UK Nature and Environment

The latest survey of the UK's resident Eurasian Woodcock population has shown that numbers are still declining overall, albeit at a slower rate than before.

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) teamed up in 2023 for the latest Breeding Woodcock Survey to gather up-to-date evidence on the changes to population size and distribution of this elusive bird. Woodcock's cryptic camouflage and secretive nocturnal behaviour have traditionally made it difficult to survey accurately.

More volunteers than ever contributed, and the results showed some encouraging signs that in parts of England numbers were increasing. In Northern Scotland, however, woodcock population estimates showed a very steep decline of almost half.

A huge project to create one of the biggest reedbeds in the UK at a quarry site is more than half complete.

The RSPB said work to expand its Ouse Fen nature reserve, north of Cambridge, started in 2001.

New wetland is being carefully created by the phased restoration of Needingworth Quarry, where sand and gravel are extracted for use by the construction industry.

Funding has been agreed for three river restoration projects in West Sussex.

Chichester District Council (CDC) is to invest £180,000 over the next three years on protecting rare habitats on the rivers Lavant, Ems and Hambrook.

The projects, which are being managed by the Western Sussex Rivers Trust, will focus on restoring the natural function in the river channels, tackling invasive non-native species and river re-meandering.

The council said it was funding "critical work".

The three waterways are among only 283 chalk streams and rivers in the world, according to CDC.

In my 20s I lived in Manchester, on the sixth floor of a block of council flats just off the A57, or Mancunian (Mancy) Way. A short walk from Manchester Piccadilly station and the city centre, it was grey, noisy and built up. I loved every piece of it – my first stab at adulthood, at living on my own. I painted my bedroom silver and slept on a mattress on the floor, and I grew sweetcorn, tomatoes and courgettes in pots on the balcony. (I was 24 – of course I grew sweetcorn on the balcony.)

I worked and played in the bars and clubs of Manchester’s gay village, and I would walk home in the early hours, keys poking through my clenched fist to protect me from would-be attackers, and I would see hedgehogs.

It never occurred to me that the hedgehogs might be in trouble, that they might not have the best time foraging beneath the ring road, beneath the noise and stench of the city. It occurred to me only that their presence was magical, and that seeing them on the grassy wastelands around my council estate, as I stumbled home from parties and nightclubs, was everything I loved about being alive.

South Cumbria has enjoyed several wildlife success stories, from the successful breeding of Ospreys at Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve to the thriving seal population at Walney Island.

According to Natural England however, only 10 per cent of land in the Lake District is in favourable condition for wildlife.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust also estimates that only 15% in the whole of Cumbria can be reliably said to be ‘protected for nature’.

A government target of 30% is needed by 2030 and as such, there are many volunteers and experts who are dedicated to protecting and looking after what we have left.

Whilst it is important to enjoy our wildlife success stories, it must be remembered that this wildlife needs a healthy and thriving environment.

Here are six important nature projects in South Cumbria, unique in the UK, that you may not have heard of.

A National Highways-funded green initiative to protect and enhance biodiversity alongside the A30 in Cornwall has just completed.

As part of its Designated Funding programme, National Highways has provided Cornwall Wildlife Trust with £1.02-million to restore and recreate 15.5 hectares of woodland, orchard, grassland and heathland around Ladock to Gwills and Benhaven to Lambourne Mill, north of Truro.

As part of the environmental initiative, a total of 15,000 trees have been planted within the mid-Cornwall landscape, including species such as scots pine, oak, lime, chestnut, sycamore and blackthorn near Idless Woods in the upper Truro catchment.

When Russell Brand and Bear Grylls took a dip at Henley-on-Thames in late April for Brand’s much-vaunted baptism, let’s hope for their sake that the water was first tested for E.coli. British waterways are rife with the harmful bacteria, along with other nasties, and for the thousands of keen outdoor swimmers diving into the waters this summer, the levels of pollution and sewage is cause for alarm.

In response to the rise in recreational use of water, the Royal Academy of Engineering published a new report, outlining the need to step up the protection of the quality of water in the UK’s rivers. Backed by Chris Whitty, it covers the quality of water in the UK’s rivers – and how human faecal matter is being discharged from sewage treatment works into waterways, rivers, wetlands and estuaries.

Original link

Conservation groups say they are "thrilled" to have been given a grant of £1.2m to help them reintroduce pine martens to woodland in the south west of England.

