UK Nature and Environment

The arrival of new plant pests and diseases is likely to severely damage UK trees and woodlands in the coming decades, new research shows.

The ash dieback epidemic prompted the government to assess all pests and diseases that could potentially enter the UK and affect our trees and agricultural crops.

In the new study, University of Exeter scientists assessed the 636 tree pests and diseases to work out the invasion probability and likely effects on tree growth.

Gardeners are being urged to resist mowing their entire lawns in efforts to support struggling butterfly populations.

Last year was one of the worst years on record for butterflies, according to the results of Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count.

Experts at the organisation say mixed lengths of grass are best for providing food and shelter, ideally with naturally occuring plants such as dandelions left to flower.

The government is failing to support the natural regeneration of trees in England owing to an overwhelming focus on planting, campaigners have said.

Recent figures show only 5% of Forestry Commission grants for woodland creation have been spent on the natural regeneration of trees, while the remaining 95% is spent on tree planting.

Natural regeneration is a process through which trees grow and reproduce in the wild without human interference by self-seeding, growing new stems from roots and natural seed colonisation.

For years, conservationists have been working to bring native trees back to the spectacular Glen Rosa on the Isle of Arran.

But a decade of effort was wiped out in days when a wildfire ripped across the valley earlier this month.

"It was years of our work going up in flames," Kate Sampson, the National Trust for Scotland's senior ranger on Arran, told BBC Scotland News.

Farmers in Hampshire and West Sussex have successfully restored populations of lapwings that are facing extinction.

They are encouraging the bird species, which is synonymous with farmland, to nest by keeping patches of fields uncultivated and protected from predators.

But some are concerned about the future of such projects, after the government suddenly closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) green funding scheme.

DAERA Minister Andrew Muir has said Northern Ireland must take immediate action to protect its blue carbon habitats.

The Minister was speaking as he launched Northern Ireland’s first Blue Carbon Action Plan at Mount Stewart in Co Down.

Northern Ireland’s first Blue Carbon Action Plan, which contains 22 action points, will provide the foundation for the protection of our blue carbon habitats. It will also provide for nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change through the absorption of carbon dioxide in the Northern Ireland inshore area.

A new Official Statistic in Development has recently (Wednesday 23 April 2025) been released by JNCC that will track the status of threatened and declining marine habitats and species within the UK.

This new indicator provides, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of threatened and declining marine habitats and species in the UK.

The statistic has been specifically designed to support the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan as part of the Outcome Indicator Framework, which measures environmental changes linked to ten key goals. Results of this data will feed into the ‘Thriving Plants and Wildlife’ goal and will be included in the 2025/2026 reporting cycle for the C6 indicator “Diverse seas: status of threatened and declining features".

An amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill has been announced by Government to remove all statutory consultees from the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) pre-application process. See Planning reforms to slash a year off infrastructure delivery - GOV.UK.

The Wildlife Trusts believe this is bad news for both nature recovery, communities and for infrastructure delivery. Pre-application is intended to be the crucial stage when, informed by consultation with experts, potential problems with major infrastructure projects are revealed and solutions found. This is also the stage where nature protection and restoration can be built into the early stages of a project – avoiding harm to precious nature sites, protecting community greenspaces and reducing costly project-stopping trouble later on.

Two wildlife charities are recruiting volunteers to help spot glow-in-the-dark caterpillars at night using ultraviolet lights.

It is hoped the technique will make surveying butterflies and moths quicker and reveal secrets about their behaviour and evolution.

The surveys are part of a conservation project covering Bernwood Forest, the River Ray and Otmoor Basin near Oxford.

The area of the UK burnt by wildfires so far this year is already higher than the total for any year in more than a decade, satellite data suggests.

More than 29,200 hectares (292 sq km or 113 sq miles) has been burnt so far, according to figures from the Global Wildfire Information System, which has recorded burnt area since 2012.

That is more than the previous high of 28,100 hectares for the whole year of 2019.

One in three Brits had admitted to doing nothing to support or protect struggling UK wildlife - despite nearly 9 in 10 saying they’re worried about its decline.

According to a British Wildlife Insights 2025 report, compiled by biodiversity and ecology consultants Arbtech, nearly a third of Brits are taking no action to help wildlife in their local areas.

33% of participants said they took no action to support wildlife, with a further 13% say they had no plans to ever take action. This was despite 88% of participants reporting to be concerned about the ongoing reduction of wildlife in the UK

A rare pair of ospreys have laid their first egg in mid-Wales, which conservationists believe is the first such egg in the area for at least 250 years.

It was laid in a nest near Talybont-on-Usk, near Brecon, Powys, and is a sign the "rare species is fighting back", said conservation group Usk Valley Ospreys.

The species was wiped out in Wales in the 19th century due to persecution and habitat loss, but has been making a comeback in recent years due to conservation efforts.

With what's being called a mini-heatwave looming for the UK, it's not just humans looking forward to warmer weather.

The warm spell is expected to give a temporary boost to nature as migratory birds arrive from afar and butterflies stretch their wings.

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) says a succession of milder winters and wetter springs are all contributing to change in the natural world.

