UK Nature and Environment

Kielder Forest's first osprey chicks of the year have hatched as wildlife experts aim to equal the site's record year.

Five chicks have hatched at nests in the Northumberland forest earlier this week, despite "less than ideal" weather conditions of wind and rain. Three of the chicks have hatched in Nest 7, and two more are in nest 1A.

Visit Kielder said that there have already been some "excellent" parenting skills on show from the birds of prey, and that they will grow steadily thanks to the reservoir's steady supply of rainbow trout.

Almost 900 miles of coastline in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are now protected for the nation thanks to the generosity of the UK public, the National Trust has announced.

As a result of new detailed mapping, the charity can reveal that it looks after 896 miles of coast, over 10% of the total coastline of the three countries, on behalf of the nation.

The news comes on the 60th anniversary of the Trust's major coast campaign, Enterprise Neptune, which is one of the longest-running environmental campaigns in Europe, and regarded as among the most successful endeavours in the charity's 130-year history.

A wildlife conservation charity has celebrated an “explosion” in numbers of one of Scotland’s fastest-declining butterflies, with surprisingly high counts in various Highland locations.

More than 500 small blues were counted in just an hour and a half by a volunteer for national charity Butterfly Conservation at the Balnagown Estate near Invergordon, while other volunteers have discovered two new colonies of the species — one south of Wick and one at Nairn Railway Station.

Another volunteer recorded a small blue on 30 April — only the second time Small Blue has been recorded in April in Scotland.

Dozens of new species including bees, wasps and butterflies have been discovered in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, 13 years after the site's regeneration for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

The discoveries were made during a bioblitz—an intensive one-day biological survey—and detailed in the park’s new Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP), published on May 28.

Tom Bellamy, biodiversity manager for the site, said: “The park itself is a bit of a model really because we can use it to show that people and nature can co-exist.

When it comes to protecting the future of one of Northern Ireland's only native woodlands, a surprising amount of demolition work has to happen before you can really see the wood for the trees.

That's why a huge project - that could span decades into the future - has been digging, scything and excavating to keep invasive alien species at bay along a crucial woodland corridor stretching from Belfast to Bangor.

Museums NI and the Woodland Trust have teamed up to remove 1,200 tonnes - the equivalent of 700 cars - of aggressive invasive species like rhododendron and cherry laurel, a thick shrub with poisonous cyanide-laced leaves, from a site near the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

The UK's saltmarshes are vital "sinks" that lock away climate-warming greenhouse gases in layers of mud, according to a new report from WWF.

Much of the UK's saltmarshes have been lost to agriculture but the charity says they are unsung heroes in nature's fight against climate change.

It is now calling for these muddy, tidal habitats to be added to the official UK inventory, external of how much carbon is emitted and how much is removed from our atmosphere every year.

The BTO is asking birders to log European Nightjar sightings this summer as part of a national survey of the nocturnal species.

For many, nightjar is easier to see than ever, following a promising recovery in both population and distribution in recent years. In 2021, numbers across RSPB reserves hit a record high and, last year, chicks hatched in Aberdeenshire for the first time in 100 years.

A survey was conducted in Ireland last year, where the continued presence of the country's small population was confirmed.

The head of the Government’s official environment advisors said he is “concerned” over the budget for nature restoration ahead of the upcoming spending review.

Tony Juniper, chairman of Natural England, said the “very tight” spending settlement expected in light of current economic stresses will pose “big challenges” for those working to reverse the country’s decline in nature.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed is understood to have settled the department’s budget for the next three years with the Treasury on Thursday.

Overview of the 2024 National Bat Monitoring Programme report

Long-term monitoring shows that population trends for five bat species in Great Britain have increased and six remain stable since 1999.

However, recent short-term trends suggest fewer increases and some emerging declines, particularly in specific regions. These shifts may indicate new pressures, highlighting the need for continued monitoring and research to guide conservation efforts.

As indicator species, bats help reflect the broader health of our ecosystems — meaning changes in their populations can signal wider environmental shifts.

