{"id":492647,"date":"2026-03-24T13:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/492647\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T13:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:31:13","slug":"basc-criticises-defra-for-quarry-species-consultation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/492647\/","title":{"rendered":"BASC criticises Defra for quarry species consultation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BASC has criticised Defra for plans to remove species from the quarry list and to shorten certain shooting seasons.<\/p>\n<p>In a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/consult.defra.gov.uk\/wildlife-crime-and-management\/www-gov-uk-government-consultations-greater-protec\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">consultation launched today<\/a>, 23 March, covering England, Wales and Scotland, Defra has put forward proposals which include the removal of pochard from the quarry list in England, Wales and Scotland and the removal of snipe in Wales.<\/p>\n<p>They also include shortening the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/basc.org.uk\/shooting-seasons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">open season<\/a>\u00a0for woodcock in England, Wales and Scotland, and for snipe in England and Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>Woodpigeon would be added to the quarry list with an open season from 1 September to 31 January whilst remaining on the general licences for all year-round control. Proposals for other species to be added to the quarry list will be considered.<\/p>\n<p>BASC will produce guidance on responding to the consultation and would advise members to await this before taking action. The species being reviewed are European white-fronted geese, goldeneye, pintail, pochard, common snipe, woodcock, woodpigeon, coot and golden plover.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Marnie Lovejoy, BASC\u2019s deputy director of conservation, said: \u201cWe will respond robustly to this consultation and challenge Defra\u2019s proposals. The sector is already delivering sustainable shooting and has taken action based on evidence and clear, best-practice recommendations. The removal of species from the quarry list and the shortening of shooting seasons would do nothing for conservation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBASC strongly supports adaptive, evidence-led species management through self-regulation. We oppose blunt legislative bans, particularly where UK harvest is not driving declines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a style=\"font-style: inherit; background-color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/consult.defra.gov.uk\/wildlife-crime-and-management\/www-gov-uk-government-consultations-greater-protec\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Read more detail on the proposals here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BASC has criticised Defra for plans to remove species from the quarry list and to shorten certain shooting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[4696,173928,90,56,54,55,173929,4407],"class_list":["post-492647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-conservation","tag-political-affairs","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildfowling","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}