UK Nature and Environment

The current issue, no 61, includes articles on:

• Bradgate Park and Swithland Wood National Nature Reserve
• Updating Scotland’s Geodiversity Charter
• Investigating the Stanmore Gravel – a Citizen Science project
• Lilstock to Blue Anchor – Irresponsible Fossil Collecting
• The canals came first – HS2 and mapping the ground
• New website for England’s National Character Areas
• The long-awaited renovation of Fossil Grove
• Erratic Boulders in Birmingham and Blackburn

The new Government must expand the UK’s most senior climate diplomat post to include biodiversity, green groups have urged.

Labour has pledged to reinstate the UK Special Representative for Climate Change, which aims to further the country’s green goals internationally, including Cop summits.

During the election campaign last month, then-shadow foreign secretary David Lammy told businesses and trade bodies that the party would increase economic and climate attaches as well as reappoint a dedicated UK climate envoy.

An environmental project in Fife that is aiming to help wildlife thrive in the area once again has moved into its next phase.

The River Leven, which flows through the heart of Levenmouth in the North of Fife has been undergoing restoration works over the last year, and Fife Council has now announced that the next phase of key improvements are about to get underway.

The restoration aims to give locals the benefit of flourishing wildlife and nature in area by removing or adapting some of the man-made challenges that have impacted the way the river functions.

As it stands, fish are struggling to move up and downstream, and the new project aims to fix that.

Initial public feedback has prompted a renewed look at places that could be included – or dropped – from a new national park in northeast Wales. Natural Resources Wales (NRW), which is overseeing the assessment, has already rejected requests for 10 new areas to be added to the provisional map.

The Welsh Government wants to create the country's fourth national park. Outline proposals for the area to be included cover a sweep of land much larger than the existing Clwdian Range and Dee Valley AONB on which it is based – it extends from Gronant Dunes on the Flintshire coast to the Vyrnwy and Banwy Valleys in north Powys.

An engagement report, published by NRW on Thursday, highlighted the strong divide that exists between people who want to see a new national park and those who don’t. There was also support for certain areas to be added and in two places – Halkyn Mountain and much of Powys – strong backing for them being dropped.

Scientists are calling on the public to help track how British butterflies are moving north as the climate heats up.

Examining 50 years of data, researchers from the wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation, which runs the annual Big Butterfly Count, have identified a clear northerly shift among many species, including the familiar garden favourites the comma, peacock and holly blue.

This is the result of climate breakdown creating warmer habitats, letting certain breeds grow substantially. The migratory red admiral is one example; typically found in southern England in the summer before migrating to Europe for winter, these winged creatures now reside year-round in the UK. Their populations have also increased threefold.

Scientists say "a reservoir of disease" is being created after discovering bacteria that naturally occur in rivers are becoming resistant to antibiotics due to the impact of sewage.

Researchers at the University of Suffolk said bacterial strains found on the non-tidal section of the River Deben in Suffolk had acquired resistance by exchanging DNA with antibiotic resistant E. coli.

Some bacteria have become resistant to the antibiotic carbapenem, which is used as the last line of defence in fighting infections already resistant to traditional antibiotics.

A farmer has revealed the identity of a mystery purple crop that has left people guessing on social media.

Trevor Edgley, who runs the Nightlayer Leek Company in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, found himself unable to drill wheat due to persistently wet fields during the spring.

He said he planted a special seed mix on land off the A142 between Chatteris and Mepal - called NUM3 - which encourages insects and wildlife.

Campaigners have reacted with fury to proposed water bill increases for households amid the sewage pollution scandal and cost-of-living crisis.

Regulator Ofwat has issued draft proposals to put up bills by £19 a year on average, or £94 over five years, a third less than the £144 average requested by water companies.

Ofwat said its proposals approved a tripling of investment to make sustained improvement to customer services and the environment, including a 44% reduction in sewage spills from storm overflows, compared with levels in 2021, and plans for nine reservoirs to reduce water taken from rivers.

A pod of 77 pilot whales has washed ashore on a beach in Orkney in what could be the biggest mass strandings for decades.

