Call for long-serving gamekeepers (From Worcester News)

Call for long-serving gamekeepers

10:03am Monday 15th March 2010 in

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RURAL watchdog, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) is on the lookout for long-serving gamekeepers and riverkeepers.

It hopes estate and shoot owners and managers will put names forward so that individuals can be publically recognised at this year’s CLA Game Fair.

The world’s largest countryside event will take place at Ragley Hall, Alcester, Warwickshire, from Friday to Sunday, July 23 to 25, and their presence will be an opportunity for everyone who cares for the countryside to say a public thank you to the people who have given the best part of their working life to it.

Caroline Bedell, CLA West Midlands director, said: “Many of us have appreciated much of the biodiversity of cropping and woodlands, but very few of us see the quiet men and women who spend long, often solitary hours at their labour.”

To qualify for the CLA long service awards, a gamekeeper must have achieved at least 40 years service to the countryside on not more than five estates.

A riverkeeper must have dedicated at least 25 years to looking after the same river system.

Potential candidates must be nominated by an employer and more information is available by e-mailing gamefair@cla.org.uk.