UK Nature and Environment

An ambitious plan to plant at least a million native trees on crofts in the Outer Hebrides has taken root, its organisers say, with more than 200 small new woods sprouting across the islands.

The Western Isles woodland project hopes to reestablish a thriving mosaic of small woods dotted across the islands by using vacant or underused crofts to reforest the Hebrides and promote nature restoration.

Under the project, funded mainly by profits from the UK’s largest community-owned windfarm, west of Stornoway, 211,000 trees have already been planted on 245 crofts, plots of land that were historically family-run small holdings.

A transformation is underway that will have a lasting positive impact on the environment, biodiversity, and local communities between Bristol and Bath. Avon Needs Trees (ANT), a charity dedicated to creating new, permanent woodland and environmental conservation, has embarked on its most ambitious project yet; the creation of Lower Chew Forest.

The project aims to establish 100,000 trees and shrubs across the site, creating a woodland that will serve as a regional exemplar hub for tackling the climate emergency, managing natural flood risks, and supporting the green economy. Led by those passionate about the environment and supported by a dedicated army of volunteers, Lower Chew Forest promises to be the largest new woodland in the South West of England in a generation.

To understand the significance of this endeavour, reporter Lewis Clarke spoke with Tom Le Fanu, Head of Engagement, Communications and Fundraising at Avon Needs Trees, who shared insights into the project’s goals, challenges, and the impact it will have on the region.

A rare fungus that grows ‘tentacles’ and smells like rotting flesh has been spotted in the New Forest.

Devil’s fingers fungus has sprouted in the national park after hatching from a slimy, gelatinous ‘egg’.

Glowing red, the plant is very eye-catching plant but is fairly rare in the UK, according to the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.

Norfolk is a vital breeding haven for a threatened wader, the first-ever full survey into their numbers has revealed.

Researchers from the RSPB found 597 pairs of breeding redshanks on salt marshes between Hunstanton and Weybourne, in what they say is the most complete survey to be carried out in the area about the wading bird.

It means that for the very first-time conservationists can demonstrate just how important the salt marshes in North Norfolk are for the species.

The National Trust has hit its target to restore nature across more than 25,000 hectares of priority habitat in less than a decade – an area twice the size of Manchester.

The charity was aiming to create or restore habitats of importance for wildlife on this amount of land by 2025 in line with its wider conservation goals set in 2015.

But the organisation announced on Friday that it reached the milestone early after its countryside and ranger teams worked to restore hectares (ha) of peatlands, meadows, wetlands, woodlands and saltmarsh on land in its care.

A document released to this newspaper by the Environment Agency under Freedom of Information laws revealed that Yorkshire Water breached its permits 259 times, and received a total of 146 warnings between June 1 2022 and June 21 2024.

Yorkshire Water also breached its permits by discharging sewage materials outside its allocated permits at least 89 times in the period.

Water companies are allowed to discharge materials from combined sewage systems – the systems which contain a mix of waste from toilets and rainwater – during times of heavy rainfall.

Extinction Rebellion activists have set up camp in Windsor's Home Park.

Tents, stages and speakers were set up on Friday morning ready for a weekend of peaceful action.

The group does not have permission to be on the site but has been liaising with authorities according to a group spokesperson.

In a remarkable British first, a pair of Blyth's Reed Warbler has nested in Scotland, successfully raising young at an undisclosed Highland site.

After birds were detected at the site earlier in the summer, a small crew of birders monitored the area. A Blyth's Reed Warbler carrying food to the nest was observed on multiple occasions and, according to the Scottish Ornithologists' Club, young were successfully reared. The timing of the nesting stages mirrored that observed in Scandinavian birds.

The records marks the first time the species has ever bred in Britain.

Somerset Wildlife Trust is pleased to announce the launch of a new ‘Climate Adaptation Plan’ for Glastonbury, the first in a new series of toolkits to help communities across Somerset prepare for and adapt to the UK’s changing climate.