The Midlands Crayfish Partnership has announced the successful relocation of rescued White-clawed Crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) to a protected site in Staffordshire, marking a significant milestone in efforts to save the UK’s only native crayfish species from extinction.

The crayfish, which had been in the expert care of the National Sea Life Centre Birmingham since June 2024, were released into a specially designated “ark site” – a remote upland stream free from invasive species – where they will be closely monitored with the aim of establishing a self-sustaining breeding population.

“What began as a small-scale collection mission turned into an incredible rescue operation for one of the UK’s most threatened native species,” said Liz Oldring, Crayfish Conservation Officer for Buglife and the Midlands Crayfish Partnership. “We’re incredibly proud of the outcome, and of the strong partnerships that made it possible.”

Two beavers who were moved from Scotland to Norfolk four years ago have improved the water quality where they are living, experts have said.

Eeyore and Winnie have made an area of the River Glaven, near Holt, their home after the landowner gave permission for them to live there.

Norfolk Rivers Trust said they could "possibly" now be released from their enclosure under licence after the government recently approved the reintroduction of the animals into the wild.

A Kent landscape of ancient woodlands, wildflower meadows and chalk grasslands that inspired novelist Charles Dickens has been made a national nature reserve.

Natural England, which advises the government on the environment, has announced the creation of the North Kent Woods and Downs national nature reserve.

As a result, the 800-acre site in Gravesend has been marked out as an area of focus for conservation and nature restoration efforts.

Rivers carry more than just water through Britain’s landscapes. A hidden cocktail of chemicals seeps out of farmland, passes undetected through sewage treatment works, and drains off the roads into the country’s rivers. Normally these chemicals flow through unreported, silently restructuring ecosystems as they go, but now, UK scientists are building a map of what lies within – and the damage it may be causing.

Trailing down the centre of Britain is one river whose chemical makeup scientists know better than any other. The Foss threads its way through North Yorkshire’s forestry plantations, patchworked arable land and small hamlets, before descending into the city of York, passing roads and car parks, gardens replacing farmland. Along the course of its 20-mile (32km) length, the chemical fingerprints of modern life accumulate.

Company directors who cause severe or reckless damage to nature could face jail terms or hefty fines under a bill that aims to criminalise environmental destruction in Scotland.

The proposed law, which would be the first of its kind in the UK, is designed to put a class of environment offences known as ecocide on a similar legal footing to other grave crimes such as murder.

Monica Lennon, the Scottish Labour MSP who has tabled the ecocide (Scotland) bill in the Scottish parliament, said it would introduce strict new legal duties on company executives and government agencies, with potential sanctions such as heavy fines or prison sentences.

The UK Government has announced a consultation proposing reduced Biodiversity Net Gain requirements for small and medium building developments in England. As the latter make up over 70% of all housing developments, the impacts on the natural world will be severe.

Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“It's deeply disappointing to see that the Labour Government is now thinking of scrapping the requirement for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) for small sites after many companies have already invested £millions to enable it to happen, and just six months after this same Government published a paper in which they reinforced their "commitment to BNG".

“Nothing undermines private sector investment more than governments that chop and change their policy positions on the basis of whichever narrow vested-interest met them last. Worse still, this sort of backsliding rewards those laggard developers that have been dragging their feet about implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain and penalises those leading developers that embraced it early on and are showing how well it can be done. This is policy making on the hoof, and it's a shoddy way to go about it.”

The nature-friendly farming budget is set to be slashed in the UK spending review, with only small farms allowed to apply, it can be revealed.

Sources at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed the post-Brexit farming fund will be severely cut in the review on 11 June. It will be part of a swathe of cuts to departments, with police, social housing and nature funding expected to face the brunt.

Labour promised a fund of £5bn over two years, from 2024 to 2026, at the budget, which is being honoured, but in the years following that it will be slashed for all but a few farms.

The new initiative – a partnership between the RSPB and ‘Shorewatch’ founders, Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), will see 28 trained volunteers carry out structured ‘watches’ for Minke Whales, dolphins, Grey and Harbour Seals as well as Harbour Porpoises as part of a national effort to monitor and protect these marine mammals.

