UK Nature and Environment

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For proof, you only need look at the 15 national parks found across England, Scotland and Wales (there are no national parks currently in Northern Ireland), which change dramatically from the towering peaks of the Cairngorms to the sprawling waterways of the Broads, from the gently rolling South Downs to the broad beaches of the Pembrokeshire coast.

This year is the 75th anniversary of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, which led to the creation of the UK's national parks, starting with the Peak District in 1951. The visionary legislation secured access-for-all to open countryside, while also serving to protect precious wildlife and places of immense natural beauty.

A concept imported from the United States (Yellowstone, established in 1872, was the world's first national park), the UK's national parks were "the culmination of political battles that had been fought for decades", says Carey Davies, hiker, naturalist and author of the new book National Parks Of The United Kingdom (Ithaka Press). "The Industrial Revolution made the British the world's first predominantly urban population. It's vital that people have breathing spaces and retain our connections to the land. But the idea that nature is good for people and that people needed access to the countryside was particularly pronounced after the UK had been through the horrors of World War Two. There was an exhausted population. Britain can feel like a crowded place in our cities but national parks can be oases of calm and space."

National Trust rangers who keep close watch over Britain’s largest mainland colony of Arctic Terns at Long Nanny on the coast of Northumberland are holding their breath at a critical time in the breeding season to see whether the colony has managed to escape avian influenza, bird flu, this year.

Arctic Terns migrate from their northern hemisphere breeding grounds to Antarctica and back – a journey of up to 50,000 miles each year.

The coastal site is typically a safe breeding ground for both the Arctic and Little Tern, the latter being the second rarest breeding seabird in the UK, which has a much shorter migration to and from the west coast of Africa, each year.

More than 30 seabirds have gone missing from Jersey's north coast, a conservation group has said.

Birds on the Edge (BOTE) said a pair of puffins, eight razorbills and more than 20 fulmars on the headland near Plemont had disappeared.

The group campaigned to build Europe's first predator-proof seabird reserve in 2023 - designed to restore coastal habitats and protect wildlife from predators with a specialised one mile (1.6km) fence.

Cris Sellares, BOTE project officer, said it believed predators such as rats and ferrets were to blame as they had "easy access" due to the headland's slope.

Hilary McGrady, Director-General of the National Trust said: “As we welcome this new government into power, we want to see it prioritise four key areas to tackle some of the most significant issues this country is facing.

“Firstly, the UK remains one of the most nature depleted countries on earth. By addressing, prioritising and accelerating action to reverse the nature crisis, the government can also address issues like river pollution, food security, and climate change.

“This has to involve more support to farmers so they play a full part in helping nature and restoring the health of our rivers; ensuring 30% of our land and seas are well managed and protected for nature by 2030; and investing in large scale, nature-based solutions like peatland recovery, which will also help tackle climate change.

Dr Christina Stanley; Professor Tessa Smith and PhD student Lucy Morison are working closely with the Vincent Wildlife Trust and Professor Yu Shi at the University of Leeds to combine innovative technological, behavioural and endocrinological (the study of hormones) approaches to advance the understanding of small-bodied bats’ responses to human-induced environmental changes.

The Social Lives of Bats will be explored in a free talk open to the public by Christina on Saturday, July 6 as part of the University’s Festival of Ideas. Christina will discuss how some bats actively maintain friendships, have a complex social life and even share food to save others' lives.

Launched in September last year The BATMAN Project, has been made possible due to a research grant from the Leverhulme Trust. As part of this project, the nanotechnology being developed will revolutionise how small-bodied animals are tracked worldwide.

Bees’ Needs Week 2024: 8 to 14 July 2024

Bees’ Needs Week is an annual event coordinated by Defra, working alongside a host of organisations such as conservation groups, businesses, and charities.

The aim of the week is to raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, and share ideas, actions and activities that highlight the ways in which everyone can help bees and other pollinators to thrive.

White storks could soon be wheeling in the skies above London and building their huge nests among towers, flats and spires as a result of new rewilding plans.

After the success of the charismatic birds’ successful reintroduction into southern England since 2016, a white stork working group has been established to seek out habitat and gauge the political will to reintroduce the birds to Greater London.