More than 100 old landfills in England that may be contaminated with toxic substances have flooded since 2000, potentially posing a serious safety risk, it can be revealed.

Some of these former dumps containing possibly hazardous materials sit directly next to public parks and housing estates with hundreds of households, the analysis by the Greenpeace-funded journalism website Unearthed , in partnership with the Guardian, found.

Although councils are supposed to keep track of the dangers of these sites, funding has long since disappeared and some local authorities had no idea they were responsible, the investigation found.

A wildlife charity is planning to buy a former dairy farm and allow it to be taken over by nature.

The 44-acre Ebdon Farm near Wick St Lawrence, North Somerset, will be bought by the Avon Wildlife Trust within two years.

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation charity has purchased the farm and has given the Trust two years to raise the funds to buy it.

Banning toxic weedkillers could support swifts, starlings and toads in towns and cities, an MP has said ahead of a debate in Parliament.

The Green Party’s Sian Berry has proposed a public sector ban on the chemicals, which councils can currently use to destroy “undesired plants” in areas which they manage.

Ms Berry told the PA news agency that the Government had demonstrated “worrying attitudes to nature from the Government in quite a few of their policies”, but added the ban is a move that lawmakers can “genuinely do for nature to make up for that slightly”.

A research project is aiming to find out why the population of a rare UK fish is declining.

The Freshwater Biological Association (FBA) plans to study the spawning grounds of Arctic charr in Windermere to determine the reason behind the fish's falling numbers.

Although more common in Nordic countries, the Arctic charr is one of the rarest fish in England and its presence in the Lake District contributed to the area becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2017.

Leading economists, former government advisers and ecologists are calling for a key section of the government’s planning bill to be changed because it creates a “licence to kill nature”.

Sir Partha Dasgupta, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Cambridge, ecology professor Sir John Lawton and Dr Tom Tew, a former chief scientist of Natural England, are among the signatories to a letter to MPs that warns them to ignore government slogans and false rhetoric about nature and wildlife being a block to growth.

The letter warns that part three of the planning and infrastructure bill, applying mainly to England and Wales, allows developers to pay “cash to trash” wildlife and the environment. They say it allows companies to sidestep environmental laws affecting their project by instead paying into a national nature levy.

If your ears are assaulted by the shrill piping calls of an excitable bird on the east coast of England, fear not: it’s probably an oystercatcher experiencing a midlife crisis.

Two of the handsome black and white birds with bright red-orange bills have been found to be the oldest known oystercatchers ever recorded in Britain, clocking up at least 41 and 43 years on the mudflats of the Wash.

The venerable birds were spotted alive and well this winter by volunteer bird surveyors at RSPB Snettisham in Norfolk.

A new study has found that biodiversity benefits from woodland creation are improved if land managers are able to consider current and historic use of the landscape around proposed sites.

Factors such as the intensity of agriculture and loss of woodland in nearby areas over the course of the previous century can influence which species colonise new woodlands, and the speed at which they arrive.

The UK has set ambitious targets to create hundreds of thousands of hectares of woodland, and researchers say their study underlines why a strategic approach is vital.

The UK’s rivers, ponds, lakes, streams and wetlands are in crisis, but a national conservation charity has unveiled a bold new plan to reverse the decline in freshwater wildlife within just 10 years.

Freshwater Habitats Trust has today (23rd April 2025) launched its vision for the Freshwater Network, a science-based strategy to build a cleaner, more connected, network of habitats for wildlife. Now, at a critical time for the future of freshwater, the charity is calling on other organisations to join the effort.

One in four UK freshwater plant and animal species is now classed as rare or threatened and almost all rivers, lakes and small freshwaters are impacted by pollution. According to Freshwater Habitats Trust, adopting the Freshwater Network could double the extent of unpolluted freshwater habitats and achieve an increase in species that are currently rare or declining by 2035.

Evidence from a new report raises concerns about the status of adders in Scotland.

The latest Scottish Adder Survey found that the reported distribution of Britain’s only venomous snake shrank significantly in Scotland between 1994 and 2024.

It found that the number of ten-kilometre squares in which adders have been reported in Scotland has substantially declined, from 567 pre-1994 to 364 from 1994 onwards – a 36% decrease.

Water companies should no longer be allowed to monitor their own levels of sewage pollution, the industry body has told the BBC exclusively.

Instead they are proposing a new, third-party monitoring system to build consumer trust.

The recommendation is part of a submission made to the UK government's independent review into the water sector.

Woolly maggots, nature-destroyers – sheep are criticised by many conservationists for denuding Britain’s uplands of rare plants and trees.

So The Wildlife Trusts were shocked when they were compelled to buy 4,000 sheep as part of the biggest land restoration project in England.

The flock were part of the deal to buy the first “big chunk” of the 3,850-hectare (9,500-acre) Rothbury estate in Northumberland last autumn, the largest land sale in England for 30 years.

Three peregrine falcon chicks have hatched at Lincoln Cathedral.

The birds, which have made their nest on a ledge on the side of the main tower, laid four eggs last month.

Bruce Hargrave, a tower guide, said three of the four hatched in the early hours of Tuesday morning and one was "still to hatch".