A rural affairs journalist at a regional daily has been honoured for his “commitment to conservation” by a countryside organisation.

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation has given Philip Bowern, print editor and rural affairs writer at the Western Morning News, the award for his stories about country sports, conservation and the countryside.

Philip, above left, was presented with the Ian Richardson Trophy on Saturday at the BASC annual general meeting in Chester.

The award is named in memory of a Welsh wildfowler tragically killed in a car crash.

In a piece for the Plymouth-based WMN, Philip wrote: “Stories about country sports, conservation and the countryside have been a big part of the Western Morning News for many years.

“The West Country has some of the most beautiful landscapes in Britain that are home to a huge diversity of wildlife. It is also an important area for country sports, from fly fishing to pheasant shooting, and the WMN tries hard to represent those interests in its pages.

“I have written about the countryside for many years, from the controversies of the Hunting Act to the growth in sales of game meat.

“The WMN’s online presence means some of that specialist content now gets much more widely read than would once have been the case.”

He added: “BASC now has 144,500 members yet shooting sports and the impact they have on the countryside is still not well-covered, outside of the specialist press.”