Citizen Zoo, a group specialising in community-led urban rewilding that helped establish the Ealing beaver project, will examine places where the birds could be returned and engage with London boroughs and local community groups.

Labour inherits a host of environmental issues that will need to be dealt with by a department which is unprotected and could face a further financial squeeze.

The new Government is already being urged to “hit the ground running” and “crack on” with nature recovery and investment to support the countryside, where it has won many rural seats as the old “Tory Shire” stereotype fades away.

High on the agenda for new Environment Secretary Steve Reed will be the polluted and degraded state of rivers, lakes and coastal waters, which have prompted widespread criticism of government and water companies along with high leakage rates and shareholder pay-outs.

A pair of European Nightjars has bred in Aberdeenshire, with the chicks the first to be hatched in the county for nearly 100 years.

Posting on X on 20 June, Alan Knox stated that the youngsters were the "furthest north in Britain for decades", as well as being the first in Aberdeenshire for nearly a century.

He also commented that a nest with eggs was recorded in 2023.

Lucky speedboat passengers caught a glimpse of a Minke whale off the coast of Scarborough this week.

A Minke whale was caught on camera by local man Rudi Barman, as he took passengers out on a vessel from Scarborough Speedboat Rides.

With gasps of amazement, the lucky passengers got to watch as the Minke whale fed, with its identifiable sickle-shaped fin coming out of the water.

Rudi Barman, who submitted the fantastic video footage, said: “We normally see Minke whales a little later in the year, around August and September for around one or two days at a time, so seeing one so early was a treat.

The Norfolk Broads in the east of England are famed for their rivers and lakes, rare chalk streams and wildlife. But it had been clear for some years to local people that some of the waterways were anything but pristine.

Just a few miles inland from the rolling sand dunes of Norfolk's coastline and the picturesque seaside town of Cromer, vegetation and wildlife in the upper River Mun were suffering. In the lake called the Little Broad, into which its waters flowed, fish were dying.

The cause, it turned out, was sewage pollution. The dumping of raw sewage in waterways is a widespread problem across the UK. The amount of raw sewage spilling into England's rivers and seas doubled in 2023, with 3.6 million hours of spills compared with 1.75 million hours the year before, according to the UK's Environment Agency.

Throughout the election campaign, it became clear that people know that our natural world is in crisis and want politicians to make the bold and ambitious commitments to reverse the decline. So with the results now in, what does it mean for nature?

Shortly after the general election was announced, The Wildlife Trusts commissioned a poll1 to gauge whether the public think political parties are doing enough to tackle the nature and climate crises and how important environmental issues will be in deciding their vote.

It revealed that the environmental policies offered by candidates play a big role in swaying people’s vote when they enter the polling station. Almost four in 10 said they will vote based on environmental issues and most people consider environmental issues to be at least as important as other issues facing the country.

The results are in and we have a new Labour UK Government, led by Keir Starmer. Our new Government is responsible for making sure that we meet legal commitments to halt the loss of wildlife and protect 30% of our lands and seas by 2030. That’s just six years away. During the election campaign Labour committed to meet the targets if elected. So here are the five key actions the new Government must urgently take to protect and restore our natural world.

The unique lowland Rhos Pastures found in parts of Wales have once again proved to be a rich sanctuary for a now threatened butterfly species.

Natural Resources Wales’ (NRW) Environment Team in Ceredigion has recently carried out crucial surveys to monitor the Marsh Fritillary Butterfly at the Rhosydd Brynmaen Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). These efforts are part of a broader mission to conserve these rare butterflies and the unique Rhos Pastures they inhabit.

Rhos Pastures are species-rich marshy grasslands found in lowland regions like Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, and the South Wales coalfield. These habitats are essential for the Marsh Fritillary Butterfly, providing the ideal environment for their survival and reproduction. Rhos Pastures are known for their diverse plant life and the delicate balance of the ecosystem they support.

National animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports has hailed the general election result as a huge step forward in its fight to see fox hunting properly banned.

The charity’s figures show that illegal hunting is still rife across England and Wales – a position echoed by the top police officer responsible for stamping it out for good.