Rescuers from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) have established 12 of the animals at Tresness Beach on the island of Sanday are still alive - but it is unlikely they can be saved.

The pod includes male whales up to seven meters (22ft) long as well as females, calves and juveniles.

Numbers of one of Scotland’s rarest plants have more than trebled on a hill in central Scotland following restoration work.

Sticky catchfly is a nationally rare species with fewer than 18 populations scattered across Britain.

Around 10,000 flowering stems of the plant were counted by volunteers during a three-day survey on Dumyat in the Ochil Hills - an increase from 3,000 in 2013.

Herring gulls have wrecked many a seaside picnic, pouncing on unsuspecting people trying to enjoy a Cornish pasty, a sandwich or a bag of chips.

But a study from the University of Exeter suggests gull chicks prefer seafood even after being raised on a diet of the sort of scraps found around humans.

Scientists studied herring gull chicks that had been rescued after tumbling out of nests in roofs in towns across Cornwall. While they were in captivity, they were given either a “marine” diet consisting of mainly mackerel, sprats and mussels, or an “urban” diet, mostly bread and cat food.

Every few days the chicks were presented with a choice of four foods in different bowls, to test which they preferred – and all of them strongly favoured fish. “When fish is available they clearly prefer it,’ said the lead author, Emma Inzani, from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter’s Penryn campus in Cornwall.

Animated films fight for the plight of endangered UK species, including bees and hedgehogs.

Good Agency has worked with animation studio Blue Zoo in a bid to urge young audiences to campaign on behalf of animals.

According to the RSPB, one in six species in the UK is at risk of extinction. The charity has commissioned the series of films to encourage young people to advocate for animals.

Chichester District councillors agreed to invest £180,000 over the next three years to help revive three locally precious and globally unique rivers in western Sussex. The money will be used as part of two projects being led by the Western Sussex Rivers Trust (formerly known as the Arun and Rother Rivers Trust). One will focus on putting into action a restoration plan for the Ems and Hambrook, while the other will begin work on a restoration plan for the River Lavant.

WSRT Trust Manager Aimee Felus explains why this funding is so important:

“The Ems, Hambrook and Lavant are among less than 300 chalk streams and rivers in the world. These rivers and streams were described by the Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy (2021) as our equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef, holding ‘a truly special natural heritage with a responsibility’.

Keir Starmer and his Government must make nature one of their top priorities, green groups have urged.

A coalition of environmental campaigners, including the National Trust, WWF, RSPB and Extinction Rebellion, have called on the Prime Minister to address five major challenges to protect the UK’s environment and ecosystems.

These include doubling the nature and climate-friendly farming budget to £6 billion, introducing new rules to make polluters pay for nature and climate recovery and expanding protected areas.

England has continued to issue permits allowing people to kill badgers to protect cattle from disease, despite local extinctions and scientific evidence stating that badger culling is not the best way to protect bovines. What's happening?

The Guardian reported that it accessed leaked documents showing that England's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs issued 17 new licenses in June that allow people to kill badgers. The publication explains that badger culling has been used in the country for years to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis to cattle and has led to local extinctions.

However, scientific reports have shown that culling badgers is not the most effective way to stop the spread of this disease, and DEFRA's decision overrules the advice of its own scientific adviser, Peter Brotherton, director of science for Natural England.

Thames Water has failed to complete more than 100 upgrades to ageing sewage treatment works to meet legal pollution limits, the Guardian can reveal.

The schemes costing £1.1bn were supposed to cut pollution into rivers by increasing the capacity at sewage works, adding phosphorus removal to the treatment process, and installing new storm tanks. The upgrades, which were promised in 2018, are being paid for by customers as part of a five-year spending round to 2025 but will not be delivered within that timeframe.

Meanwhile, Thames Water awaits a crucial decision on Thursday from the regulator Ofwat on the company’s new five-year business plan. Thames wants to increase customer bills 59% by 2030 to pay for record investment of £19.8bn to tackle sewage pollution, leaks and water shortages after decades in which the company has sweated assets and underinvested.

The next phase of work to reduce sewage discharges into the River Wharfe has been started by Yorkshire Water.

