UK Nature and Environment

Give people the right to walk around the edges of privately owned fields, say campaigners seeking to open up more paths in the countryside in England and Wales.

Slow Ways, a group advocating for more access to the countryside, said people in rural areas often have to walk on roads that do not have pavements, which can be extremely dangerous.

The British public appears to agree. A poll by YouGov found seven out of 10 adults (71%) thought people should be allowed to walk along the edge of fields that were privately owned, as long as they were respectful and responsible, and if the only other option was to walk down a narrow or busy road with no pavement or legal footpath.

There have been alarming declines this year in some insect species including bees, butterflies, moths and wasps, while many seabirds have also been “hammered” by unstable weather patterns caused by the climate emergency, a conservation charity has said.

In its annual report on the impact of the weather on flora and fauna, the National Trust highlights that numbers of bees and butterflies have “crashed” in some areas of the UK in 2024.

It describes the apparent decline of birds such as the globally threatened Arctic tern as “very shocking” and mentions diseases that are striking the white-clawed crayfish and sycamores.

The count is an annual national census of farmland birds run by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) and it has been providing vital data for the past decade which has helped us to understand which species are in the most serious trouble and how we can help them.

The 2025 count kicks off on Friday, February 7 and runs for two weeks.

As well as providing snapshot of the bird population on UK farms, the BFBC aims to raise awareness of the important role that farmers and other land managers play in the conservation of farmland birds.

A deadline for registering historic rights of way is to be scrapped after a warning that the looming cutoff date could result in the loss of thousands of miles of footpaths.

The last government set a deadline of 2031 for all rights of way in England to be added to an official map, after abandoning a previous commitment to scrap the policy.

Once recorded as rights of way and added to the definitive map, paths are protected under the law for people to use.

Churchyards are vital havens for rare wildlife including dormice, bats and beetles, according to an extensive audit of burial grounds around the UK.

The conservation charity Caring for God’s Acre mapped out 20,325 cemeteries, with 800,000 wildlife records submitted and more than 10,800 species recorded.

They discovered that these quiet sites are home to a huge variety of rare wildlife, with over a quarter of species recorded featuring on the Red List of endangered species. More than 80 of these were classified as threatened, vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.

Blow away the Christmas cobwebs with a stroll around ruined abbeys, deer parks and the real-life town turned into Cotchester on TV series, ‘Rivals’

Discover odd animals and peculiar plants.

More than 300 harvest mice have been released at a site in the North York Moors National Park in the hope of re-establishing a local breeding population of this once-common species.

The initiative, led by Hawsker residents Steve Mills and Hilary Koll, has been supported by a grant of £4,200 from the Defra-funded Farming in Protected Landscapes scheme.

The release follows several years of habitat restoration by Steve and Hilary, who have been working with Derek Gow Consultancy – experts in UK small mammals – to ensure the right environment for the mice. The couple purchased the "wild and windy" pasture field about five years ago, and have since planted trees, built ponds and watched as a habitat full of birds, butterflies and bees has slowly developed.

A wildlife trust is calling for donations to help them transform a site in the heart of the Shropshire Hills.

Shropshire Wildlife Trust has bought Betchcott Hill, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty between the Stiperstones and the Long Mynd.

The trust wants to breathe new life into the 50 hectare landscape through a restoration project for its diverse habitats, from wetland bogs to woodland hedgerows.

But to make that happen the trust needs to raise nearly £140,000 by the end of the year, having raised £93.500 so far.

Stalked jellyfish, white hedgehog sea slugs and invasive Pacific oysters have been discovered on Kent's coastline.

The fascinating discoveries have been made by Volunteer Citizen Scientists - who logged more than a hundred and sixty species at nine key locations on the coast.

The project is run by Kent Wildlife Trust who say the data's critical for protecting our marine ecosystems.

Volunteers conducted surveys at nine key locations along the Kent coast, recording more than 160 species.

The UK’s nature-depleted rivers could be transformed by planting wildlife-rich belts of trees and other vegetation all the way along their banks, according to the chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts.

Craig Bennett’s “big idea” for “reimagining what rivers can look like” would see Labour introducing a policy to ensure rivers had a “vegetation buffer” of between five and 50 metres, depending on the location.

This would provide valuable habitat for nature, reduce the risk of flooding, cut down soil erosion on riverbanks, and absorb climate-warming CO2, he argued.

Thames Water intentionally diverted millions of pounds pledged for environmental clean-ups towards other costs including bonuses and dividends, the Guardian can reveal.

The company, which serves more than 16 million customers, cut the funds after senior managers assessed the potential risks of such a move.

Discussions – held in secret – considered the risk of a public and regulatory backlash if it emerged that cash set aside for work such as cutting river pollution had been spent elsewhere.

Water voles continue to decline in their distribution across Britain but there are signs of recovery in some regions, with populations bouncing back in 11 key areas, according to a report.

The river-residing mammal, which inspired Ratty in the Wind in the Willows, has revived in number in parts of Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and East Anglia thanks to targeted conservation work.

Reintroductions, habitat restoration and, crucially, the effective eradication of American mink – the non-native predator responsible for water vole population crashes – are helping the creature recover from historic lows, finds the National Water Vole Database Project report.

The UK Government has published a new assessment of the threats facing UK food security.

The report states that "long-term decline in the UK's natural capital is a pressing risk to UK food production" and that "Climate change, nature loss and water insecurity pose significant risks to the ability of global food production to meet demand over the longer term."