Whale and Dolphin Conservation is the leading global charity dedicated to the protection of whales and dolphins.

While seabirds have long been the stars of Bempton Cliffs – with over half a million nesting here each year – ‘Shorewatch’ focuses on what lies beyond the cliffs. Cetacean sightings in the North Sea and the data gathered will help conservationists understand more about the species that live in and pass through these waters.

Scientists are asking visitors to the Lake District to keep an eye out for England’s only mountain butterfly.

The mountain ringlet, a small brown butterfly distinguished by orange spots on its wings, lives exclusively on mountains and is more commonly found in Scotland than in England.

Conservationists say the butterfly is so hard to find in England that it is not known whether its numbers are increasing or decreasing.

New research to understand the existing provision of public access to woodlands in England, as well as opportunities for increasing access, has been published by Forest Research. Funded through Defra’s Nature for Climate Fund, the study updates 10-year-old data on public access to trees and woodlands and provides maps showing the distribution of accessible woodlands.

Access to woodlands can provide a wide range of health and wellbeing benefits. A recent study found that the annual mental health benefits associated with visits to woodlands in Britain was estimated at £185 million. With inflation, this has been updated to £213 million of which £162 million is the value for England. Physical health benefits of visits to woodlands have also been identified, along with a wide range of other benefits highly valued by the public.

Darren Moseley, Head of Land Use and Ecosystem Services at Forest Research said, “The research was conducted to help understand the existing quantity of public access to woodlands in England, the proportion of people who have access to woodland in walking distance and how this varies geographically.

More than 24 acres of grassland – the equivalent of more than 13 football pitches – have been planted with wildflowers to help boost insect numbers in the New Forest.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust has been working with six private landowners in the west of the Forest as part of a Species Survival Fund (SSF) project to increase the number of species as well as their habitats.

The Trust is creating stepping stones of habitat across the landscape, helping species expand from the inner core of the Forest to its outer edges.

A young ornithologist has warned a mosquito-born disease linked to a sharp decline in blackbird populations "is a taste of things to come".

Mya-Rose Craig, from the Chew Valley in Somerset, says the spread of the Usutu virus is more proof British wildlife is struggling "in a way people don't realise".

Ms Craig, 23, known as BirdGirlUK on social media, has been campaigning for the environment since the age of 13 and launched the Black2Nature initiative to encourage children from minority backgrounds to engage in conservation.

A record number of puffins have been recorded on a small island off the Pembrokeshire coast, despite global populations declining rapidly.

According to the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (WTSWW), 43,626 puffins were counted on Skomer Island this year - a record high.

The WTSWW said the increased number of puffins on the nature reserve was a "conservation success story", but warned that the birds were still a species under threat which should continue to be protected.

Volunteers are being urged to take part in efforts to restore Yorkshire's largest freshwater lake.

Hornsea Mere is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, but environmentalists say pollution and invasive species have taken a toll on the beauty spot, which is one of the region's most important wildlife habitats.

Now, the Groundwork Yorkshire charity has been awarded money from the government's Water Restoration Fund to create a plan to deal with the problems.

A family of killer whales has been seen hunting seals near the Farne Islands.

The pod of orcas were spotted on Sunday by passengers onboard a tourist boat travelling around the islands off the Northumberland coast.

William Shiel, who runs the boat company, said he saw the orcas flip a seal out of the water and believes they were teaching their calves how to hunt.

A spate of recent sightings of Wild Boar at Dartmoor, including a suspected encounter with a dog, has prompted scrutiny over how and why the animals might be there.

The Mammal Society has responded to the reports with cautious concern, suggesting that these sightings could point to a fresh, illegal release of the species, rather than a slow population spread from historic reintroductions.

Approximately 150 boar were previously released by animal rights activists in North Devon in 2005 and 2006. Though authorities attempted to contain the population at the time, boar have been occasionally sighted in the region ever since.