UK Nature and Environment

Conservationists in the UK recently released a pair of beavers in England's South Downs National Park to help revitalize an area of critical wetlands. The release of the beavers — named Willow and Wilson — marks the native species' return to the area after a 600-year absence.

According to a BBC report, beavers were hunted to extinction in the area in the 16th century due to demand for their meat, fur, and scent glands. Now, scientists hope returning the species to South Downs National Park can help support the local ecosystem by improving the quality and quantity of the wetlands.

The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that beavers play a critical role in maintaining healthy wetland habitats. Beavers are known for their dam-building behaviors, which help create and preserve wetlands. The NRDC calls beavers "ecosystem engineers," explaining the species directly influences resource availability for other species by reshaping their physical environment.

For the first time, the RSPB has launched an interactive map showing the whereabouts of its satellite-tagged Hen Harriers.

The map shows the movements of tagged birds between 2014 and October 2024. In total, the interactive database includes the fates of 178 of the 226 harriers tagged so far.

Some dead harriers are not included as they are subject to ongoing police investigations. The individuals that are still alive and are currently being tracked are also not included.

Efforts to control oil leaking into a stretch of river have continued for a fourth day.

Teams have been at the source of the leak on the River Wye at Rotherwas, in Herefordshire, since Friday.

A boom and absorbent sheets have been placed around the drainage outlet to control the spread of what is believed to be engine oil.

The Environment Agency (EA) said it was continuing to investigate the incident and was working closely with Welsh Water.

A Hampshire country house is in the middle of a massive tree-planting programme to rewild and diversify its extensive estate.

Hinton Ampner, a National Trust property near Alresford, is currently undertaking its Reimagining a Hampshire Estate project.

The project's webpage says the main aims are: nature recovery and conservation; regenerative farming; better access to nature; involving people; and responding to climate change.

The number of Puffin nests in Alderney has almost trebled since the island's wildlife trust starting monitoring the animals in 2005.

Alderney Wildlife Trust said the latest Puffin Survey found 330 active nests on Burhou compared to the 120 initially recorded in the first study.

The trust released the figures along with other data collected in its annual review.

Ambitious plans have been unveiled to create vast new areas of woodland that will transform the look of Eryri (Snowdonia). Over the next century, millions of saplings are to be planted on mountainsides to increase the national park’s tree cover by 50%.

If the 2125 objective is achieved, new woodlands will have emerged across 53,315 acres of Gwynedd and Conwy - around a tenth of the national park. Native trees will be preferred over commercial pine plantations, thus restoring some of Eryri's historic landscapes.

Most of the new woodland will be on upland ffridd and steep bracken sites on mountainsides. Increasing tree cover trees on upland farms is also expected to be an “important element”.

A two-year habitat-restoration project is set to boost wildlife at a Dorset heath.

As part of the £1.2-million project, Dorset Council is removing hundreds of invasive pine trees from Avon Heath Country Park to help rejuvenate the heathland.

The 210-ha site is home to all of Britain's native reptile species including Smooth Snake, along with specialist birds such as European Nightjar and Woodlark.

Work on a new wetland reserve on the Wirral is set to start in 2025.

The creation of new habitat between West Kirby and Hoylake is expected to begin late next year.

Earlier in 2024, Wirral Council was awarded £430,000 of flood management funds to create a new wetland across Hoylake Carrs.

New research, released today by Wildlife and Countryside Link, reveals that overstretched and under-resourced English Local Authorities have been struggling to meet legal deadlines to consider the nature recovery action they need to take and the policies to support this.

Coinciding with these findings, nature groups including RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts, Friends of the Earth and the Woodland Trust are launching a new Wilder By Design campaign today. They are calling for the Government’s upcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill to include a series of reforms to deliver a planning system that not only minimises harm to nature but actively supports the recovery of wildlife and wild places.

Conservationists have said wildlife could be “disappearing in the dark” after figures showed that three-quarters of England’s most precious habitats, wildlife and natural features have had no recent assessment of their condition.

The warning follows the publication of figures covering assessments of protected natural sites known as sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) in the last five years. SSSIs are legally protected because they contain special features such as threatened habitats or rare species, and together they cover more than 1.1m hectares (2.7m acres), about 8% of England’s land area.

Nearly two-fifths of the habitats and other features for which SSSIs are protected were in an unfavourable condition, according to figures from the conservation agency Natural England.

Mosses and cow parsley will feature in a Chelsea flower show garden to celebrate endangered British rainforests.

Vast expanses of the UK were once temperate rainforest. But these moss-covered ancient trees and their lichen have become a rare sight due to deforestation and overgrazing. Dartmoor, for example, once covered with trees, now harbours just a few fragments of temperate rainforest.

The Chelsea garden, which will be on display next May, is being designed by Zoe Claymore, who won a gold medal last year for the “renters retreat” showing how a small, shady courtyard can be turned into a wildlife haven.

Rare black seal pups have been spotted and photographed by visitors at a Lincolnshire nature reserve.

The grey seal pups at Donna Nook are normally born white and shed their fur at about two to three weeks to expose a grey coat underneath.

However, about one in 400 grey seals reveal a velvety black coat instead and visitors in recent days have reported seeing at least two of these.