Organisations involved in The Two Moors Pine Marten Project have received money from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Around 40 of the animals will be released over the next two years at selected locations on Exmoor and Dartmoor.

The rare creatures were once common across the UK until hunting and habitat loss drove them to the brink of extinction in England and Wales.

The National Trust plans to plant 20,000 native trees at a Co Armagh historic home in a bid to help introduce wildlife corridors in the area.

The trees will be planted on an 18 acre site at Ardress House, a 17th century farmhouse, on the outskirts of Portadown.

Remodelled in Georgian times, the farmhouse is set in 100 acres of countryside, which includes apple orchards, woodland and riverside walks.

A small team of National Trust volunteers and workers currently care for the property and its landscape.

The new tree project aims to improve the local environment, enhance water management and develop wildlife corridors to the area.

It also forms part of the National Trust’s wider ambition to plant and establish 20 million new trees by 2030.

Help us take nature's pulse by joining the Big Butterfly Count.

The Big Butterfly Count is a UK-wide survey aimed at helping us assess the health of our environment simply by counting the amount and type of butterflies (and some day-flying moths) we see.

The Big Butterfly Count begins on Friday 12th July 2024 and will run until Sunday 4th August.

A multi-million pound project to remove historic industrial waste from a popular Northumbrian beach is set to get under way.

Northumberland County Council say the "final stages" of preparation are underway ahead of the major project to tackle the pollution on the coast at Lynemouth. A total of £5 million has been allocated to clean up the stretch of coastline, with the aim of stopping the waste deposits from washing into the sea.

Dangerous chemicals including asbestos have been uncovered following spells of poor weather that caused erosion on the coastline. A temporary bridge is currently being assembled and craned into position to allow construction traffic access to the north side of the River Lyne.

They’re both fairly unappealing and just a bit whiffy: thick, toxic algal blooms that increasingly clog Scotland’s lochs and rivers and smelly mountains of sewage sludge.

But now researchers are looking into turning human waste from the sewage system into a mineral-rich material that could be used to both attack the scourge of algal blooms and help tackle another environmental headache.

Scottish teams are exploring how biochar created from human waste that’s been burned at high temperature can be used as a water filter capable of removing large amounts of phosphorus which, when present in excess quantities, contributes to algal blooms.

A ban on peat compost and the reintroduction of beavers are among some of the environmental pledges the Tories failed to fulfil ahead of July’s general election.

Nature groups have accused the Government of being “lethargic” as the sudden dissolution of Parliament places swathes of green policies in jeopardy.

Parliament was officially prorogued on Friday, meaning MPs will no longer sit in the House of Commons and any draft legislation that is yet to become an Act will fail.

The Tree Council welcomes the passing of UK Government legislation to protect hedgerows in England, including a cutting ban between March and the end of August.

In April, the Government announced its intention to introduce hedgerow protections, which had lapsed as cross compliance with European rules ended at the beginning of the year.

Now The Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024 has been made into law, effective from May 23 2024, providing a legal baseline for hedgerow management practices.

THE only species of crab that can be found in UK freshwaters has been found in the Conwy Estuary.

The Chinese mitten crab, an invasive non-native species (INNS) which poses a threat to biodiversity, is also already established in the Dee Estuary.

This Invasive Species Week (May 20-26), Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is asking people across Wales to help stop the spread of the species.

Rare sightings have also been recorded in the Severn estuary, and NRW is encouraging people to record any sightings on the iRecord app or online so they can better understand their impact and spread.

A large seahorse found off the Dorset coast is one of the biggest ever recorded, experts have said.

The seahorse, thought to be up to 20 years old, was accidently caught by a father and son who were crabbing on Poole Bay. They photographed it before returning it to the sea.

The Seahorse Trust said it was the fourth biggest recorded since records began in 1994.

The trust's Neil Garrick-Maidment said it was a "brilliant find".

Members of the public are being urged to help identify key species that should be prioritised for conservation within Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.

This initiative is part of the plans to develop a new long-term strategy to recover, protect and enhance nature and wildlife.

Led by Staffordshire County Council, the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent aims to set out priorities to drive a coordinated plan to protect nature.

The plan will pinpoint locations across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent where we can create or improve habitats such as woodlands, rivers, and meadows to reverse the decline of species and protect the area’s unique biodiversity.

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world with 41% of species being in decline and 15% facing extinction. Like much of the UK, nature is under pressure in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent too.

