UK Nature and Environment

A favourite of period dramas, Groombridge Place has remained relatively unchanged for centuries.

It’s a picture-postcard Kent scene but the health of the River Grom that flows past the old manor house, and feeds its moat, appears to be struggling.

Volunteers from Project Ripple Effect, who are concerned about the state of rivers, are testing the water quality of the Grom after reports of reduced biodiversity.

We’re thrilled to share some exciting developments from The Flow Country, where work has officially begun on our second peatland restoration project. This initiative marks a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to protect and restore one of Scotland’s most vital ecosystems.

The new project is taking place on a farming and sporting estate, where we will be restoring approximately 410 hectares of degraded peatland. Healthy peatlands play a crucial role in combating climate change by storing carbon, regulating water systems, and providing a habitat for unique biodiversity.

More hen harriers were killed in 2023 than in any other year on record, a report has found.

The RSPB’s Birdcrime report also found that at least 1,344 individual birds of prey were persecuted in the UK between 2009 and 2023, and that 75% of people convicted of offences related to the persecution of birds of prey in that period were connected to the gamebird shooting industry.

Shooting estates have historically killed birds of prey because of fears the raptors will eat game birds such as grouse, meaning there are fewer for people to shoot. Birds traditionally targeted include rare and threatened species such as golden eagles, hen harriers, peregrine falcons, white-tailed eagles and goshawks.

The UK’s environment watchdog has closed another of its three investigations into the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera).

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) had already found that Daera had failed to comply with environmental law by failing to publish an Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) by the July 2023 statutory deadline.

The EIP was approved by the executive and published in September 2024.

The OEP said that ended that breach of the law and closed the investigation.

The OEP’s role will now move to scrutiny of progress on the EIP.

The rain has fallen for what feels like two years straight: in drizzles, in showers and, with troubling regularity, in downpours. The weather has always been Britain’s favorite topic of conversation. The clouds are familiar. Increasingly, though, they are also a threat.

In September, a month’s rain fell in a single day in some parts of England. The 18 months to March 2024 were England’s wettest in recorded history. Even on an island that has built at least part of its identity around tolerating inclement weather, it has been impossible to ignore the deluge. Flooding has submerged fields, ruined homes, and at times, cut off whole villages.

As sea levels rise and extreme weather becomes more common, experts say that Britain’s traditional defenses — sea walls, tidal barriers and sandbanks — will be insufficient to meet the threat. It is not alone: in September, deadly floods in Central Europe led to the deaths of at least 23 people.

Wildflower meadows are set to be planted at the University of Lincoln as part of a new “Nature Positive University” scheme.

Have you noticed the overgrown green spaces around campus dedicated to protecting wildlife? Well, in order to restore species and ecosystems that have been harmed as a result of the lack of green spaces, the University of Lincoln has announced that new wildflower meadows will be created outside the Joseph Banks Laboratories in partnership with the Lincoln Science and Innovation Park.

In 2022, The University of Lincoln allied with 117 universities in 48 countries to become a “Nature Positive University” through their commitment on campus to protect wildlife. To this day, over 500 institutions worldwide are part of this initiative, including Loughborough University and the University of Sydney.

The North Devon coast is a place where nature’s resilience meets the gentle hand of restoration. Once worn down by years of intensive use, its rugged cliffs, open meadows, and salt-washed wetlands are now blossoming with life once more. Thanks to a visionary rewilding effort led by Jonathan Fairhurst and his team at the National Trust, this landscape is beginning to heal—becoming a haven where native plants and animals can flourish, and where the hum of bees, the flash of wildflowers, and the whisper of long grass in the sea breeze promise a new beginning for one of Britain’s wildest coastlines.

Jonathan’s patch spans twelve miles along the South West Coast Path and nearly 12,000 acres, covering areas from Croyde to Ilfracombe. This isn’t just a job for Jonathan—it’s a commitment to a vision of North Devon as a place where both people and nature thrive together.

The topic of rewilding, however, is as divisive as it is inspiring. “Rewilding can be seen as quite a contentious word,” he admits. “If you asked ten people what their definition of rewilding was, you’d get ten different answers.”

PLANS for the creation of an extended £38m Great North Fen on County Durham countryside have been described as “exciting” during a ceremony to launch the ambitious scheme.

The Great North Fen, the creation and restoration of fenland along the banks of the River Skerne to the east of Newton Aycliffe, was originally intended to cover 500 hectares when the plans were first mooted in 2018.

However, Jim Cokill, director of Durham Wildlife Trust, told a gathering of funders, partners, and other supporters at Hardwick Hall Hotel, near Sedgefield, that the project was being increased to 850 acres.

For most of us, the start of autumn heralds the arrival of the nights drawing in and the leaves changing colour.

Wildlife enthusiasts may know the colder months for a different reason however - deer rutting season, where males engage in mating battles.

