UK Nature and Environment

"Charismatic" water voles have returned to local waterways for the first time in 20 years.

The reintroduction, led by the West of England Nature Partnership (WENP), in collaboration with Bristol Zoological Society, has seen the mammals re-establish along the Severn Shoreline Levels and Moors, of North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

Their population was devastated by non-native American mink, which were brought to the UK for their fur.

A rare species of bird has been found breeding in Herefordshire for the first time in 140 years.

A pair of hawfinches were recorded in woodland by a local ornithologist.

Elsewhere, several pairs of tree sparrow were found nesting on a farm in north-west Herefordshire - the first breeding record in nine years.

Dozens of green campaigners are calling on the Government to support farmers and address the “broken” state of England’s agriculture sector.

The Wildlife Trusts and WWF are among numerous groups who have signed a letter to Environment Secretary Steve Reed raising the alarm about what they describe as unfair supply chains and funding for nature-friendly farming.

A thick clump of ivy provides a wealth of benefits for our wildlife, says Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserves officer, Robert Morgan.

Ivy, to me, is both sadly misunderstood and unfairly underrated.

Noted for its long climbing stems and thick encircling foliage, shiny and evergreen, it twists around trees and engulfs neglected buildings.

But it also binds hedgerows and woodlands, and when cross-stitched with brambles and honeysuckle, makes them wonderfully dense and verdant.

In late autumn, when little else is available for nectar feeding insects, ivy provides a bounty of yellow hued blossom.

It’s 6pm on a freezing evening in the south of England, and the remote, muddy track I am on is forbiddingly dark and quiet. Local farmers have ceased their ploughing for the day. The kingfishers that dart the nearby waters are in their nests. And there are no dog walkers out for a late stroll.

But there is a different, more furtive kind of activity about to take place. Soon, a dark Ford Transit pulls up and its driver – a man in his fifties dressed in thick coat and scarf – rolls down the window and greets me with a hesitant “evening”. He is not alone. In the back of his van, cocooned in a metal crate and somewhat grumpy from four hours of confinement, is the illicit cargo of a large beaver.

Transported that very same day from Cornwall, the industrious mammal is being released into this water catchment as part of a campaign known as “beaver bombing” – where the animals are covertly distributed throughout the country in a bid to boost the species’ numbers in the wild.

Original article

Wildlife experts in the Channel Islands say warmer temperatures are leading to fewer hedgehogs hibernating and more being infested with parasites.

The Jersey Hedgehog Preservation Group (JHPG) said milder winters have lead to the mammals' food sources remaining available, meaning hibernation is less necessary.

Alderney Wildlife Trust (AWT) said higher temperatures were likely to increase the number of parasites on hedgehogs, which cause the creatures to be underweight and so needing to forage through the winter months.

A man-made kingfisher bank has been built after a nesting area was washed away in flash floods.

Washington Wetland Centre (WWT) said it hoped to attract the birds back by creating a secure new nesting spot.

Last year, a kingfisher family was captured on video confirming for the first time they had been breeding on site, however their nest was destroyed in a flood shortly afterwards.

An ambitious nature partnership has united 67 farmers and landowners with the common goal of reconnecting vital habitats across north Norfolk's coastal landscape.

The "North Norfolk: Wilder, Wetter, Better for Nature" project is a pilot for the government's "landscape recovery" scheme - the top tier of the new environmental incentives being developed to replace EU subsidies.

Farmers and land managers gathered at Binham Village Hall, near Fakenham, for a progress report from key partners at the Norfolk Coast Partnership, Norfolk Rivers Trust and the Holkham Estate.

In her Budget statement, the Chancellor said the Government would do everything in its power to grow the UK economy. And the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change reasserted this on Thursday.

That should be good news for nature. In theory, at least. Because it’s no secret that economic prosperity is underpinned by a thriving natural world: clean water, healthy ecosystems, a stable climate. We can’t have one without the other.

