UK Nature and Environment

Sufferers of pteronophobia (fear of feathers) or acrophobia (heights) need not apply…

RSPB Bempton in East Yorkshire, which is home to England's largest breeding colony of gannets, is looking for someone to spend a minimum of four months living among the seabirds.

Duties of the "residential volunteer" will include monitoring the birds and welcoming visitors.

Starting from March, the successful candidate will live in shared accommodation in the village of Bempton, about a mile (1.2km) from the reserve, with vistas out over the North Sea.

Early birds may catch the worm - but it's the early volunteers who catch the birds.

And the ones that get caught in the 18-metre long, fine-mist nets strung high across a reed bed at Killycolpy, on the County Tyrone shores of Lough Neagh, will help researchers learn more about how wildlife on the lough is faring.

It is one of three Constant Effort Sites (CES) around the shores of the lough and a fourth in the Belfast Hills.

These sites are places where identical studies are carried out - the same number of studies, for the same length of time, in the same location over the same period of time each year.

A conservation charity has bought 2.6 acres (1 hectare) of land to create its first nature reserve.

Charity Devon Culm is creating the reserve in an area of culm grassland - a mix of purple moor grass and rush pasture - next to Knowstone Moor and Rackenford Moor, between Exmoor and Dartmoor.

Culm grasslands have significantly diminished since the mid-20th Century due to changes in farming practices, the charity said.

On a chilly day in December under stubborn grey skies, a band of green-fingered volunteers can be found in Somerset’s Chew valley with spades in their hands and dirt under their fingernails.

There are about 30 helpers, split into pairs, carefully planting hawthorn, blackthorn and crab apple saplings, one tree at a time. Undaunted by the scale of the project, they are planting one of the biggest new woodlands in England.

The Lower Chew Forest, as it will be known, is a vast new woodland between Bristol and Bath with 100,000 native trees planted by about 1,000 volunteers mobilised by the woodland creation charity Avon Needs Trees.

The MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr has announced his support for the Climate and Nature Bill in the wake of this autumn’s deadly flooding.

The northern Powys MP Steve Witherden will be voting for the new private members' bill which would create a legally binding mission statement on action against climate change.

The CAN Bill introduced by MP Roz Savage aims to create a joined-up, science-led plan to address both climate and nature crises, cut emissions in line with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree target and reverse the decline of nature by 2030.

The bill will be debated and voted on at its second reading on 24 January.

Historic canals provide “vital” corridors of waterways, hedgerows and habitats for wildlife to move through the landscape, the charity which cares for them has said.

The Canal & River Trust, which is responsible for 2,000 miles of waterways across England and Wales, has mapped the “ecological footprint” of its canal network for the first time to show how it can support the UK’s struggling wildlife.

But the charity also warns the ageing canal network is at risk from the impacts of climate change such as weather extremes, as well as pollution and invasive species, and investment is needed to make them resilient for the future.

Conservationists working to save vital ecosystems in the Scottish Highlands say they are facing a multitude of long-term challenges such as depopulation and guaranteed sources of funding.

A growing number of local projects – from regenerative farm clusters to saving Scotland’s rainforests – are responding to the country’s nature crisis after centuries of human-driven deforestation and habitat depletion.

But fears are growing that the country will fail to meet its 2030 conservation targets, with campaigners saying the Scottish Government has cut nature spending by tens of millions of pounds over the last decade.

A humpback whale in the Isles of Scilly "put on a show" for visitors, leaving them in awe.

Molly Wates, who lives in West Sussex, said it was an "unbelievable" sight as the breaching whale emerged from the water.

Ms Wates said they saw the mammal behind St Martins on Friday at about 11:45 GMT.

"The whale was sort of just coming up, then suddenly he just started breaching out of the water and put on a proper display for us," she said.

5 ways to help create a wilder future for Yorkshire - by Amy Cooper of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

New years are a new start – whether you manage to keep them or not, all of us consider new years’ resolutions each January and think forward to what we might like to change in our lives through the year ahead. This year, we would like to encourage you to consider what changes you might be able to make that will benefit others; our wildlife, our community, and our collective mental health.

Progress towards achieving the biodiversity goals set out nearly two years ago by over 200 countries worldwide has been slow; the UK, which continues to be one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, is only on course to meet four out of our 40 domestic environmental targets.

Back in November, a comprehensive report commissioned by The Wildlife Trusts revealed the striking results of the £5 million National Lottery Heritage Fund Nextdoor Nature programme which enabled Wildlife Trusts to work with communities across the UK for two years. — writes Erin McDaid of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust

Whilst originally designed to reach 200 communities, it went on to reach 1600 – 8 times the original target – including a diverse range of groups in Nottingham.

Transformations have taken place in communities which have traditionally or historically been excluded from influencing decisions about nature and the environment where they live.

Natural England, alongside partners including Environment Agency, Fylde Bird Club, Lancaster University, RSPB, Lancaster & District Birdwatchers Society and Lune Rivers Trust have been working hard to do a good ‘tern’ for the silvery-grey and white birds which are affectionally known as the ‘sea-swallow.’

Just outside of Lancaster and Morecambe in the Lune Estuary, breeding pairs of common terns were once a regular sight but lost habitat, disturbance, lack of food and increased threats from predators caused the colony of several hundred pairs to disappear in 2008.

Terns like to nest on bare shingle or sand, creating scrapes in the stones to lay eggs that are camouflaged to look like pebbles.

One of Britain's rarest moths was recorded in bumper numbers at a site in Scotland in 2024.

Dark Bordered Beauty can be found in only a few places in Scotland and only one location in England. The loss of native woodland, increased pressure from grazers and a lack of diversity in forests has severely impacted the species' numbers.

