Kent Wildfowling & Conservation Association extends shooting rights

Kent Wildfowling & Conservation Association (KWCA) has further extended its shooting rights in Kent, and says its latest purchase will help to safeguard wildfowling in the face of the RSPB?s aggressive land acquisition policy.

At the recent BASC wildfowling conference in Sutton Coldfield, the RSPB?s head of reserves Gwyn Williams reiterated the charity?s plan to double the area of land in its reserve network to 1% of the UK?s area by 2030.

The KWCA?s newly purchased woodland, which lies to the south of Medway, near Rochester, sits along the picturesque escarpment of the North Downs, and is the group?s 11th freehold acquisition in the past four years.

KWCA chairman Alan Jarrett told Shooting Times that purchases such as this would help to keep shooting going as any land acquired by the RSPB would most likely be lost to the sport.

He said: ?Any piece of land that the shooting community secures, whether that?s wildfowlers or anyone else, protects it for the future and ensures it won?t be part of the land that the RSPB is intent on acquiring.?

The KWCA was already the largest wildfowling association in Britain, owning more than 2,200 acres of land in Kent, East Sussex, Essex and Cambridgeshire.

Mr Jarrett said: ?One of our guiding principles over recent years has been to diversify in response to the demands of existing and future members.?

?That is taking us to new areas within Kent and in neighbouring counties, and into widening our offer to members beyond our core of wildfowling.?