Urban wildlife professionals group launched

A new group, the Association of Urban Wildlife Professionals, was officially launched last Friday (12 July) during the 2nd Urban Fox Conference.

The brainchild of three urban wildlife specialists: Steve Barron from Pest-Go, Bruce Lyndsay Smith of County Pest Control and Gary Williams from Urban Wildlife, the fledgling association is looking for other like-minded professionals to join the group.

As Gary Williams explained: “The AUWP is a not-for-profit organisation with a simple agenda: to stand up for professional wildlife management. In a society where urban wildlife is increasingly co-habiting with man, we, as professionals, have an obligation to provide the best information and advice to local councils, wildlife crime officers and the public at large.”

The Association has a Code of Conduct in place but the first big task will be to develop a Code of Practice for Urban Wildlife Management. The three founder members believe that it is now essential that a Statutory Code be implemented to govern the way in which urban wildlife is managed. Urban wildlife covers a wide range of species but of immediate concern to the new Association are urban foxes, urban badgers, urban mink, grey squirrels, bats and pigeons/other urban bird species.

Urban widllife three The urban wildlife three: Bruce Lyndsay Smith, Steve Barron and Gary Williams want other like-minded urban wildlife professionals to get in touch. Go on, do it now!

The ‘urban wildlife three’ have already attracted support from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health’s National Pest Advisory Panel (NPAP) and Jo Fozzard from Killgerm, representing NPAP, attended the conference.

Unfortunately a last minute enforced change of venue for the Urban Fox Conference meant that only a select few made it to the event in Old Harlow in Essex. The agenda also had to be curtailed as a number of speakers were unable to attend because of the enforced venue change. Turns out that the subject of urban fox management was deemed too controversial for the Royal Society of Public Health Portland Place venue in central London. Having reserved the room months before and having made no secret of the topic, the cancelation with just over four weeks to go took Gary Williams by surprise. To add insult to injury RSPH then tried to charge a cancellation fee!! Gary is too polite to be quoted, but suffice to say he was livid.

If you are a professional dealing with urban wildlife management then Bruce, Steve and Gary want to hear from you so please click here to send them an email or call: 03300 100550.