A RYEDALE woman has been appointed farm conservation adviser for the Northallerton-based Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG).

Karen Stanley who grew up in the village of Gillamoor, near Kirkbymoorside, is providing farmers throughout the county with advice on how to combine wildlife and landscape conservation with profitable farming.

As well as holding a diploma in agriculture from Askham Bryan College, Karen has practical work experience and has been working as an agricultural sales representative for the past three years in the Yorkshire Dales.

Karen, who now lives in Masham, is a keen horse rider and walker.

She is working with Philip Lyth, who heads FWAG in North Yorkshire. Its workload is increasing annually, says Mr Lyth.

Operating on a budget of just £80,000, the group gets £12,000 from core grants, the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, charges made to farmers, and the remainder from membership and local authority grants.

"Farmers are looking at alternative sources of income," he said speaking at the FWAG annual conference at Scarborough.

There is now a shift in emphasis from production to environmental schemes on farms. "We are encouraging farmers to grow different crops."

Some 250 farm visits a year made in the county, he says, help show farmers how they can benefit from recreating heather moorland, nature conservation work, woodland and hedgerow planting.

At the Scarborough conference, FWAG staff discussed a wide range issues and visited the United Agricultural Products' Manor Farm at Eddlethorpe, near Malton.

"We are now doing more than giving grant advice to farmers," said Mr Lyth. "We are promoting biodiversity action plans and Countryside Stewardship schemes."