UK Nature and Environment

The divers emerged from the water smiling with satisfaction. They had found what they were looking for in the undersea meadows off the south coast of England.

“Seahorses are tricky to spot,” said Mark Fox. “The seagrass sways and they blend into it pretty well. It helps if it’s sunny and not too choppy but you have to get your eye in. When you see them, it’s brilliant.”

Fox is one of a band of volunteers (he is a semi-retired painter and decorator) helping survey the creatures that live in Studland Bay.

This year, we’re not just launching a survey — we’re launching a nationwide rescue mission, and we need everyone to get involved.

Last summer, Britain’s butterflies sent an urgent SOS through Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count.

The wildlife charity declared a Butterfly Emergency after results revealed a marked and deeply concerning decline in butterfly numbers, which were the lowest in the Count’s history.

An open letter from industry leaders and environmental charities is published today urging the UK Government to get Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) back on track across England.

The letter (1) follows recent proposals to remove small and medium-sized developments from Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) commitments, a move The Wildlife Trusts has warned represents a weakening of the policy.

Addressed to the Prime Minister, the letter, which has been co-signed by Knight Frank, Schroders Wealth Management and Triodos Bank among others, says: “Our collective voice sends a clear message: weakening BNG would come at a high cost, setting back this fast-developing economy and more widely threatening business confidence in nature policy.”

A lucky fisherman spotted more than 30 dolphins off the Cumbrian coast.

Aaron Jones was fishing off Walney when he observed dolphins for more than an hour.

He described seeing the pod as a "once in a lifetime experience".

Sarah Neill, a marine biologist at Kendal College, said dolphin sightings become more common in the summer months.

An MP said he feared a river could be toxic to fish after carrying out water quality testing himself.

Labour's Peter Prinsley, who represents Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, says he carried out tests on the River Lark - finding dangerous levels of ammonia.

Prinsley said: "This kind (of pollution) is often linked to agricultural runoff or sewage discharge."

Eighty percent of people agree that marine wildlife should be treated with the same care as land-based wildlife, a new survey has found.

The independent research was conducted by Savanta for The Wildlife Trusts, ahead of National Marine Week (26th July to 10th August), which is the Trusts’ annual celebration of the seas.

Plus, when told about bottom trawling, which is an industrialised form of fishing during which nets are dragged along the seabed, 57% of people said they were now more likely to buy sustainably caught fish.

Five hen harrier chicks have fledged "against the odds" after four breeding males disappeared, the RSPB said.

Staff at the conservation charity said the disappearance of two of the rare birds from RSPB Geltsdale Nature Reserve in Cumbria, and a further two from the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, pointed to their illegal killing.

RSPB staff and volunteers intervened to provide their paired females with emergency food in an effort to save their chicks.

Dedicated "eel lanes" are to be created in rivers at the South Downs National Park to assist with the migration of the European eel.

The project includes the installation of fish passes created around man-made structures in the rivers which act as a narrow lane of water to provide eels with a route around artificial barriers like dams and weirs.

Strips of bristles, known as eel brushes, are also being added at new water control structures in RSPB Pulborough Brooks and Pagham Harbour to help eels manoeuvre upstream.

A £3m regeneration scheme in Ilford will reopen access to the "almost forgotten" River Roding, developers say.

The Ilford Arrival includes a new bridge, pocket park, riverside walk and the rewilding of a local golf course, which the Mayor of London's office hopes will open up long-neglected public access to the River Roding.

Funding was granted by the mayor last August through the £12m investment scheme the Greater London Authority's Civic Partnership Programme (CPP).

Thousands of water tests to identify potential harmful pollution in rivers, lakes and estuaries in England have been cancelled in the last three months due to staff shortages, the BBC has learned.

The Environment Agency confirmed the cancellations after campaigners showed us internal emails and documents with plans for extensive cuts to monitoring programmes.

The cancelled tests are for so-called inorganic pollutants - substances such as nitrates and phosphates that can indicate sewage or agricultural pollution.

On former farmland and private estates, landowners, farmers, and local communities are working together to bring wildlife back — beavers to rivers, wildflowers to meadows, and balance to ecosystems long degraded.

But this progress is fragile. And today, it’s under threat.

The Labour government is considering a rollback of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) legislation — one of the few hard-won environmental policies that asks developers to leave nature in a better state than they found it. If proposals now under consultation go ahead, small developments — which make up nearly all of England’s planning applications — will be exempt. The consequence? A loophole big enough to erase 215,000 hectares of potential habitat recovery in just ten years.

A previously unknown population of critically endangered native white-clawed crayfish has been rescued from dry riverbeds in Leeds.

The Environment Agency’s fisheries team carried out the emergency rescue after a member of the public reported seeing crayfish in distress in the Burley in Wharfedale watercourse.

Water levels were critically low due to ongoing drought in Yorkshire. When the team arrived, they found shallow pools separated by dry stretches of riverbed.

Wales continues to exceed its national peatland restoration target, restoring over 3,600 hectares of damaged peatland – the equivalent of more than 3,600 rugby fields – in just five years.

This nature-based climate action is estimated to deliver an emissions saving equal to taking 6,840 cars off the road.

The milestone was achieved through the National Peatland Action Programme (NPAP), funded by Welsh Government and delivered by Natural Resources Wales (NRW), alongside a wide network of local and national partners. Originally set a target of restoring 3,000 hectares by 2025, the Programme has gone 20% beyond that – reaching 3,600 hectares thanks to a fifth-year boost in delivery.

