woodland for Pheasants and Wildlife.

Sections include:

• Woodlands: The Financial Background
• Fitting Woodland into the Landscape
• Principles of Game Covert Design
• The Woodland Edge
• The Middle of the Wood
• Showing Pheasants
• An Idealised Game Covert
• Design and Management of Smaller Woods
• The Game Spinney
• The GWCT’s Instant Spinney
• The Shelter Belt
• The Unfenced Shelter Belt
• Large Woods
• Renovating Existing Woods
• Forestry Operations
• Tree and Shrub Species
• Guidelines for Sustainable Gamebird Release in Woodlands

Testimonials

"It's a fascinating book and one that I would recommend for all shoots" - Simon W

"An excellent and fascinating read." - Tom C

"I bought a copy of the original guide and found it invaluable in planting and managing woodland. The new guide has impressed me with its expansion of scope to allow for wildlife in general to benefit." - Stephen P

"Very simple and easy to follow, it’s a classic case of you get out what you put in." - John R

"Well written with clear detail." - Roger R

"Informative and simple, reminds the reader of the basic essentials." - Julian F

"Info is well laid out, well illustrated, simple to understand and thus a nice, compact book." - David S

“The first edition of this book was my “go-to” guide on how to create and manage a woodland habitat to benefit both game and wildlife. I never thought I’d be fortunate to write the next instalment” – Alex Keeble, GWCT advisor.

"The GWCT’s Green Guides are a brilliant resource and have inspired generations of land managers, including myself. The organisation’s scientific, yet pragmatic approach, has led the way in proving the benefits well-run shoots can deliver and furnishes game managers with the knowledge to make a meaningful difference on the ground. This book makes it easy to understand how to manage your woodlands in a way which benefits not only game, but many other wildlife species too. I am delighted to see the rejuvenation of this classic collection." - Austin Weldon, Forestry England

"The GWCT has always led the way with advice that is backed up by science and put together in such a way that is easily put into practice by gamekeepers, shoot managers and other conservationists. With more emphasis on planting trees in the UK, it is ever more important to plant the right tree in the right place for the right reason. This guide will prove an invaluable resource to create woodland that you can practically use for game management which will benefit wildlife and the environment with outcomes that work for gamekeepers and shoot managers." - Tim Weston, National Gamekeepers’ Organisation

"They're delicious, they're charming, and as this fascinating book shows, when you look after pheasants properly, you also look after a cornucopia of other birds." - Patrick Galbraith, Shooting Times