But nature is in trouble. Just a few weeks before the Budget, there was another bleak report about the widespread depletion of wildlife species. It’s the latest in a long series of alarm bells about the state of nature – reaffirmed by nature minister Mary Creagh after the recent UN Biodiversity Conference when she said: “It’s never been more important to tackle the nature and climate crises.”

Wild-born European Wildcat kittens have been captured on camera trap in the Cairngorms.

The Saving Wildcats partnership, led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, announced in August that at least two of the females bred in captivity and released into the Cairngorms NP had given birth in the wild.

Of the 16 or more that were born, one has now been seen on a remote camera trap.

Members of the public can dive into the past as our conservationists launch an interactive map bringing to life the history of Critically Endangered ‘dinosaur’ fish – as part of urgent work to protect the remaining few.

Launching today, the Sturgeon in the UK map allows users to step back in time and explore over 2,500 historical records of sturgeon in the UK in a bid to boost conservation efforts for the species.

Created by ZSL, which coordinates the UK Sturgeon Alliance, the map created in partnership with Natural England highlights historic hotspots for focusing modern conservation action, while also providing the public and policy makers the opportunity to explore over 400 years of sightings of this forgotten part of UK wildlife.

A year has passed since Forestry England teamed up with Forest Holidays to support the wild area in Kielder Forest. The two organisations share a sustainable vision for the forest, and their work has had a big influence on the Wild Kielder project.

In 2023, Forest Holidays and Forestry England embarked on an innovative nature recovery project at Kielder - a pioneering study of environmental DNA (eDNA) from the soil in Kielder Forest revealed for the first time the variety of fungi and insects. This information aims to help Forestry England track biodiversity recovery in the area.

Thanks to the ongoing support from Forest Holidays, Forestry England commissioned a comprehensive habitat survey of the entirety of the 6,300-hectare Wild Kielder site. This year, over the summer and autumn, a team of surveyors have mapped and undertaken a condition assessment of each habitat, and established long-term vegetation monitoring plots.

A new family of beavers has been released into forests next to a Scottish loch with a heart-warming video showing the animals taking their first swim. The two adults and three kits were let out into restored wetland habitat at Loch Ard, near Aberfoyle, which falls within the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) and the Beaver Trust worked together with the Loch Lomond park authority on this latest beaver release, with the FLS now having relocated 24 beavers to land it manages over the last 13 months. FLS previously created a network of ponds and new native woodland alongside the Duchray Water to restore a wetland environment.

Yorkshire Water has announced it is investing £1m to reduce storm discharges in East Yorkshire.

When heavy rainfall causes surface water to run into the sewers, overflows are discharged into waterways to prevent flooding in residential areas or waste backing up. But campaigners say this increases pollution levels in rivers and coastal areas.

The project in New Ellerby is part of a wider £180m scheme to cut the number of storm "overflows" across Yorkshire by April 2025, the water company said.

Here’s today’s existential crisis for you to tackle: when is a blackbird not a blackbird?

What shade of black qualifies its blackness and when does it become a greybird.

Or, in this avian mystery’s case, when can we call it a whitebird?

Those are the questions Andy Turner from Dorset has been asking himself after his cat, Ozzy, spotted one in his garden.

The organisation that manages the Broads National Park has warned that urgent action is needed to protect wildlife from the impact of climate change and pollution.

Declaring a biodiversity emergency, the Broads Authority said the area of open water and rivers in Norfolk and Suffolk had been losing species at a rate of six per decade in the past 50 years.

It said it wanted to raise public and political awareness and "foster stronger partnerships" on critical issues, because "time is running out".

Britain’s rare rainforests are home to wildlife from eagles to the world’s largest slugs and lichen looks like dragon skin, say conservationists battling to save them.

The Woodland Trust has unveiled a list of 11 “weird and wonderful” species that make their home in and around temperate rainforests found in the south-west and north-west of England, Wales and Scotland.