A large storm water tank is being installed in Ilkley in a move aimed at reducing the frequency and volume of discharges from the storm overflow into the waterway.

It follows a new £15m sewer pipe built in the town earlier this year and comes as part of a wider programme of works in the area.

The Sea Watch Foundation (SWF) is delighted to announce the return of National Whale and Dolphin Watch, a 10-day-long citizen science event taking place from July 26 to August 4.

Volunteers across the UK are invited to join trained experts at designated watch sites around the country to observe and record sightings of marine mammals. By collecting this data, the event contributes to ongoing scientific research, helping to monitor population trends, distribution, and behaviour of these creatures.

Rare ducks which are native to North America have been spotted attempting to breed in East Yorkshire.

The male and female blue-winged teal were spotted at Yorkshire Water's Tophill Low nature reserve, near Driffield, on a number of occasions over the past 12 months.

Despite being observed in nesting behaviours, it appears the birds were not successful in breeding at the site, where nature reserve wardens and volunteers kept their presence a secret.

However, it is "likely" they have attempted to breed in the area, which is thought to be a first for the UK, Tophill Low warden Richard Hampshire said.

o summer is officially here, despite how it might seem, with the school holidays already under way in Scotland.

It’s the perfect time to get out and about for some wild adventures and to discover more about our wonderful natural world.

With numerous forests, parks and nature reserves dotted all around Scotland, from Shetland in the north to the Solway Firth in the south, there is no shortage of locations where you can immerse yourself in nature.

Globally and here in Wales, ornamental plants spreading from gardens are one of the main sources of invasive species which can – once in the wild – impact the environment, economy, our health and the way we live. Invasive species are estimated to cost the GB economy almost £2 billion each year.

Tomos Jones, Garden Escapers Project Manager at North Wales Wildlife Trust said: “Preventing invasive species is crucial because it saves us money and avoids the impacts they can have. Our research has identified a shortlist of popular garden plants which are not currently known to cause any impacts in the wild as invasive species but this could change in future. We want to know which of the target plants have escaped from gardens into nearby areas such as along pavements in urban areas or in nature reserves.”.

The sounds and smells of a scythe cut meadow are wonderful, explains Norfolk Wildlife Trust Reserves Officer Robert Morgan.

As I have commented before, meadows are in depressingly short supply, so Norfolk Wildlife Trust has been appealing this summer for support in improving and increasing wildflower meadows in our county.

Understandably modernised farming no longer required them for animal fodder, and most were ploughed out within a generation.

Excluding a few rare exceptions, it is fair to say we lost virtually all of them.

In recent years NWT has been working with landowners, both farmers and parish councils, to return wildflower meadows to our countryside.

As gardening enthusiasts look forward to enjoying the late summer in their well-kept patches, they are being urged to make a minor modification that could make a significant difference to one of the nation's favourite creatures. With the hedgehog population in decline over recent years, British householders and gardeners can help by simply drilling holes at the bottom of their garden fences.

Hedgehogs, whose numbers have seen a significant decrease due to changes in environment and modern gardening as well as household and lifestyle habits, have an important role as natural pest controllers. An adult hedgehog will gladly consume up to 100 invertebrates, like snails and slugs, per night.

These are the same molluscs that avid gardeners constantly strive to keep away from their fruit, vegetable crops, and precious floral arrangements.

Walking in England’s New Forest in 1892, butterfly collector S. G. Castle Russell encountered such numbers of the insects that they “were so thick that I could hardly see ahead”. On another occasion, he “captured a hundred purple hairstreaks” with two sweeps of his net.

Patrick Barkham, who recounts these riots of nature in his 2010 book on butterflies, laments never seeing such a sight. However, new research suggests Barkham is a rarity, because a lot of people are forgetting, or just don’t appreciate, how much wildlife there was.

To gauge this effect, Lizzie Jones at Royal Holloway, University of London, compared population records dating back to 1966 of 10 UK bird species against public perceptions of those birds. More than 900 people told her how abundant they thought the species – including declining ones such as house sparrows – were today and when they were aged 18.