UK Nature and Environment

A major shake-up of local councils in Norfolk and Suffolk is a "once in a generation" chance to secure money to breathe new life into rivers and to restore nature, charity bosses say.

Nature organisations say the creation of new councils and a mayor for the two counties needs to go hand in hand with cash and powers to protect habitats at risk and to clean up rivers.

Bosses at Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Norfolk Rivers Trust, the River Waveney Trust and the RSPB, have sent an open letter to council leaders, MPs and local government minister Jim McMahon urging nature to be an integral part of the new set-up.

Over 900 mature native oysters (Ostrea edulis) have been suspended in 30 purpose-built cages over the edges of Carrickfergus Marina’s pontoons to help revive the species.

Led by local nature conservation charity Ulster Wildlife in partnership with Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, the restoration initiative could see up to 900 million oyster larvae released into surrounding waters every year. In addition to supporting the expansion of wild populations, the oysters will help boost biodiversity and improve water quality by filtering pollutants.

Carrickfergus was once the heart of Belfast Lough’s thriving native oyster industry in the 1850s, home to the world-famous Carrick oyster. However, a combination of overfishing and disease led to their disappearance from Belfast Lough and beyond.

A Scottish accountant has captured hundreds of hours of footage of wildlife on a city centre river while recovering from knee replacement surgery.

Tom Kelly's remarkable recordings include otters and their cubs, kingfishers and herons in their natural habitat on Edinburgh's Water of Leith.

He began documenting the wildlife in January 2021, after doctors advised him to walk as much as possible to aid his rehabilitation.

The 60-year-old has since walked 5,000 miles and made a full recovery while gathering the film.

A woman who "married" the River Avon as part of a campaign for clean water, has said she hopes the relationship remains "sustainable".

Megan Ruth-Trump took part in the ceremony in Bristol in 2023 to raise awareness of untreated sewage being pumped into waterways.

She said the marriage had inspired her to write poetry and use creativity to make people more passionate about keeping the river clean.

"The wedding inspired me to quit my job and focus on campaigning and writing," Ms Ruth-Trump said.

Cat Marfell, the volunteer administrator at Gloucestershire Toads on Roads, said there are now more than 35 patrols taking place at spots across the county.

Migration season, which occurs any time between January and April, sees toads, frogs, and newts travel to water to breed.

"It's been quite warm and we were out patrolling in February, and then it's not really been warm again until Wednesday," Ms Marfell said.

Somerset Wildlife Trust, along with the Diocese of Bath and Wells, has launched this year's Wilder Churches, with special online workshops planned.

Started in 2021, the scheme has supported more than 100 communities to take action in their local spaces for nature.

Methods used in some churches include making planters bee-friendly, or adjusting how the yards are mowed.

A sperm whale which died on Monday after washing up on the island of Raasay had been entangled in ropes.

It was the latest in a series of whale entanglements off the Scottish coast in the last few months.

What is behind such incidents and how common are they?

OU researchers have produced new evidence which suggests that disadvantaged and vulnerable young people benefit from supported nature-focused activities. Green Pathways participants exploring their local woods.

Dr Jitka Vseteckova (Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies) and Dr Joanna Horne (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences), are authors on a co-produced article titled: Ecotherapy and out-of-classroom learning for vulnerable and disadvantaged young people: an evaluation of a project in England, which has just been published in the journal, Environmental Education Research.

The paper is the result of a long-term inclusive research engagement and co-production between the OU and the Froglife Trust, funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

An innovative project to improve biodiversity and improve marine habitats has been set up in Whitby.

Textured and sculptural concrete panels, crafted by hand with the help of local people, have been created and will be fixed to an area of 25m² of the intertidal zone on the slipway at Whitehall Landing.

The new artificial textured panels will transform the sheer, man-made, concrete sea wall and slipway into new habitats that can be colonised by seaweeds, whelks and winkles and other marine creatures, helping to improve biodiversity in the area.

