Practical science with a green slant was the priority for the Association of Applied Biologists' winter meeting. The Crops team listened in. The national picture of declining populations of key farmland bird species has been reversed on a profitablearable farm, with negligible impact on costs. Threatened birds such as song thrushes, skylarks and yellowhammers are all benefiting from careful conservation management on this site. Average numbers of non-game birds have risen by 42 percent since 1992,and this includes huge increases for certain birds, such as a 243 percent rise in song thrushes. So conservation management can be made to work, concluded Dr Nigel Boatman of the Allerton Research and Educational Trust, who is directing management on the333ha farm at Loddington, Leics, run in partnership with the Game Conservancy Trust.
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