With climate and nature emergencies being declared across the country, and the new UK Government recognising in their 2024 manifesto that these crises will be the greatest long-term global challenges, Somerset Wildlife Trust has been encouraging people across Somerset to prioritise climate adaptation – a process that involves preparing for the future effects of climate change, which may include extreme weather events such as flooding, heatwaves, and drought.

The Trust has been piloting a new process called ‘Act to Adapt’ to help communities across Somerset better understand climate adaptation and the changes they can make to prepare for the climate extremes facing the county. Since October 2023, the charity has been working with Glastonbury Town Council, with funding from the Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA), to complete the first new climate adaptation plan for Somerset, which has been created for Glastonbury through collaboration with local residents, business owners, and other organisations.

The Welsh government is considering introducing legislation to protect beavers, as wildlife charities call for them to be released into rivers across Wales and England.

Unlike in England and Scotland, beavers are not protected in Wales because they are not recognised as a native species.

Beavers can bring huge benefits to nature, including improving river water quality and increasing biodiversity, but critics say they destroy crops and that their dams pose a flooding risk.

A spokeswoman for the Welsh government said it was considering a “package of proposals” following a review of evidence by Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

Badger culling will end in England by 2029, the government has said.

Some culls under existing licences will continue until 2026, according to sources at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), but it is highly unlikely any new ones will be granted.

The National Farmers’ Union has been lobbying government to keep the badger cull until there is definitive proof bovine tuberculosis (bTB) can be stopped without killing badgers.

However, Defra ministers have said not enough research has been done in recent years to find out whether badgers carry the virus.

Rewilding efforts in part of the Scottish Highlands have resulted in local populations of an “amazing species” of endangered bird reaching their highest level for 17 years, conservationists have announced.

Black grouse, which are seen as an important indicator species for ecosystem health, have suffered UK-wide decline over recent decades due to threats such as habitat loss and intensive land management.

The distinctive black, white and red birds, which use a wide variety of habitats for feeding, shelter, nesting, lekking and rearing chicks, are now on the RSPB red list of the most endangered birds.

A BioBlitz event will be held at Seaton Wetlands.

The event, organised by the East Devon District Council (EDDC) countryside team and the Axe Vale and District Conservation Society (AV&DCS), is aimed at nature lovers of all ages.

It will involve recording all species found in the wetlands in one day.

The event will run on Sunday, September 15, from 10am until 4pm, with various surveying activities including bug hunting, pond dipping, bird watching, and flower surveying.

A conservationist has highlighted the importance of beavers amid a campaign to return them to the wild in England and Wales.

Hannah Dale, 42, introduced two Eurasian beavers into a 70-acre enclosure on her Lincolnshire farm near Searby in 2023.

She said her two beavers are "key players" in creating a natural habitat.

The UK government will not fight a legal challenge against the decision to grant consent to drill in untapped oil and gas fields off Shetland and Aberdeen.

Greenpeace and Uplift jointly brought judicial reviews to stop the development of the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields.

It comes after the Supreme Court ruled that a UK council should have considered the climate impact of new oil wells – setting a precedent for all regulators.

The levels of cyanide in a Walsall canal impacted by a major chemical spill have "improved", according to the organisation leading the clean-up operation.

About 4,000 litres (879 gallons) of sodium cyanide and other chemicals leaked into the canal on 12 August, closing a 12-mile stretch of the waterway and killing thousands of fish.

A clean-up operation by the Canal and River Trust (CRT) is underway, after it raised more than £20,000 to fund the work.

Untreated sewage was continuously discharged into a Site of Special Scientific Interest for six days.

Storm overflows at two water treatment plants in Cumbria have been discharging into sites that flow into Windermere since last Thursday, according to United Utilities figures.

The water company said overflows are "designed to operate during heavy rainfall, like that seen in the Lake District over recent days".