Emma Judd, the League’s head of campaigns, said: “We’re delighted to see a new government in power that has pledged to protect animals and should have the wherewithal to deliver on its promises.

National Trust rangers watching over Britain’s largest mainland colony of Arctic terns say the next few weeks are "critical", after 1000 chicks died from bird flu in 2023.

Long Nanny, on the Northumberland coast, is also home to a small colony of Little terns, one of the rarest seabirds in the UK, who were similarly impacted by the bird flu outbreak.

This year the number of adult breeding birds is lower, with the amount of nests with eggs down by 20%.

A 28-acre country park partly built on a former landfill site in West Sussex has opened to the public.

Creating the new green space was a condition when planning permission was granted for the New Monks Farm housing development, in Shoreham.

The country park was previously tidal marshland before becoming part of a landfill site, but after “extensive refurbishment” it will now be home to a diverse range of wildlife.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust directly manages over 100 nature reserves, and is at the forefront of conservation work across Yorkshire, from groundbreaking partnership programmes such as Wild Ingleborough and Wilder Humber to their recent release of the first-ever State of Yorkshire’s Nature report.

We are managed by a Board of Trustees, who support and guide the charity to achieve a wilder Yorkshire that more people feel encouraged to enjoy. Each trustee brings their own experience to advise the Trust, and represents the Trust’s 45,000 members.

Trustees join for a limited time, which creates vacancies and ensures the Trust benefits from different experiences and fresh perspectives. No prior experience of being a trustee is required, and the Trust encourages everyone who feels they have skills and time to offer to apply.

The fastest birds in the world, peregrine falcons are sought after for racing and can sell for up to £250,000 in the Middle East. Poaching is a constant threat, with eggs and chicks stolen to supply the hidden market. Now, there are nationwide efforts under way to ring and take DNA from wild chicks – but just reaching their nests can be perilous

Gwent Wildlife Trust has officially opened a new reserve on the Gwent Levels.

Bridewell Common NR was officially opened by Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trusts, at a special event on 20 June.

At the event, Gwent Wildlife Trust thanked guests, including local community representatives, supporters, volunteers and staff, who had contributed to the acquisition and restoration of this beautiful 33-ha site.

Footage captured from a boat off the Isle of Mull shows a "miracle" white-tailed eagle chick in flight, after it was nursed back to health by two unusually caring parents.

In an unprecedented display of extended eagle parenting, the two white-tailed parents skipped this year's breeding season to continue to tend to their year-old offspring.

The youngster's wing was broken when the nest fell to the ground during unseasonably wild weather last year.

The footage shows a bulge in the bird's wing - apparently a healed broken bone.

A robotic drone is being used to clean up the waterways in Leeds.

The cutting-edge technology has been developed in the Netherlands and is the first of its kind to be used in the UK, according to the Leeds Waterfront group.

The robot swims along waterways and can scoop up to 500kg of waste from the surface through a wide mouth, hence it being named the Waste Shark.

Rare bumblebee numbers are rising in Shropshire following a successful project to restore old hay meadows.

The National Trust is leading Stepping Stones, an initiative which aims to reconnect isolated patches of wildlife habitat across the Long Mynd and Stiperstones.

Jinlye Meadows, on the Long Mynd, is now thriving with wildflowers and insects and as a result, the population of bilberry bumblebees has increased.

Small wild birds have demonstrated an ability to recall what they have eaten in the past, where they found it and when, a new study has shown.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of East Anglia in Norwich (UEA) studied the feeding habits of blue tits and great tits.

In the "first experiment of its kind to involve wild animals", the birds exhibited an "episodic-like" memory to cope with changes in food availability when foraging.

That memory system - a "conscious recollection of personally experienced events" was previously thought to be "uniquely human", researchers said.

An otter has been spotted for the first time at a "wilded" site on the Somerset Levels that used to be intensively grazed farmland.

The animal was captured by a night-time camera at Honeygar in the Avalon Marshes.

In a post on Facebook, Somerset Wildlife Trust said it was "excellent news" for the 81-acre site, which used to be a dairy farm.

The trust wrote: "We've now been managing the site for over two years, and vital monitoring work has been undertaken to help us build up a better picture of some of the different species in the area.