Recently we've had an influx of images sent to our inbox capturing some magnificent stags and deer at Studley Royal Deer Park and in the Yorkshire countryside.

A frog that appears to be giving double peace signs and jet-propelled marine salps were among creatures captured by photographers vying to win awards at a wildlife photography competition.

David Hamilton's ‘sea salps’ - a marine animal which moves through the water by contracting its muscles - scooped an award in the Ocean Wonders category of Cornwall Wildlife Trust's contest.

Photography captured by the six winners is now on display after a ceremony at Truro Cathedral.

Applicants have been invited to apply for funding from the Strategy for Nature Fund which supports environmental initiatives in Guernsey.

It is the fourth year the funding has been made available with 11 environmental projects on the island benefitting in 2023, according to Nature Commission Guernsey.

Initiatives which have been supported include monitoring dolphins, restoring coastal grassland and an assessment of sedimentary carbon stocks of Eelgrass beds.

A river campaign group has unveiled a new billboard, criticising Thames Water for discharging sewage.

Dubbed the ‘Pooster,’ the 48 sheet billboard launched by River Action, is constructed from fake £50 notes, stained brown with sterilised manure and mixed with water from polluted beaches, rivers and streams across the UK.

The ‘Pooster’ displays a caption: “This money is stained with crap, just like water company profits’.

One of Europe’s largest snake species is crawling up walls and into attics in the UK, seeking warmth for breeding, scientists say in a new study.

Aesculapian snakes, which grow up to 7ft long, are not native to the UK. They went locally extinct during the last Ice Age, and were not seen widely in the UK for 300,000 years.

But they have become an invasive species now, researchers say, surviving in warm corners in the UK. They were introduced during the 1970s to Colwyn Bay, North Wales, following an escape from the Welsh Mountain Zoo.

A rare mushroom, once thought to be extinct in the UK, has been spotted growing at a farm.

The crown-tipped coral, or candelabra coral, was discovered by expert mycologist Andy Knott during a walk at Bere Marsh Farm in Shillingstone, Dorset.

It takes its name after the crown-like tips of its branches.

An ambitious new conservation project that will create and restore river woodlands across Scotland is now underway, thanks to funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The Riverwoods Blueprint Project is being led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, alongside partners Fisheries Management Scotland, Woodland Trust Scotland, Tweed Forum, Kyle of Sutherland Rivers Trust and Spey Catchment Initiative and Buglife.

There are over 125,000km of rivers and streams in Scotland, however a recent survey showed that only 13 per cent of riverside habitats are in good condition.

The UK’s rivers contain a cocktail of chemicals and stimulants including caffeine, antidepressants and painkillers from water company sewage releases, polluting freshwaters at levels which can pose a risk to aquatic life, testing has found.

Results from three days of testing in rivers by 4,531 volunteers for the environmental research group Earthwatch showed that, in addition to the chemical mix in rivers, 61% of fresh waters in the UK were in a poor state because of high levels of the nutrients phosphate and nitrate, the source of which is sewage effluent and agricultural runoff. England had the worst level of poor water quality in rivers, with 67% of freshwater samples showing high levels of nitrate and phosphate.

“Our rivers have been historically stressed by farming and are being pushed to the brink by outdated and inadequate sewage treatment works,” Earthwatch said.

A species of ant has been found for the first time on the Isle of Man by a volunteer with a conservation group.

Manx Wildlife Trust (MWT) member Sue Harvey came across the insect, which is a known species elsewhere in the British Isles, at a disused quarry in the south of the island.

Local conservationists said the finding “shows how former industrial sites can become thriving wildlife habitats when cared for properly”.

A unique combination of factors makes an area of the Humber Estuary "like a motorway service station" for migrating birds, wildlife experts have said.

The waterways and beaches around Grimsby and Cleethorpes see thousands of birds arrive each autumn as they make their way to Africa from the Artic.

Parts of the Humber Estuary were designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1988 and are protected by law.

Abi Sheridan, ecology officer at North East Lincolnshire Council, said: "We’ve got mud flats and the salt marshes, lots of food resources, we’ve got lots of places for them to rest and recuperate on their journey."

It is the second-best place for nightingales in the country, a sanctuary for rare barbastelle bats and home to nearly 1,500 invertebrate species, including a quarter of all Britain’s spider species. But Middlewick Ranges on the edge of Colchester is poised to be sold by the Ministry of Defence for 1,000 new homes.

Conservation scientists have written to the UK defence secretary, John Healey, urging him to reverse the decision to sell the 76-hectare (187.8-acre) site for housing. Experts who have fought the proposals for eight years say the house-building is based on faulty and flawed environmental evidence and must be reversed.