The restoration of nature is therefore critical to feed the UK in the future.

The five most popular birds counted on Scotland’s farms have been revealed following a charity’s annual bird count.

The 2024 Big Farmland Bird Count (BFBC), carried out by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), saw nearly 395,000 birds spotted across 1,721 surveys UK-wide.

It is the first and only UK-wide citizen science project to involve land managers in monitoring the state of farmland birds, according to GWCT.

IT’S been some years since the minke whale washed up on a Shetland beach. The distressed mammal had been caught up in plastic at sea and came ashore at Scalloway Harbour. Pete Bevington remembers that day well.

He’s at his home in the village of Hillswick with his dog, Sedna, a Great Dane named after an Inuit sea goddess, and after brewing tea, he continues with his story and explains the perils of ghost fishing.

“The whale died on the beach in a big pile of rubbish,” he says, grimly, adding that he has a photograph of the creature.

Conservationists working to save vital ecosystems in the Scottish Highlands say they are facing a multitude of long-term challenges such as depopulation and guaranteed sources of funding.

A growing number of local projects – from regenerative farm clusters to saving Scotland’s rainforests – are responding to the country’s nature crisis after centuries of human-driven deforestation and habitat depletion.

But fears are growing that the country will fail to meet its 2030 conservation targets, with campaigners saying the Scottish Government has cut nature spending by tens of millions of pounds over the last decade.

More than £500,000 is set to be spent on restoring wildlife across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) has been awarded £512,182 for the Reconnecting Bernwood, Otmoor, and the Ray project.

This initiative, in partnership with 11 organisations, aims to ensure long-term landscape and species recovery in the region.

Manx Wildlife Trust (MWT) has announced the purchase of 43 acres of moorland and blanket bog extending the MWT Dalby Mountain Nature Reserve thanks to funding from Island based asset management firm, Resilience. The land purchase represents a 62% expansion of the existing 69-acre nature reserve, which MWT originally acquired in 1995. In total, the newly expanded reserve (MWT’s only upland reserve) is now over 112ac, overtaking MWT Creg y Cowin Nature Reserve to become MWT’s second largest reserve on the Island after MWT Glion Darragh Nature Reserve.

The new land is of exceptional ecological importance and landscape character, forming an excellent example of blanket bog. It is recognised as being of international significance for nature conservation as both a Candidate Ramsar Site (for its blanket bog habitat) and also as part of the Isle of Man Hills “Important Bird Area” for Hen Harrier. It is also Registered Heathland and adjacent to the Glen Rushen Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI). MWT will be seeking its designation as both an ASSI and as a fully confirmed Ramsar Wetland.

Work has started to bring back a lost temperate rainforest to a Lake District fell.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust officially bought more than 3,000 acres of Skiddaw Forest near Keswick, including its 931m (3,054ft) summit, after a successful fundraising campaign.

Peat surveys from Cambridge University scientists have already taken place to identify which plants and trees used to grow on one of England's highest mountains.

The UK is home to more than 100m mature ash trees, and every spring tells the same grim story: leaves emerge, wither and drop within weeks, as ash dieback disease tightens its grip.

Millions stand dead in woodlands and hedgerows across the British Isles, with an estimated 2bn seedlings and saplings at risk. Many experts have long feared the future of this cherished, ecologically important native tree hangs in the balance.

But the latest scientific evidence tells a different story. Research suggests many of Britain’s ash trees might be more resilient than initially believed – and emerging solutions could help protect them.

Bee-killing pesticides are to be banned by the UK government, as ministers set out plans to outlaw the use of neonicotinoids.

However, the highly toxic neonicotinoid Cruiser SB could be allowed for use next year, as ministers are considering applications from the National Farmers’ Union and British Sugar.

This powerful pesticide poisons bees by destroying their nervous systems. Prof Dave Goulson, a bee expert at the University of Sussex, has said that one teaspoon of the chemical is enough to kill 1.25 billion honeybees. Even at non-fatal doses it can cause cognitive problems that make it hard for bees to forage for nectar, and the chemicals can stay in the soil for years.

Conservationists are calling for people to use cuttings from one of UK's rarest native timber trees to help save the species.

Cuttings of the black poplar have been cultivated at Bere Marsh Farm, near Shillingstone, Dorset.

The farm, which is owned by the Countryside Regeneration Trust (CRT), said there were only about 7,000 black poplar trees in the country.

Jenny Ashdown, from the trust, said saplings were "ready to be shared with those eager to help".

• GPS tags fitted to track movements and habitat of Jack Snipe wading birds
• One of 10 tagged birds at wetland sites in the Midlands has just been recaptured
• Data will help landscape scale conservation and other species

After 10 birds were fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) archival tags in south Staffordshire earlier this year, a tagged Jack Snipe has just been recaptured.

The tags Natural England have used are accurate to 10 metres to record the location of the bird at set times. While Jack Snipe have been previously tagged in the UK, the tags used were not so accurate.

A butterfly that went extinct in England more than 40 years ago has been successfully reintroduced to the woodlands where it last lived.

Butterfly Conservation has brought the Chequered Skipper back to Rockingham Forest in Northamptonshire using a donor population in Belgium.

The project started in 2018 and Butterfly Conservation has now declared the first five years a success.

The news comes after the charity declared a Butterfly Emergency in the UK in September following the worst-ever results of its annual Big Butterfly Count. Butterfly Conservation says this successful reintroduction shows one of the ways humans can start to undo years of damage to the natural environment.