A wildlife trust that appealed for funds to finance the transformation of a green space in the Shropshire Hills, reached its target nearly a week early.

Shropshire Wildlife Trust bought Betchcott Hill, which sits between the Stiperstones and the Long Mynd, and had aimed to raise £138,000 by 31 December.

But it surpassed that amount on Boxing Day, after raising nearly £50,000 between 24 and 26 December.

The halfway point has been reached in an extended public consultation into whether Galloway should become Scotland's third national park.

NatureScot is conducting the process which ends on 14 February, two weeks later than originally tabled to take into account the festive period.

So, after weeks of public meetings, paper and online consultations, has anyone changed their mind?

There has been anger and frustration among both supporters and objectors in what has turned out to be one of the most contentious issues raised in Dumfries and Galloway.

Give people the right to walk around the edges of privately owned fields, say campaigners seeking to open up more paths in the countryside in England and Wales.

Slow Ways, a group advocating for more access to the countryside, said people in rural areas often have to walk on roads that do not have pavements, which can be extremely dangerous.

The British public appears to agree. A poll by YouGov found seven out of 10 adults (71%) thought people should be allowed to walk along the edge of fields that were privately owned, as long as they were respectful and responsible, and if the only other option was to walk down a narrow or busy road with no pavement or legal footpath.

There have been alarming declines this year in some insect species including bees, butterflies, moths and wasps, while many seabirds have also been “hammered” by unstable weather patterns caused by the climate emergency, a conservation charity has said.

In its annual report on the impact of the weather on flora and fauna, the National Trust highlights that numbers of bees and butterflies have “crashed” in some areas of the UK in 2024.

It describes the apparent decline of birds such as the globally threatened Arctic tern as “very shocking” and mentions diseases that are striking the white-clawed crayfish and sycamores.

The count is an annual national census of farmland birds run by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) and it has been providing vital data for the past decade which has helped us to understand which species are in the most serious trouble and how we can help them.

The 2025 count kicks off on Friday, February 7 and runs for two weeks.

As well as providing snapshot of the bird population on UK farms, the BFBC aims to raise awareness of the important role that farmers and other land managers play in the conservation of farmland birds.

A deadline for registering historic rights of way is to be scrapped after a warning that the looming cutoff date could result in the loss of thousands of miles of footpaths.

The last government set a deadline of 2031 for all rights of way in England to be added to an official map, after abandoning a previous commitment to scrap the policy.

Once recorded as rights of way and added to the definitive map, paths are protected under the law for people to use.

Churchyards are vital havens for rare wildlife including dormice, bats and beetles, according to an extensive audit of burial grounds around the UK.

The conservation charity Caring for God’s Acre mapped out 20,325 cemeteries, with 800,000 wildlife records submitted and more than 10,800 species recorded.

They discovered that these quiet sites are home to a huge variety of rare wildlife, with over a quarter of species recorded featuring on the Red List of endangered species. More than 80 of these were classified as threatened, vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.

Blow away the Christmas cobwebs with a stroll around ruined abbeys, deer parks and the real-life town turned into Cotchester on TV series, ‘Rivals’

Discover odd animals and peculiar plants.

More than 300 harvest mice have been released at a site in the North York Moors National Park in the hope of re-establishing a local breeding population of this once-common species.

The initiative, led by Hawsker residents Steve Mills and Hilary Koll, has been supported by a grant of £4,200 from the Defra-funded Farming in Protected Landscapes scheme.

The release follows several years of habitat restoration by Steve and Hilary, who have been working with Derek Gow Consultancy – experts in UK small mammals – to ensure the right environment for the mice. The couple purchased the "wild and windy" pasture field about five years ago, and have since planted trees, built ponds and watched as a habitat full of birds, butterflies and bees has slowly developed.

A wildlife trust is calling for donations to help them transform a site in the heart of the Shropshire Hills.

Shropshire Wildlife Trust has bought Betchcott Hill, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty between the Stiperstones and the Long Mynd.

The trust wants to breathe new life into the 50 hectare landscape through a restoration project for its diverse habitats, from wetland bogs to woodland hedgerows.

But to make that happen the trust needs to raise nearly £140,000 by the end of the year, having raised £93.500 so far.

Stalked jellyfish, white hedgehog sea slugs and invasive Pacific oysters have been discovered on Kent's coastline.

The fascinating discoveries have been made by Volunteer Citizen Scientists - who logged more than a hundred and sixty species at nine key locations on the coast.

The project is run by Kent Wildlife Trust who say the data's critical for protecting our marine ecosystems.

Volunteers conducted surveys at nine key locations along the Kent coast, recording more than 160 species.

The UK’s nature-depleted rivers could be transformed by planting wildlife-rich belts of trees and other vegetation all the way along their banks, according to the chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts.

Craig Bennett’s “big idea” for “reimagining what rivers can look like” would see Labour introducing a policy to ensure rivers had a “vegetation buffer” of between five and 50 metres, depending on the location.

This would provide valuable habitat for nature, reduce the risk of flooding, cut down soil erosion on riverbanks, and absorb climate-warming CO2, he argued.