A freedom of information request by campaigners has revealed an ecological report that in 2017 identified large swaths of rare acid grassland at Middlewick, which has been untouched by a plough for at least 200 years and contains more than 10% of Essex’s remaining acid grassland.

The dramatic sea cliffs, crags and stacks of Rathlin Island, county Antrim, rise more than 200 metres above the Atlantic Ocean and host one of the UK’s largest seabird colonies, including hundreds of endangered puffins, attracting up to 20,000 birders and tourists a year.

On a spectacularly sunny day in September, the cliff faces are devoid of birds, with the puffins already having made their annual migration to spend the winter months at sea. Instead, Rathlin’s cliffs are dotted with roped-up figures in harnesses and bulging rucksacks, directed from above by a Scottish mountaineer, via a walkie-talkie.

They are part of a crack team of 40 scientists, researchers, conservationists and volunteers who this week will put the first poisoned food into the bait stations designed to kill the island’s rats. It is the final phase in a £4.5m project to eradicate the key predators believed to be affecting the island’s puffin colony. Ferrets were eradicated in the first phase and it has been a year since the last confirmed sighting. Puffin numbers declined here by 74% between 1991 and 2021, according to an EU study.

The Labour government has published details of badger culling licenses that could result in the targeting of almost 40,000 additional badgers in 2024. These culls, across the High-Risk bovine TB area in England, will be in addition to the 230,000 that have been killed since licensed culling was introduced in 2013.

The licenses cover 20 ‘intensive cull zones’, which are on their third or fourth year of intensive culling, plus 26 ‘supplementary licenses’ extending the culls in zones which have completed four years of intensive culling. Badger populations in some of these latter zones are now being targeted for the ninth consecutive year, while other zones have been issued supplementary licenses for the first time.

The government has also published licenses for two new cull zones in the Low-Risk TB area in England, one in Lincolnshire and one in Cumbria, but has not released figures detailing how many badgers can be targeted.

This week, Feargal Sharkey, the former Undertones frontman and influential environmental campaigner, travelled to Swinton in South Yorkshire to test the River Don, a 70-mile stretch of water running through cities such as Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster, which became a pillar for transporting goods such as steel during the Industrial Revolution.

There, he tested for a litany of bugs and pollutants, once again placing the Environment Agency and the regional water company, Yorkshire Water, under the microscope.

And the findings make for truly grim reading.

The most concerning result Mr Sharkey uncovered was when testing for phosphates in the river.

If a river contains elevated levels of phosphates, it can result in the development of blue-green algae, a highly toxic constellation of microscopic organisms, which can cause illness in humans and be fatal for wildlife.

A year on from the completion of a three-year project on the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate in Somerset to reconnect a section of a river to its floodplain – the innovative ‘Stage 0’ river restoration technique, first pioneered in Oregon, USA – has been heralded a success.

The ‘ctrl alt delete’ of the river was the first large-scale attempt to reset a UK river to fully reconnect its waters with the surrounding floodplain by filling in a 1.2km managed, straightened and deepened section of the River Aller to transform the area and dramatically create seven hectares of waterscapes and wetlands (equivalent to more than ten football pitches).

A priority habitat for nature, wetlands are extremely important to not only slow the flow of water and to hold it during times of drought, but they are also significant for their ability to store carbon and act as homes for wildlife. However, sadly over 90 per cent[3] of wetland habitat in the UK has been lost in the last 100 years, and over 10 per cent of our freshwater and wetland species are threatened with extinction.

Butterfly Conservation has been awarded £727,000 for a project to help farmers improve their land for wildlife and make their business more financially viable at the same time.

The Scotland team will trial a host of experimental techniques at farms in the south of Scotland over the next six years.

The funding has been given as part of the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal - an agreement between English and Scottish governments to invest £452 million to boost the economy around the border.

New woodland is growing once more in the historic Royal Forest of Knaresborough, thanks to the support of local community groups in the Harrogate area.

Spanning 45 square miles, the equivalent of approximately 18,000 football pitches, the Royal Forest of Knaresborough was a popular royal retreat in the 12th Century. This diverse landscape, stretching from Thrushcross Reservoir to the west, to Knaresborough, enjoyed a special protected status as a royal hunting ground, allowing a rich mosaic of habitats and wildlife to thrive. Today only fragments of the original landscape remain, including pockets of important ancient woodland.

Local community groups are now leading the way in protecting and expanding the woodland and biodiversity in the Royal Forest of Knaresborough area, with support from White Rose Forest, the Community Forest for North and West Yorkshire. The White Rose Forest team works with landowners, local government, businesses and communities across North and West Yorkshire to plan, fund and plant trees and hedgerows. Thanks to collaborative efforts between the White Rose Forest team and local community groups, such as Long Lands Common and the Friends of Nidd Gorge Country Park, several projects are now underway to protect and expand new and existing woodland.