However, Insh Marshes RSPB in Highland boasted record numbers for the species in 2024, with more than twice as many moths caught than during any previous monitoring season.

The future of a beloved beauty spot is hanging in the balance in the face of planned government budget cuts.

Somerset is home to three national landscapes - the Blackdown Hills, the Quantock Hills and the Mendip Hills - which could see funding cuts in a review of the budget for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).

Manager of the Mendip Hills National Landscape team, Jim Hardcastle, said this would make it much harder to carry out vital conservation work and to meet the government's own target for environmental improvement.

A MOORLAND peat bog is being recreated in a popular Keighley park.

Volunteers have begun work on the project in the grounds of Cliffe Castle.

Yorkshire Peat Partnership is spearheading the initiative, believed to be the first of its kind.

Visitors to the site will be able to watch the evolution of the bog, which is being planted next to the cafe and public toilets.

A nature project to reset a river has led to an "abundance" of wildlife and better flood protection for nearby homes, the National Trust says.

Rangers from the trust created wetlands on Holnicote Estate, within Exmoor National Park, to slow the flow of the River Aller as it crosses the site. Work was completed a year ago.

The three-year long project to form seven hectares (17 acres) of waterscapes and wetlands with channels, pools, wetland and marshes is a UK first, according to the conservation charity.

Citizen science testing of river water quality will expand this year in an attempt to make the data part of official monitoring of waterways, the head of an independent environmental research group has said.

The use of ordinary people across the country to test river water quality for pollutants including phosphates, nitrates and other chemicals has captured the imagination of thousands of volunteers. In 2024 more than 7,000 people took part in river testing “blitzes” run over two weekends by the NGO Earthwatch Europe. The research, using standardised testing equipment provided by the NGO and Imperial College London, gathered data from almost 4,000 freshwater sites across the UK.

It provided an insight into the cocktail of pollutants from water companies and agricultural runoff, which are contributing to the crisis in river ecosystems.

This year has shown that more and more people want to be a part of rewilding and understand the role it must play in tackling the climate and biodiversity crises. More than four in five Britons now support rewilding, and 77% believe the government should be doing more to reverse the decline of nature in Britain, according to polling we undertook with YouGov this year.

Rewilding cannot flourish without bringing people along with it – and 2025 promises a range of exciting species being reintroduced to Britain, from eagles to tauros.

Rewilding is the large-scale restoration of nature to the point where it can take care of itself. It not only offers hope for tackling the nature and climate crises, but has the potential to create a cascade of social and economic benefits for people and communities. People – pioneers, communities, activists, ecologists – are at the heart of rewilding, as these moments from 2024 (alongside hundreds of others) show.

Sewage spills considered illegal by the European Union are getting worse in Britain after Brexit, The i Paper has found.

The EU previously acted as a watchdog on water pollution that could impose fines of millions a week if rules were not being followed.

However, the regulator that replaced its role in Britain – the Office for Environmental Protection – does not have the same powers, according to experts.

The bloc has also taken steps to strengthen its wastewater laws as the UK lags behind, analysts said.

Big Garden Birdwatch is the world’s largest garden wildlife survey. Every year, hundreds of thousands of nature lovers like you take part, helping to build a picture of how garden birds are faring.

A CONSERVATION steering group has been set up to share knowledge and best practice about one of the UK’s rarest butterflies.

Essex & Suffolk Water has joined Essex Wildlife Trust, Butterfly Conservation and other partners, for the benefit of the Heath Fritillary Butterfly, one of the UK’s rarest butterfly species.

There are only four locations in south-east Essex where the butterfly is spotted, so the organisations are working together to enhance the areas and increase the butterfly population.

A project involving farmers and nature conservationists is celebrating the restoration of 400 "lost" farmland ponds in Essex.

A century ago there were more than 17,000 in the county.

Today only 3,500 survive in good condition, with a similar number needing restoration.

Essex Wildlife Trust, the RSPB, Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group East and farmers have joined forces to reinstate them.

The European sturgeon, Acipenser sturio, is a fish that has been around since the time of the dinosaurs and looks it. Specimens are armour plated and big, up to six metres in length. Once abundant in British waters, sturgeon became extinct as a breeding species in the 1950s but there is now a concerted effort to reintroduce it by “rewilding” rivers.

Hopes are high because sturgeon are increasingly being accidentally caught in nets around British coasts as bycatch by fishers. This shows that and French and German attempts to breed the fish in captivity and release them into rivers is working.

Groups working to protect the remaining pockets of red squirrels in England say they are "devastated" after an outbreak of a deadly disease was confirmed.

Volunteers with Cramlington and District Red Squirrel Group, in Northumberland, have spotted a number of 'reds' with symptoms of squirrel pox, and a carcass sent away for analysis has been confirmed as positive for the disease.

Squirrel pox is carried by grey squirrels, which are not affected by it, but causes red squirrels to die slowly and painfully.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed the single case, but says there is no threat to humans or livestock.

There are signs of hope for the turtle dove, one of the most endangered birds that has been plummeting towards extinction in Britain.

After a temporary ban on the annual shoot of the migratory birds as they pass through France, Spain and Portugal, which began in 2021, there has been a remarkable 25% increase in its western European population, which includes the 2,000 individuals clinging on in England.

This means an extra 400,000 breeding pairs across western Europe for a species that has reduced in number in the UK by 98% over the last 30 years.

A year ago, the UK's first urban beavers were introduced to their new home in Greenford in west London.

They live in Paradise Fields right next to a retail park.

Experts say the beavers are happy there and have had babies - or kits as they're known - and now the latest stage of their development is happening. One of the eldest females will be moved to help repopulate other areas of the UK.