UK Nature and Environment

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.

A barn owl mum discovered at a Lincolnshire farm has been described as rare and incredible. Not only is the creature the oldest barn owl ever to have been recorded, the female was found successfully breeding a six-week-old chick.

The bird of prey has left experts amazed after she was discovered at Eastfield Farm in Hough. The incredible creature is 18-years-old - and experts are sure she’s the oldest barn owl ever recorded in Britain or Ireland.

The owl was ringed as a chick, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) have confirmed, she had a ring placed around her leg in Nottinghamshire back in 2007, allowing tracking of the bird.

Everyone cherishes the sight of a wee black-nosed hedgehog pottering about in their garden - yet many remain oblivious to the challenges these prickly creatures face during the summer months.

While we humans may grumble about the heat, we have the luxury of fans, chilled pints or a refreshing plunge in the pool to keep us cool. In contrast, wild hedgehogs encounter two primary difficulties - a scarcity of succulent insects to feast upon and a lack of cool water bodies to frolic in.

The majority of hedgehogs are born in June and July, and according to Hedgehog Street, the charmingly named baby hedgehogs, or hoglets, are making appearances in back gardens nationwide.

A prehistoric fish that predates the dinosaurs is thriving in a North Wales river after the removal of a well known weir. Last summer the EU-funded LIFE Dee River project, led by Natural Resources Wales, removed a large proportion of Erbistock weir, on the River Dee.

Following this removal fisheries experts have discovered 25 sea lamprey redds (nests) upstream of the former barrier. They said this is a clear and tangible sign that environmental interventions on the River Dee are gradually transforming the ecosystem for the better.

Earlier this month, the project team captured drone footage highlighting one of these redds just 40 metres downstream of Manley Hall gauging weir. This confirms the removal of Erbistock(Overton) weir in Wrexham county has opened up an additional four kilometres of critical habitat, enabling these incredible, prehistoric fish to return to spawning grounds long restricted by man-made obstacles.

Nurturing Natural Connections is a transformative five-year project that will restore urban wildlife and empower communities across Cumbernauld and The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) will play a key role in delivering it.

Supported by National Lottery players through The National Lottery Heritage Fund, this is a wide-reaching programme of nature restoration and community engagement. As part of this, TCV will expand our charitable work in the area and deepen our impact on both people and nature.

Healthcare professionals are being trained to use nature in treating people with poor mental health, it has been announced.

Natural England said it was funding courses so NHS staff from across Sussex could learn how to work in outdoor settings.

It comes as less than half the population say they've been to the countryside or a local park recently, according to government statistics, external.

"The importance of open spaces cannot be underestimated," said Sarah Davies, Natural England's principal adviser for partnerships in Sussex and Kent.

Adaptations to some butterflies' habitats are being made to help them cope with erratic weather driven by climate change.

The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust is hoping for a bumper year for butterflies in 2025 following the record-breaking spring heat, but warns overall the insects' populations are drastically dropping.

The trust is trialling four e-shaped mounds, called butterfly banks, on its Coombe Bisset reserve to offer the creatures a space both to warm up and to cool down during heatwaves.

Ministers will take action to tackle all forms of water pollution in England and Wales, the government has promised, as the sector awaits the findings of a report on the water industry on Monday.

The commitment by Steve Reed, the environment secretary, aims to highlight that, while sewage spills into waterways are a significant source of public concern, runoff from farms and roads also makes up a critical part of the pollutants going into rivers and other bodies of water.

A report on the water industry in England and Wales, led by Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, is due to be published on Monday morning, and is expected to recommend the abolition of Ofwat, the water industry regulator.