UK Nature and Environment

A nature project to reset a river has led to an "abundance" of wildlife and better flood protection for nearby homes, the National Trust says.

Rangers from the trust created wetlands on Holnicote Estate, within Exmoor National Park, to slow the flow of the River Aller as it crosses the site. Work was completed a year ago.

The three-year long project to form seven hectares (17 acres) of waterscapes and wetlands with channels, pools, wetland and marshes is a UK first, according to the conservation charity.

Citizen science testing of river water quality will expand this year in an attempt to make the data part of official monitoring of waterways, the head of an independent environmental research group has said.

The use of ordinary people across the country to test river water quality for pollutants including phosphates, nitrates and other chemicals has captured the imagination of thousands of volunteers. In 2024 more than 7,000 people took part in river testing “blitzes” run over two weekends by the NGO Earthwatch Europe. The research, using standardised testing equipment provided by the NGO and Imperial College London, gathered data from almost 4,000 freshwater sites across the UK.

It provided an insight into the cocktail of pollutants from water companies and agricultural runoff, which are contributing to the crisis in river ecosystems.

This year has shown that more and more people want to be a part of rewilding and understand the role it must play in tackling the climate and biodiversity crises. More than four in five Britons now support rewilding, and 77% believe the government should be doing more to reverse the decline of nature in Britain, according to polling we undertook with YouGov this year.

Rewilding cannot flourish without bringing people along with it – and 2025 promises a range of exciting species being reintroduced to Britain, from eagles to tauros.

Rewilding is the large-scale restoration of nature to the point where it can take care of itself. It not only offers hope for tackling the nature and climate crises, but has the potential to create a cascade of social and economic benefits for people and communities. People – pioneers, communities, activists, ecologists – are at the heart of rewilding, as these moments from 2024 (alongside hundreds of others) show.

Sewage spills considered illegal by the European Union are getting worse in Britain after Brexit, The i Paper has found.

The EU previously acted as a watchdog on water pollution that could impose fines of millions a week if rules were not being followed.

However, the regulator that replaced its role in Britain – the Office for Environmental Protection – does not have the same powers, according to experts.

The bloc has also taken steps to strengthen its wastewater laws as the UK lags behind, analysts said.

Big Garden Birdwatch is the world’s largest garden wildlife survey. Every year, hundreds of thousands of nature lovers like you take part, helping to build a picture of how garden birds are faring.

A CONSERVATION steering group has been set up to share knowledge and best practice about one of the UK’s rarest butterflies.

Essex & Suffolk Water has joined Essex Wildlife Trust, Butterfly Conservation and other partners, for the benefit of the Heath Fritillary Butterfly, one of the UK’s rarest butterfly species.

There are only four locations in south-east Essex where the butterfly is spotted, so the organisations are working together to enhance the areas and increase the butterfly population.

A project involving farmers and nature conservationists is celebrating the restoration of 400 "lost" farmland ponds in Essex.

A century ago there were more than 17,000 in the county.

Today only 3,500 survive in good condition, with a similar number needing restoration.

Essex Wildlife Trust, the RSPB, Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group East and farmers have joined forces to reinstate them.

The European sturgeon, Acipenser sturio, is a fish that has been around since the time of the dinosaurs and looks it. Specimens are armour plated and big, up to six metres in length. Once abundant in British waters, sturgeon became extinct as a breeding species in the 1950s but there is now a concerted effort to reintroduce it by “rewilding” rivers.

Hopes are high because sturgeon are increasingly being accidentally caught in nets around British coasts as bycatch by fishers. This shows that and French and German attempts to breed the fish in captivity and release them into rivers is working.

Groups working to protect the remaining pockets of red squirrels in England say they are "devastated" after an outbreak of a deadly disease was confirmed.

Volunteers with Cramlington and District Red Squirrel Group, in Northumberland, have spotted a number of 'reds' with symptoms of squirrel pox, and a carcass sent away for analysis has been confirmed as positive for the disease.

Squirrel pox is carried by grey squirrels, which are not affected by it, but causes red squirrels to die slowly and painfully.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed the single case, but says there is no threat to humans or livestock.

There are signs of hope for the turtle dove, one of the most endangered birds that has been plummeting towards extinction in Britain.

After a temporary ban on the annual shoot of the migratory birds as they pass through France, Spain and Portugal, which began in 2021, there has been a remarkable 25% increase in its western European population, which includes the 2,000 individuals clinging on in England.

This means an extra 400,000 breeding pairs across western Europe for a species that has reduced in number in the UK by 98% over the last 30 years.

A year ago, the UK's first urban beavers were introduced to their new home in Greenford in west London.

They live in Paradise Fields right next to a retail park.

Experts say the beavers are happy there and have had babies - or kits as they're known - and now the latest stage of their development is happening. One of the eldest females will be moved to help repopulate other areas of the UK.

Conservationists in the UK recently released a pair of beavers in England's South Downs National Park to help revitalize an area of critical wetlands. The release of the beavers — named Willow and Wilson — marks the native species' return to the area after a 600-year absence.

According to a BBC report, beavers were hunted to extinction in the area in the 16th century due to demand for their meat, fur, and scent glands. Now, scientists hope returning the species to South Downs National Park can help support the local ecosystem by improving the quality and quantity of the wetlands.