Over time, intertidal habitats have been lost because man-made structures such as quays and marinas have been built on these important areas.

A voluntary promise to phase out toxic lead shot in the UK has failed, meaning wildlife and human health are being put at risk, a study has found.

The vow, made in February 2020 by the UK’s nine leading game shooting and rural organisations, aimed to benefit wildlife and the environment and keep toxic lead out of the human food chain. They aimed to phase lead shot out by 2025, and hoped to avoid a full government ban. It is recommended birds are shot with non-toxic cartridges made of metals such as steel instead.

A study of 171 pheasants killed in the 2024-25 shooting season found that where any shot was still in the carcass all but one had been killed with lead ammunition. The team also analysed shotgun pellets found in red grouse carcasses shot in the same season and on sale through butchers’ shops and online retailers. In all 78 grouse carcasses from which any shot was recovered, the shot was lead.

A new set of stamps is being issued marking the diversity of wildlife in the UK’s gardens.

Images on the 10 stamps include popular species such as a fox, blackbird, frog, blue tit, hedgehog, robin and snail.

Royal Mail worked with Professor Dawn Scott, executive dean of the School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences at Nottingham Trent University, on the stamps.

The sun was shining, people were gingerly paddling in the sea and dogs were being walked up and down the coast – a typical day on the beautiful Dorset coast. But the beachgoers probably didn’t know that just a few minutes inland, history was being made.

On Wednesday, at the National Trust’s Purbeck Heath nature reserve, four beavers were released from crates and crawled into Little Sea, a 33-hectare lake. They are the first beavers to be legally released in England, after 400 years of absence and a fight to return them to the landscape.

The trust says this is the perfect habitat for the creatures to roam free, with no fenced enclosures, because it is full of lakes and watercourses for the beavers to make their home. They have permission to release 25 on the peninsula but are starting with four and then making more releases in coming years if this one goes well.

A new study has outlined how improved surveillance strategies could work in the UK to protect native ash trees from a voracious new killer: the emerald ash borer. The researchers developed a novel modelling framework that combines the distribution of ash trees in Great Britain with potential invasion pathways of the beetle, its population dynamics and spread to determine the best approaches for early detection.

The team also surveyed landowners and firewood importers to understand their views and likely participation in early-detection surveillance strategies.

The emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) is a native beetle of East Asia that has spread to North America, Russia, and Eastern Europe where it is responsible for the deaths of millions of ash trees. Its early detection in countries where it is not yet present is essential for effective control.

One of the wildlife experts who filmed the phenomenon said it was even more spectacular as it was above a "built up urban area" in Upton, Cheshire, close to Chester Zoo.

Alex Cunningham, who is schools engagement officer at the zoo, went with his colleague Mayukh Chatterjee in the hope of seeing the display after hearing about it.

He said it was "incredible" to watch it with residents on an "everyday street". "The cherry on the cake was the sky. It was a stunning canvas of pink and blue illuminating the spectacular."

Staff at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) near Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, say their population of Bewick's swans has declined by 86% over the past almost 50 years.

Every year, thousands of these birds migrate from breeding grounds in northern Russia to the UK to avoid getting caught in the ice and snow of the arctic winter.

However, they no longer need to travel as far to reach ice-free wetlands, with only 87 Bewick's swans returning to the reserve this year, without any cygnets in tow.

The Woodland Trust is urging local authorities to declare a nature emergency and take urgent steps to restore severely depleted wildlife and natural green spaces.

With UK British wildlife species declining by an average of 19 per cent since 1970 and nearly one in six at risk of extinction, the charity says urgent action is needed.

The Trust has launched a Nature Emergency Scorecard www.natureemergency.com, which reveals that despite the UK’s nations being among the most nature depleted countries in the world, just 25 per cent of local authorities have declared a nature emergency, and only 12 per cent have a nature action plan.

Over the next 10 years, Roundbarrow Farm near Firsdown in Wiltshire should attract "chalk-loving blooms, bees, butterflies and birds", said Patrick Cashman, RSPB site manager.

