UK Nature and Environment

As he enjoys an autumn walk in the woods near his home in the New Forest, Bill Reynolds has noticed "things have altered a bit".

"There are a lot of oak trees here - they seem to be late in developing the autumn colours.

“I think the difference is about a fortnight, and it’s slowly getting later still”.

He has been taking photos of the area for several years and sharing them on his Southampton to the New Forest Facebook group where other members have also spotted trees staying greener for longer.

"I'm just a layman, but it's what I've noticed - it's not happened overnight, it's being going on for some time," he added.

A regular humpback whale has made an early appearance in the Isles of Scilly.

The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust said the mammal named Pi was seen near Crim Rocks, just north of Bishop Rock, on Thursday.

The trust said the whale has been visiting the islands in winter for several years, including the winter months in 2023 and 2024.

She also made an appearance on Christmas Eve in 2022.

​Northern Ireland has not always been good at accepting and embracing differences or acknowledging the brilliance in our collective variances.

​Yet it is in our variety that our greatest strength as a population lies, which is arguably in our resilience.

As the renowned and well-respected theologian and spiritual advisor to the late Prince Philip, Professor Martin Palmer, eloquently pointed out last month, “as a people, you have endured so much”, and “found your way out of extreme darkness to an imperfect but seemingly sustainable peace”.

One of our greatest tasks as a country is how we deal with modern political issues, such as Lough Neagh and the blue-green algae crisis.

Their brazen chip-snatching, swooping and aggressive squawking has earned seagulls a reputation as the scourge of seaside towns, terrorising unsuspecting tourists and enraging residents alike.

And as the marauding birds have ventured inland and established urban colonies, towns have deployed spikes, netting and even birds of prey as deterrents. Now Worcester city councillors appear to be contemplating a new escalation in the battle: bird contraceptives.

Inspired by experimental pigeon-control schemes in Barcelona and Venice, the Labour councillor Jill Desayrah described the approach as “safe sex for seagulls”. “I am concerned that the increasing numbers of gulls are getting out of hand,” she said, according to a report in the Mirror.

A campaigner who launched a legal battle which quashed planning permission for oil drilling near Gatwick is calling for the extraction to end immediately.

In June Supreme Court judges said Surrey County Council should have looked at the climate impacts of burning the oil extracted from the site at Horse Hill, outside Horley.

The council told the BBC it was "assessing any potential next steps", while the company drilling at the site said the judgement did not tell it "to stop producing".

Growing up in Northern Ireland, we are surrounded by rolling hills, dramatic coastlines and hidden forests that paint such a beautiful picture right outside our doors. A recent move away from the city, has reignited my own love for this incredible landscape.

Every corner of this land seems to hold a special memory. From windswept cliffs of Antrim to the serene lakes of Fermanagh, nature has gifted us endless beauty and countless hours of peaceful exploration. Just stepping outside, I’m surrounded by vibrant flora and fauna. Weekends often find me hiking in the Sperrins, hoping to catch a glimpse of a Lapwing or Curlew.

This natural landscape isn’t just a pretty backdrop, it’s something we all have a responsibility to protect. Imagine future generations experiencing the same magic, crisp air filling their lungs, the sound of birdsong in their ears, the thrill of spotting a rare bird. That’s why I jump at the opportunity to support projects like ‘Giving Corncrake a Home’ helping to create better habitat to encourage Corncrakes back to Rathlin Island year on year. This work is supported by farmers and landowners across Northern Ireland who provide RSPB with access to their land to dig up nettle rhizomes which provide crucial habitat for the species. It’s amazing how small actions, like volunteering, can make a difference.

Behind the seemingly lush and decadent greenery of the UK’s rolling countryside lies a more troubling reality for its habitats and ecosystems.

In the past 50 years alone, more than half of the country’s biodiversity has been lost, whittling down wildlife and important vegetation whose presence helps to ensure a balanced and sustainable environment for all.

Protecting the environment has vast implications, and is pivotal for a stable economy too – nature-related risks could cause a decline of 12 per cent in the country’s GDP by the 2030s.

The importance of data, research & evidence

A recent survey revealed that more than 80% of Wildlife Trust staff believe that evidence is ‘very important’. We think of ourselves as being (amongst other things) ‘evidence-led and solution-focused’. Collecting and analysing data, monitoring change, accumulating biological records and generating good evidence by commissioning and carrying out research are in our DNA. We understand deep down that they will help everyone take meaningful and effective action, so that together we can achieve more for the recovery of nature, a stable climate and the benefit of society.

And we’re far from alone in that. Twenty years ago, a group of conservation scientists set out to make it easier for the conservation community to access better evidence about what works in nature conservation. This led to the creation of the well-known Conservation Evidence initiative led by Professor Bill Sutherland at the University of Cambridge.