The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that beavers play a critical role in maintaining healthy wetland habitats. Beavers are known for their dam-building behaviors, which help create and preserve wetlands. The NRDC calls beavers "ecosystem engineers," explaining the species directly influences resource availability for other species by reshaping their physical environment.

For the first time, the RSPB has launched an interactive map showing the whereabouts of its satellite-tagged Hen Harriers.

The map shows the movements of tagged birds between 2014 and October 2024. In total, the interactive database includes the fates of 178 of the 226 harriers tagged so far.

Some dead harriers are not included as they are subject to ongoing police investigations. The individuals that are still alive and are currently being tracked are also not included.

Efforts to control oil leaking into a stretch of river have continued for a fourth day.

Teams have been at the source of the leak on the River Wye at Rotherwas, in Herefordshire, since Friday.

A boom and absorbent sheets have been placed around the drainage outlet to control the spread of what is believed to be engine oil.

The Environment Agency (EA) said it was continuing to investigate the incident and was working closely with Welsh Water.

A Hampshire country house is in the middle of a massive tree-planting programme to rewild and diversify its extensive estate.

Hinton Ampner, a National Trust property near Alresford, is currently undertaking its Reimagining a Hampshire Estate project.

The project's webpage says the main aims are: nature recovery and conservation; regenerative farming; better access to nature; involving people; and responding to climate change.

The number of Puffin nests in Alderney has almost trebled since the island's wildlife trust starting monitoring the animals in 2005.

Alderney Wildlife Trust said the latest Puffin Survey found 330 active nests on Burhou compared to the 120 initially recorded in the first study.

The trust released the figures along with other data collected in its annual review.

Ambitious plans have been unveiled to create vast new areas of woodland that will transform the look of Eryri (Snowdonia). Over the next century, millions of saplings are to be planted on mountainsides to increase the national park’s tree cover by 50%.

If the 2125 objective is achieved, new woodlands will have emerged across 53,315 acres of Gwynedd and Conwy - around a tenth of the national park. Native trees will be preferred over commercial pine plantations, thus restoring some of Eryri's historic landscapes.

Most of the new woodland will be on upland ffridd and steep bracken sites on mountainsides. Increasing tree cover trees on upland farms is also expected to be an “important element”.

A two-year habitat-restoration project is set to boost wildlife at a Dorset heath.

As part of the £1.2-million project, Dorset Council is removing hundreds of invasive pine trees from Avon Heath Country Park to help rejuvenate the heathland.

The 210-ha site is home to all of Britain's native reptile species including Smooth Snake, along with specialist birds such as European Nightjar and Woodlark.

Work on a new wetland reserve on the Wirral is set to start in 2025.

The creation of new habitat between West Kirby and Hoylake is expected to begin late next year.

Earlier in 2024, Wirral Council was awarded £430,000 of flood management funds to create a new wetland across Hoylake Carrs.

New research, released today by Wildlife and Countryside Link, reveals that overstretched and under-resourced English Local Authorities have been struggling to meet legal deadlines to consider the nature recovery action they need to take and the policies to support this.

Coinciding with these findings, nature groups including RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts, Friends of the Earth and the Woodland Trust are launching a new Wilder By Design campaign today. They are calling for the Government’s upcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill to include a series of reforms to deliver a planning system that not only minimises harm to nature but actively supports the recovery of wildlife and wild places.

Conservationists have said wildlife could be “disappearing in the dark” after figures showed that three-quarters of England’s most precious habitats, wildlife and natural features have had no recent assessment of their condition.

The warning follows the publication of figures covering assessments of protected natural sites known as sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) in the last five years. SSSIs are legally protected because they contain special features such as threatened habitats or rare species, and together they cover more than 1.1m hectares (2.7m acres), about 8% of England’s land area.

Nearly two-fifths of the habitats and other features for which SSSIs are protected were in an unfavourable condition, according to figures from the conservation agency Natural England.

Mosses and cow parsley will feature in a Chelsea flower show garden to celebrate endangered British rainforests.

Vast expanses of the UK were once temperate rainforest. But these moss-covered ancient trees and their lichen have become a rare sight due to deforestation and overgrazing. Dartmoor, for example, once covered with trees, now harbours just a few fragments of temperate rainforest.

The Chelsea garden, which will be on display next May, is being designed by Zoe Claymore, who won a gold medal last year for the “renters retreat” showing how a small, shady courtyard can be turned into a wildlife haven.

Rare black seal pups have been spotted and photographed by visitors at a Lincolnshire nature reserve.

The grey seal pups at Donna Nook are normally born white and shed their fur at about two to three weeks to expose a grey coat underneath.

However, about one in 400 grey seals reveal a velvety black coat instead and visitors in recent days have reported seeing at least two of these.

A wildlife trust that appealed for funds to finance the transformation of a green space in the Shropshire Hills, reached its target nearly a week early.

Shropshire Wildlife Trust bought Betchcott Hill, which sits between the Stiperstones and the Long Mynd, and had aimed to raise £138,000 by 31 December.

But it surpassed that amount on Boxing Day, after raising nearly £50,000 between 24 and 26 December.

The halfway point has been reached in an extended public consultation into whether Galloway should become Scotland's third national park.

NatureScot is conducting the process which ends on 14 February, two weeks later than originally tabled to take into account the festive period.

So, after weeks of public meetings, paper and online consultations, has anyone changed their mind?

There has been anger and frustration among both supporters and objectors in what has turned out to be one of the most contentious issues raised in Dumfries and Galloway.