It is hoped the plans for the farm, owned by Wiltshire Council, will improve water quality in the River Test.

"This is an inspirational project Wiltshire Council have embarked upon with the RSPB," said Mr Cashman.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) managed to cut five ropes from the animal on Saturday, but some remained around its head.

The charity's attempts to get close to the adult whale over the weekend were affected by high winds and rough sea conditions.

BDMLR has sent a team to Raasay.

A tunnel for otters to stop them being killed by traffic as they try to cross the main road connecting Bedminster and Hartcliffe could be installed if Bristol City Council can secure the money. Environmental campaigner Vassili Papastavrou has repeated calls for action that he first made to then-mayor Marvin Rees in July 2023 to move or replace a huge metal grille installed to stop flooding in South Bristol.

The grille system completely covers the Pigeonhouse Stream, a tributary of the Rivers Malago and Avon, as it enters a tunnel under Hartcliffe Way to stop wood and other debris clogging it up and creating floodwater on residential roads at the top of Crox Bottom in Hartcliffe. But since then, environmentalists made the exciting and surprising discovery of otters living at the wildlife haven at the Crox Bottom nature reserve, only for at least two to be killed crossing the road above.

The grille is too narrow to allow the protected animals to enter the culvert across the stream that flows under the busy road, so they risk their lives by attempting to cross it. In a written question to the environment and sustainability committee on Thursday, February 27, Mr Papastavrou said this placed otters under threat of being killed by vehicles.

Scottish conservationists hope to convert a Highland sporting estate into a rewilding showcase after a mystery benefactor gave them more than £17.5m to buy it.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), best known for its small nature reserves, has bought Inverbroom estate near Ullapool in north-west Scotland, complete with an 11-bedroom lodge that boasts an indoor swimming pool.

It was given the funds needed to buy Inverbroom by a private donor, who does not want to be named, on the understanding the 7,618-hectare estate would be acquired for conservation purposes.

Torbay has about 52 hectares of the wetland habitat, external which is at risk due to leisure crafts causing damage while anchoring, the Wild Planet Trust said.

It has set up the Seagrass Champions project to raise awareness of the meadows and wants businesses to get involved.

The charity said seagrass meadows store more carbon per area than tropical rainforests, provide nursery grounds for commercial fish species, help prevent coastal erosion and support marine biodiversity.

A project to boost biodiversity by building nest boxes into new homes is celebrating ten years of success.

The Duchy of Cornwall has been working with the RSPB since 2014 to incorporate the boxes into the walls of its developments.

The initiative aims to enhance wildlife across its communities and inspire other new developments to do the same.

So far, 1,289 integrated nest boxes have been installed at the Duchy's projects in Nansledan and Tregunnel Hill in Newquay, Trevethow Riel in Truro, and Poundbury in Dorset.

During toad migration season, the animals come out of hibernation and cross Litlington Road in the Cuckmere Valley.

They are aiming for freshwater to spawn, and volunteers from the East Sussex village of Litlington say they want to help them get there safely.

Penny Aeberhard is behind the organised patrol that is now running, although she says she has been told people have been helping toads across for a long time.

A CHARITY has asked the public to help spot the signs of a 'fussy animal' that could potentially be in decline in Worcestershire.

The Worcestershire Wildlife Trust is encouraging people to record sightings of toad spawn in the county after sightings of toads 'decreased significantly' in 2024.

Toad numbers in the county are down by more than 68 percent in Worcestershire since the 1970's due to droughts and drier conditions.

A Ringed Seal was recently photographed in Forth, marking a rare appearance of this Arctic pinniped in Britain.

The animal was seen in the Firth of Forth near Skinflats Lagoons on 15 February, with the images posted on Facebook – but no subsequent sightings have been made.

Ringed Seal is a wide-ranging species, throughout the Arctic, where it is often the commonest species of seal. It breeds on pack ice. Inland populations are found in Finland and Russia.