It is a foreign visitor who might have arrived on the back of a lorry or was carried here by strong winds and is the first of its kind in Norfolk.

A Kuhl's pipistrelle bat has been found in the county and has caused excitement among specialist animal lovers.

The underweight and dehydrated male mammal was spotted on the floor between a fridge and cupboard in a business on an industrial estate in Great Yarmouth.

A new scientific study has been undertaken by Moors for the Future Partnership and Derbyshire Bat Group to search for evidence of bats foraging on Kinder Scout, the National Nature Reserve cared for by the National Trust in the Peak District.

Audio recording equipment was placed on the mountain plateau over all of the Summer months of 2024 to find out more information about the scale and variety of the bat populations and their hunting behaviour at two high-altitude scientific trial sites – one highly vegetated restored peatland area and one control site which remains in poor condition with expanses of bare peat still present.

In 2020, initial exploratory research recorded several species of bats on the iconic plateau, which was once all a bleak desolate moonscape of degraded blanket bog. At 613 metres above sea level, this is one of the highest recorded locations of bats in the UK.

As delegates from 196 countries meet at Cop 16 to discuss progress in preserving biodiversity, discovery of a rare lichen deep within the majestic Dinefwr Park, Carmarthenshire, is a welcome sign of environmental recovery.

Lobaria pulmonaria lichen – an endangered species in Europe – has been discovered on several trees within The Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales' Castle Woods Nature Reserve and National Trust’s Bog Woods.

This type of lichen was virtually wiped out in the UK during the Industrial Revolution and only survives where there is clean air, humid, and still conditions.

Only around 600 trees in Wales are known to have lobaria lichen on them, with there being around 40 sites across Wales holding just one or two trees with lobaria lichen.

Britain’s noisiest amphibian, the rare natterjack toad reached record numbers this year at Syderstone Common nature reserve, thanks to decades of careful conservation work from reserve staff and volunteers.   

Over the last century, the natterjack toad has experienced a significant decline in population and range primarily because of habitat loss and fragmentation. They are now highly protected alongside their habitat.  

Syderstone Common is one of only 60 sites in the UK where the natterjack toad is found – and one of four sites in Norfolk. Now largely restricted to coastal sand dunes, including Holme Dunes and Holkham, Syderstone is one of the few examples of an inland natterjack breeding site in the country.   

Home to the iconic skylark, the chalk downlands are as colourful and botanically diverse as rainforest.

Climbing up on Caburn hill, I could see the town lights of Lewes, but, on the summit, time had stopped still long before the age of electricity. In the tall grass around the dim earthen walls of the Iron Age fort, the warm night wind whispered the echoes of past voices. I tried to catch their sense, but it was seemingly babble. Babel.

Looking out over the South Downs under the moon, the dark mound of Firle Beacon assumed the geography, with its long smooth flank, its fluted limbs, of a giant sleeping dog lain on its side. Indeed, the whole of the Sussex downland, it occurred, might be composed of the bodies of enormous downland creatures slumbering under a cloak of grass, with Caburn their gargantuan alpha pack leader, heaving its head up from sleep. Rolling and rounded, shapely buried bodies.

Campaigners have raised questions over the environmental impact of the newly proposed forest.

A community group is pushing back against plans to plant Sitka spruce next door to a nature reserve where public funding has been given to remove the species of conifer.

The team at Tarras Valley Nature Reserve (TVNR), one of Scotland’s largest community buyouts, said it started work this week removing self-seeding Sitka from the site near Langholm, in Dumfries and Galloway, as part of its nature restoration work.

Politicians have voted unanimously for a marine plan from Jersey's government but have rejected another proposal to increase the amount of protected areas in it.

Environment Minister Deputy Steve Luce presented the States Assembly with a Marine Spatial Plan in which 23% of Jersey’s waters would be marine protected areas.

The Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel had wanted to extend those areas by another 4% to protect more habitats around Jersey’s offshore reefs.

Efforts to save an iconic British freshwater species from extinction have been boosted by news that a small population of Medicinal Leech is now breeding, for the first time, at London Zoo.

Led by national wildlife conservation charity Freshwater Habitats Trust, the Medicinal Leech Recovery project is taking practical steps to halt and reverse the decline of Hirudo medicinalis, the UK’s largest native leech. This includes establishing a small breeding population at London Zoo. Since taking the leeches into its care, London Zoo has successfully bred over 40 young Medicinal leeches, marking a huge conservation success for the species.

The number of Medicinal Leeches in Britain has declined dramatically and the species is now on the brink of extinction. Once found in high abundance at hundreds of sites, there are now only four main populations left, in Kent, Hampshire and Dorset, Cumbria and Wales.