The forests once covered a fifth of Britain, but they have been lost from all but 1% of land area in the face of felling, overgrazing and conversion to other uses, face ongoing pressures including invasive species and are more threatened than their tropical counterparts, conservationists say.

The conservation of the elusive Jack Snipe bird is being bolstered by new funding through the Purple Horizons Nature Recovery Project, coordinated by Natural England.

This funding will support vital nature recovery efforts in Staffordshire, focusing on safeguarding and enhancing wetland habitats for this important bird species.

Jack Snipe are small wetland birds that migrate to Britain in winter, feeding on insects, worms, and plants in soft mud. The bird’s presence helps to tell us the health of wetland ecosystems. Funding will support targeted research and habitat improvements to ensure their survival and well-being in Staffordshire.

THIS time of year can be a great time to plant native trees and seeds.

According to the Eden Rivers Trust, cold weather and dark nights are perfect opportunities to plant seeds.

Plants are dormant in the winter months meaning that they suffer less transplant shock when planted or moved, require significantly less water, and reap the benefits of a reduction in pests and plant diseases active during the colder months.

A PATHWAY for Scotland to become the world’s first "rewilding nation" has been presented to the Scottish Government by the Scottish Rewilding Alliance.

The coalition of more than 20 organisations presented the plan to Minister for Climate Action, Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, at a reception in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

The group set out what it describes as a "trailblazing vision of hope" for Scotland requiring leadership from government in line with its international commitments, urging ministers to commit to nature recovery across 30% of the country’s land and sea.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust is seeking to recruit the help of nature-friendly farmers and landowners in the south of the county to boost the declining number of grassland wildflowers and plants in Cumbria. We aim to re-introduce rarer species to suitable sites, particularly in the Windermere and Ambleside areas.

In a two-year project, up to 40,000 plants will be grown at our nursery at Gosling Sike near Carlisle. Working alongside landowners, we'll then add a variety of these plug plants to South Lakeland sites and help the landowners provide the best conditions for them to prosper.

The scheme will provide participating farmers and other landowners with botanical surveys, soil testing, plug plants, and a management plan, all free of charge.* Farmers, foresters and land managers can use these to help them look after and improve the environment. They can also be used to support and inform applications for Countryside Stewardship (CS) schemes and Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) schemes.

A new wetland project will transform Clapham Common, boosting biodiversity and providing an educational resource for schoolchildren in the area.

Friends of Clapham Common and Wild Clapham have secured planning permission from Lambeth council to begin work on its Wetland and Reedbeds project after reaching its funding target.

Shirley Kermer, chairman of Friends of Clapham Common said: “The creation of this wetland habitat is an important step in our ambition to improve the ecology of Clapham Common.”

Water companies are planning to build a pipeline network to move treated sewage away from conservation areas and into rivers, lakes and seas which do not have the same legal protection.

The work will be funded by customers and the water regulator, Ofwat, has provisionally said bills would rise by an average of £19 a year between 2025 and 2030.

Billions of pounds could be spent on the projects - including 10 schemes being planned by Severn Trent Water.

More frequent sightings of a rare marsh bird at nature reserves have prompted hopes they may start to breed.

Northumberland Wildlife Trust said bitterns, a member of the heron family, have overwintered regularly in recent years at several of its sites at Druridge Bay.

The charity is running a project, Biodivesity Boost, to create better habitats for the birds with a mixture of reed beds, ditches and pools to encourage them to stay for the spring breeding season.

One of Britain’s largest species of beetle has been found in Dorset for the first time in more than 200 years.

A Bournemouth University student discovered two great silver water beetles while surveying animal and plant life in the Blackmore Vale as part of his master’s degree.

Wren Franklin checked his discovery with the county’s recorder for beetles, who confirmed the last recorded sighting of them was in 1821 by influential entomologist JC Dale.