The Environment Agency has been ordered by the government to clear thousands of tonnes of illegally dumped waste from a Kent woodland.

Campaigners have been calling for the site in Hoad’s Wood near Ashford - a Site of Special Scientific Interest - to be cleared ever since the Environment Agency closed its entrance in January.

Steve Barclay, Secretary of State for the Environment, ordered the Environment Agency (EA) to provide a "written update" every two weeks and told it to "continue to provide such updates until all of the waste is cleared".

Philip Duffy, chief executive of the EA, said in a letter to Mr Barclay that the cost would be "higher than first estimated" and recommended "making £15m available".

The cost of the clearance is now estimated to be £15 million - up from £10 million, in part due to the potential presence of hazardous waste.

An RSPB nature reserve devastated by a wildfire that ripped through the Scottish Highlands is showing promising signs of recovery.

The wildfire began on the last weekend of May last year near Cannich, to the south-west of Inverness, and was suspected to have been started by a camping stove on the nearby Glen Affric and Kintail way.

A few weeks of sunny dry weather meant the blaze spread rapidly and covered 11sqkm - about 1,100 hectares.

A plant that went extinct in the wild has been re-introduced to the UK mainland. We can’t tell you the exact location - it’s a secret, to keep it safe. It’s just one small plant but with one in six species in the UK endangered, you’ve got to start somewhere. We were there the moment pioneering horticulturist Robbie Blackhall-Miles returned it to its native soil.

I first met Robbie at his nursery for threatened plants - tucked away in a quiet part of North Wales.

What he keeps there is so valuable, he can’t even get it insured.

He asks me to be careful how much we reveal - there is still a lucrative market for rare and special plants, often picked illegally, often fetching thousands of pounds.

“There’s only 30 of those trees left in the world,” he says, pointing at a pot.

The government has won a legal challenge brought by environmental campaigners over pollution in the River Wye.

Campaign group River Action argued that the Environment Agency had not been tough enough on farmers who it said had been spreading too much chicken manure on their fields.

But on Friday the High Court ruled that the EA and the UK government were implementing the law properly and were not required to pursue sanctions against farmers for every breach.

River Action had said that although they had lost the case they believed it had led to changes in the way the Environment Agency enforces laws around farming.

The Environment Agency said they had won on all counts.

From sniffing dandelions to prodding frogspawn and chasing butterflies, young children are often automatically and unashamedly drawn to nature. Then a chasm opens. During adolescence, many declare wildlife boring, “icky” or uncool, while the allure of social networks and fast fashion intensifies, alongside mounting pressures to conform to the norms of increasingly nature-blind communities.

In an era of climate breakdown and ecological collapse, the teenage slump in connection to wild nature is not just unfortunate, it is deeply perilous. Right now, we need to be nurturing fierce, clued-up generations of young adults, equipped and empowered to fight tooth and claw for the biosphere that supports all our lives. The rewilding movement, with its proactive, hope-infused ethos, offers inspiration and practical solutions to reconnect teenagers with nature and inspire them to demand a wilder, healthier future.

A new study comparing small balls of food fed by adult swifts to their offspring with trap data from the Rothamsted Insect Survey suggests that the birds could make a useful contribution to pest suppression – particularly if their numbers could be increased.

The balls of food (boluses) were analysed to work out what insects they contained and found to have a high preponderance of agriculturally important species, including pollen beetles and cabbage stem flea beetles. These specimens were compared to the numbers sampled on the same day in the nearest Rothamsted suction trap (part of the UK National Insect Survey). These beetle species are also larger than other species sampled in the area on that day.

Food boluses are small ball-like structures containing the insect prey that are regurgitated to nestlings. Boluses from adult swifts provisioning their nestlings were collected during annual ringing by birding experts at a breeding colony in Suffolk. These were taxonomically identified and compared to corresponding daily insect catches from a nearby Rothamsted Insect Survey suction trap operating within the foraging area of common swifts.

Caterpillars respond defensively to electric fields similar to those emitted by their natural predators, scientists at the University of Bristol have found.

In the study, published today in the journal PNAS, experts showed that caterpillar hairs move in response to electric fields and are most sensitive to the frequencies that correspond to the wingbeats frequencies of other insects, indicating that their hairs could be tuned to pick up the electrical cues of their predators.

These findings are the first example of static electricity being used as a sensory cue in a predator-prey interaction.