On a winding country lane in a secret location in east Devon, just a few metres from the side of the road, an inconspicuous pile of logs, twigs, sticks and leaves has been crammed over the rushing River Otter.

Passersby would not give this messy mound a second thought, but closer inspection reveals a very deliberate quality to its construction, in the form of neatly cut branches layered in a distinctive pattern. This is a wild beaver dam.

“The animals on this river system, no one is putting their hands up saying how they got here,” says Steve Hussey, of Devon Wildlife Trust, crouching on the bank. “They just appeared so they could have escaped or [been] deliberately put there.”

At the end of summer even adults suffer that “back to school” feeling as they resume stressful commutes on packed trains. But instead of listening to a podcast or music, opting for a nature soundtrack of birdsong or waterfalls could be the key to a “zen” commute, according to a study.

The research, undertaken by South Western Railway (SWR) on one of its trains and analysed by Charles Spence, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, measured the impact of listening to nature soundscapes on passengers’ stress levels and relaxation.

The test – possibly the first on commuters in real-world conditions – featured passengers listening to a selection of nature sounds, including birdsong, flowing rivers and storms, as well as their regular preferred audio source, such as music or a podcast. These scenarios were also tested against no audio input on the specially commissioned service on a 47-minute loop journey from London Waterloo.

Work will soon get underway at the site of a former golf course on the Lincolnshire coast to transform it into a "haven for wildlife". Sandilands Golf Club was once home to a popular 18-hole course which, after opening in 1894, was the first links golf course in the county.

Just before its 125 year anniversary, the golf club's owners Sandilands Leisure went into liquidation, citing a lack of numbers, business rates and a lack of local support. The club was then sold to the National Trust in 2020 and plans were drawn up for a nature reserve on the site.

Work is due to start at Sandilands, near Sutton-on-Sea, at the beginning of September to transform the former golf course into a 25-hectare (62 acre) wetland nature reserve. The site will over time see the creation of open water, islands, reedbeds and ponds to encourage more wildlife and migratory birds to return to the area, including marsh harriers and curlew sandpipers, among others.

“Beaver bombing”, covertly releasing beavers into the countryside, is increasing in England because successive governments have not fulfilled promises to permit some planned wild releases, conservationists are warning.

Beavers now live freely on river systems across swaths of southern England, and conservationists are calling on Labour to allow official releases of free-living beavers and produce a national strategy to maximise the biodiversity and flood alleviation benefits delivered by the industrious mammals.

Eva Bishop, of the Beaver Trust, said: “Beavers are a native species with lots to offer in terms of landscape resilience, boosting biodiversity and climate change adaptation and mitigation. It would be crazy not to look at wild release as a key tool for the government.”

A survey on the Humber Estuary has revealed the area is a hotspot for a threatened bird species.

The RSPB collected data across both East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire between April and June 2024 and revealed 420 pairs of breeding redshanks.

Any area with one-per-cent of the population of species is considered to be "highly important" for conservation and results showed the Outer Humber supports two-per-cent.

Beth Bridge is on the front line of the battle to protect Scotland’s bats.

She's working with farmers and landowners to create the conditions which would enable these endangered mammals to thrive again.

Their numbers have been declining for decades but Beth has been looking at how to plant native trees on agricultural land so they can provide new homes for their roosts in 50 to 100 years time.

Plans to plant thousands of trees to help conserve a temperate rainforest have been announced.

Naddle Forest, near Bampton in the Lake District, is one of England's few remaining examples of the habitat.

The "ambitious" scheme was announced by the RSPB site manager of Wild Haweswater, Glen Swainson, who has been in the post for three months after his predecessor stepped down following a mini-stroke.

They are the sound of our seaside, and can often be seen stealing a pasty, a sandwich or some chips.

Seagulls. But, love them or loathe them, they are in decline, according to wildlife experts.

While the birds may appear to be thriving, they are on the red list - the highest level - for British bird species of concern, because their population has dropped by 72% in 55 years.