Wildlife campaigners have welcomed a voluntary ban by Cornwall Council on plastic flying rings to protect the county's seals.

Council member Rosie Moore proposed the voluntary ban on the sale, purchase and use of such rings, which was passed unanimously by the council on Tuesday.

The ban follows similar moves by other councils across England and Wales, as well as retailers such as Tesco and Sainsbury's volunteering to stop selling the toys, which can cause fatal injuries to seals.

A record number of Purple Emperors has been recorded at the Knepp Estate in Sussex, as the species – and many other butterflies – enjoy a prolific summer in southern England.

Ecologists at the rewilding project counted 283 individual Purple Emperors on 1 July – the highest single-day total ever recorded at the site, which is a national hot-spot for the species.

The species, once in steep decline during the 20th century, has been gradually returning to Knepp since 2001, when Isabella Tree and her husband, Charlie Burrell, transformed the former farmland into a nature-led rewilding estate.

Naturalists say it has been an “outstanding” summer for butterflies and other flying insects after last summer’s dramatic decline. Here are some of your sightings so far this year

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s Wilding Chesterfield project has received £245,000 in support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to aid nature’s recovery in the town’s urban spaces and make it a priority for the people who live there. 

The latest State of Nature Report, released by the Trust in June, lays bare the reality that many of Derbyshire’s landscapes are fragmented, degraded, and struggling to support wildlife.

With urban wildlife under increasing pressure, the Wilding Chesterfield pilot project aims to turn the town’s streets into homes for the species that were once thriving there, such as hedgehogs, bats, swifts, and the Big Five pollinators: flies, wasps, bees, butterflies and moths.

One of the UK's rarest birds has bred on a nature reserve near Hull for the first time in its history.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT) said a juvenile bittern was spotted at North Cave wetlands last week, marking the first time the species had ever bred on its site.

Bitterns, which make a distinctive booming call, were once extinct in the UK but returned in the 20th Century.

A grassland habitat could double in size as an old farming approach is set to be used to boost biodiversity.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust's proposal for the Greystones Farm nature reserve, external in Bourton-on-the-Water involves reinstating a traditional beef herd for grazing.

The trust said this change will help to increase the area of farmed land that also benefits nature, supporting farmland birds such as yellowhammers.

Sea swimmers have suggested brown flags could be used on beaches to indicate pollution in the water.

Members of the Bluetits sea swimming group said the flags would be especially useful to tourists who may not know how to check the water quality at beaches they visit.

Janet Shephard, who regularly swims at Perranporth in Cornwall said: "We get red flags if you can't see because of the sea conditions and I think we need brown flags for pollution."

A new water regulator will replace the powers of Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate and the Environment Agency to “reset” a sector tarnished by scandals over sewage spills and financial mismanagement, after a major review of the sector.

The government will adopt the recommendation for England and Wales made in the review it commissioned from Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, which was released on Monday. In England, the powers of Natural England will also be subsumed.

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, said: “The government will abolish Ofwat. In the biggest overhaul of water regulation in a generation, we will bring water functions from four different regulators into one.

RANGERS at Ryton Pools Country Park have recorded the 3,000th species at the site.

The honour went to a tiny micro-moth, Narycia duplicella, discovered by Countryside Ranger George while out looking for Pine Ladybirds.

The milestone is a result of years of site management and recording work, a collaboration between the ranger team and local experts and volunteers.

The site now supports regionally and nationally important species – including all 14 species of bumblebee found in Warwickshire, rare spiders, and priority butterfly species like the Wood White and Dark Green Fritillary.

JULY is the peak of summertime glory. Warm summer days are punctuated by the hum of insects; our butterflies and moths fluttering their way through our grassy green spaces and bees buzzing in search of nectar. Birds dance their way through gloriously blue skies, and many of our mammals emerge to bask in the summer sun.

Yorkshire’s meadows and grasslands come alive in summer too. Orchids burst into being in a riot of sculptural colour, bellflowers, plantain and field scabious turn their faces to the skies, and globeflowers spread out across fields in a sunny spectacle. Hoards of butterflies and moths flutter in amongst the stems, as skylarks sing their hearts out overhead.

Rich in variety, grassland meadows, hay meadows and floodplain meadows have unique wildlife that relies upon subtly different habitat to survive. The recent State of Yorkshire’s Nature report also found that meadows formed on limestone and wetland landscapes are key wildlife habitats in Yorkshire. These protect our most important Yorkshire Stronghold Species, those found in few or no other place, and give a home to many Species of Conservation Concern.

Birmingham has been recognised as the UK's first official Nature City by a group including the National Trust and Natural England.

The city has been awarded the accolade as part of a programme working to improve access to nature in urban communities.

The award recognised the role played by the city council and others in providing communities in Birmingham with better access to nature and green spaces.

Water companies spilled raw sewage for a record time of 3.61m hours into sea and rivers in England in 2024, according to data from the Environment Agency.

Rules allow a limited discharge of sewage in periods of excess rain, but environmental groups remain concerned that the levels post a threat to wildlife and a health risk to swimmers.

Sewage spills into England's lakes, rivers and seas by water companies increased slightly in 2024 to 3.614 million hours up from 3.606 million hours in 2023. However, the Environment Agency said that the total number of spills were down - meaning that on average spills in 2024 were longer in duration.