A favourite of period dramas, Groombridge Place has remained relatively unchanged for centuries.

It’s a picture-postcard Kent scene but the health of the River Grom that flows past the old manor house, and feeds its moat, appears to be struggling.

Volunteers from Project Ripple Effect, who are concerned about the state of rivers, are testing the water quality of the Grom after reports of reduced biodiversity.

We’re thrilled to share some exciting developments from The Flow Country, where work has officially begun on our second peatland restoration project. This initiative marks a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to protect and restore one of Scotland’s most vital ecosystems.

The new project is taking place on a farming and sporting estate, where we will be restoring approximately 410 hectares of degraded peatland. Healthy peatlands play a crucial role in combating climate change by storing carbon, regulating water systems, and providing a habitat for unique biodiversity.

More hen harriers were killed in 2023 than in any other year on record, a report has found.

The RSPB’s Birdcrime report also found that at least 1,344 individual birds of prey were persecuted in the UK between 2009 and 2023, and that 75% of people convicted of offences related to the persecution of birds of prey in that period were connected to the gamebird shooting industry.

Shooting estates have historically killed birds of prey because of fears the raptors will eat game birds such as grouse, meaning there are fewer for people to shoot. Birds traditionally targeted include rare and threatened species such as golden eagles, hen harriers, peregrine falcons, white-tailed eagles and goshawks.

The UK’s environment watchdog has closed another of its three investigations into the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera).

The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) had already found that Daera had failed to comply with environmental law by failing to publish an Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) by the July 2023 statutory deadline.

The EIP was approved by the executive and published in September 2024.

The OEP said that ended that breach of the law and closed the investigation.

The OEP’s role will now move to scrutiny of progress on the EIP.

The rain has fallen for what feels like two years straight: in drizzles, in showers and, with troubling regularity, in downpours. The weather has always been Britain’s favorite topic of conversation. The clouds are familiar. Increasingly, though, they are also a threat.

In September, a month’s rain fell in a single day in some parts of England. The 18 months to March 2024 were England’s wettest in recorded history. Even on an island that has built at least part of its identity around tolerating inclement weather, it has been impossible to ignore the deluge. Flooding has submerged fields, ruined homes, and at times, cut off whole villages.

As sea levels rise and extreme weather becomes more common, experts say that Britain’s traditional defenses — sea walls, tidal barriers and sandbanks — will be insufficient to meet the threat. It is not alone: in September, deadly floods in Central Europe led to the deaths of at least 23 people.

Wildflower meadows are set to be planted at the University of Lincoln as part of a new “Nature Positive University” scheme.

Have you noticed the overgrown green spaces around campus dedicated to protecting wildlife? Well, in order to restore species and ecosystems that have been harmed as a result of the lack of green spaces, the University of Lincoln has announced that new wildflower meadows will be created outside the Joseph Banks Laboratories in partnership with the Lincoln Science and Innovation Park.

In 2022, The University of Lincoln allied with 117 universities in 48 countries to become a “Nature Positive University” through their commitment on campus to protect wildlife. To this day, over 500 institutions worldwide are part of this initiative, including Loughborough University and the University of Sydney.

The North Devon coast is a place where nature’s resilience meets the gentle hand of restoration. Once worn down by years of intensive use, its rugged cliffs, open meadows, and salt-washed wetlands are now blossoming with life once more. Thanks to a visionary rewilding effort led by Jonathan Fairhurst and his team at the National Trust, this landscape is beginning to heal—becoming a haven where native plants and animals can flourish, and where the hum of bees, the flash of wildflowers, and the whisper of long grass in the sea breeze promise a new beginning for one of Britain’s wildest coastlines.

Jonathan’s patch spans twelve miles along the South West Coast Path and nearly 12,000 acres, covering areas from Croyde to Ilfracombe. This isn’t just a job for Jonathan—it’s a commitment to a vision of North Devon as a place where both people and nature thrive together.

The topic of rewilding, however, is as divisive as it is inspiring. “Rewilding can be seen as quite a contentious word,” he admits. “If you asked ten people what their definition of rewilding was, you’d get ten different answers.”

PLANS for the creation of an extended £38m Great North Fen on County Durham countryside have been described as “exciting” during a ceremony to launch the ambitious scheme.

The Great North Fen, the creation and restoration of fenland along the banks of the River Skerne to the east of Newton Aycliffe, was originally intended to cover 500 hectares when the plans were first mooted in 2018.

However, Jim Cokill, director of Durham Wildlife Trust, told a gathering of funders, partners, and other supporters at Hardwick Hall Hotel, near Sedgefield, that the project was being increased to 850 acres.