UK Nature and Environment

Ministers have seen off a bill that would have made the UK’s climate and environment targets legally binding, after promising Labour backbenchers that they would have input into environmental legislation.

The deal avoids an internal row over the bill, which was introduced by the Liberal Democrat MP Roz Savage but had support from dozens of Labour MPs.

Before Friday’s debate on the legislation, ministers insisted on the removal of clauses that would have required the UK to meet the targets it agreed to at Cop and other international summits. A Labour source said the bill as it stood would have forced the government to renegotiate its international climate change agreements.

A new initiative, encouraging every household in the Island to take action to support biodiversity and create habitats for wildlife, has been launched by Manx Wildlife Trust as part of their ‘Make Space for Nature’ campaign.

The project, which has been made possible by support from Ørsted, aims to inspire residents to transform outdoor spaces, at their homes and in the wider community, into havens for wildlife.

Working towards the Isle of Man’s goal to see 30% of the Island’s land and sea managed for nature by 2030, the campaign aims to mobilise community wide action in different ways, inspired and enabled by a series of newsletters which will provide practical guidance and free resources over six weeks.

Everyone, whether they have large gardens, small balconies or no outdoor space of their own, can get involved and collectively make a real difference. For those who want to widen their scope and create more ambitious community projects there will be ongoing support from Manx Wildlife Trust through online and in person meet ups, plus access to tailored project by project advice and information.

A new project that will restore and connect vital wildlife sites surrounding one of North Yorkshire’s most scenic roads is now underway along the southern edge of the North York Moors National Park.

Linking Thirsk to Scarborough, the busy A170 winds its way through market towns and quaint villages and passes stunning woodland, pasture and farmland. Now, in a drive to connect these spaces not just for people, but for nature and wildlife too, new ‘insect super-highways’ will be created and cared for as part of GrubsUp!

The two-year project has received funding from Santander UK as part of the bank’s continued support of the UK’s protected landscapes and collaboration with National Parks Partnerships (NPP).

The UK Government has said that it has "no plans to ban driven grouse shooting" after a petition on the subject surged towards 50,000 signatures.

The petition response said that the government "recognises well-managed grouse shooting can be an important part of a local rural economy", adding that "well-managed shooting activities can bring benefits to the rural economy and can be beneficial for wildlife and habitat conservation."

The petition was started in late November by Wild Justice – a non-profit environmental organisation run by Chris Packham, Dr Ruth Tingay and Dr Mark Avery. As of 22 January, it had garnered almost 48,000 signatures.

The decision to withdraw plans for the £274m Norwich Western Link road has been welcomed by two wildlife charities.

The Norfolk Wildlife Trust and the Woodland Trust said they were pleased that Norfolk County Council had pulled its own planning application for the 3.9-mile road.

Leaders at the Conservative-controlled council said they had made the "difficult decision" to withdraw the proposal after objections triggered by rare, protected bats.

A landmark bill that would make the UK’s climate and environment targets legally binding seems doomed after government whips ordered Labour MPs to oppose it following a breakdown in negotiations.

Supporters of the climate and nature bill, introduced by the Liberal Democrat MP Roz Savage, say Labour insisted on the removal of clauses that would require the UK to meet the targets it agreed to at Cop and other international summits.

Although it is a private member’s bill, more than 80 Labour MPs, including several ministers, had publicly signed up to support it.

Bee-killing pesticides have been banned for emergency use in the UK for the first time in five years after the government rejected an application from the National Farmers’ Union and British Sugar.

The neonicotinoid pesticide Cruiser SB, which is used on sugar beet, is highly toxic to bees and has the potential to kill off populations of the insect. It is banned in the EU but the UK has provisionally agreed to its emergency use every year since leaving the bloc. It combats a plant disease known as virus yellows by killing the aphid that spreads it.

Prof Dave Goulson, a bee expert at the University of Sussex, has warned that one teaspoon of the chemical is enough to kill 1.25bn honeybees. Even at non-fatal doses it can cause cognitive problems that make it hard for bees to forage for nectar and the chemicals can stay in the soil for years.

Four harvest mouse nests have been found at a wind farm in Cornwall, according to surveys.

The survey by Cornwall Mammal Group was carried out after staff at the Carland Cross wind farm near Newquay spotted a juvenile harvest mouse nesting close to a control building.

Cornwall Wildlife Trust said tussocky grassland provided "ideal conditions" for the species.

An environmentalist said he will keep fighting for the climate despite being criticised by the prime minister after millions of pounds in taxpayer money was spent opposing his legal bids to block transport schemes.

Andrew Boswell, a former Green Party councillor, has been involved in numerous legal challenges against A47 safety schemes and claimed the planning system does not work to protect nature or the climate.

In a comment piece published in the Daily Mail on Thursday, external, Sir Keir Starmer said "Nimbys and zealots" had tried to stop the government from "building the infrastructure the country needs".

Should we be feeding the birds?

Around half of all British households put food out for birds. The Big Garden Birdwatch may tempt nature lovers to top up bird feeders and tables to lure more birds to their gardens to count them. But there is increasing concern over feeding birds.

What’s the problem?

A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that feeding birds can spread disease, particularly among finches. The greenfinch was put on the red list in 2021 after suffering a population crash of 63% since 1993 after a severe outbreak of trichomonosis. This emerged in 2005 and rapidly became endemic in greenfinch and chaffinch populations. An estimated 6m greenfinches and chaffinches have died. Although greenfinch numbers have begun to recover recently, goldfinches have now been found dead from the disease. The disease is caused by the parasite Trichomonas gallinae and affects sociable, flocking birds in particular and is spread through infected saliva in water and seeds (although not to humans). Some garden birds, such as dunnock, appear not to be affected.

There are other potential drawbacks to excessive bird-feeding. A recent study found that feeding birds changes the local phosphorus cycle – potentially adding extra nutrients to the environment which can favour some plants over others and reduce biodiversity and damage wild habitats such as woodlands.

Thousands of citizen scientists took part in the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland’s fourteenth New Year Plant Hunt2 to find wild or naturalised plants flowering in midwinter. Their observations are providing us with robust evidence of how our wild plants are responding to a rapidly changing climate, and the implications this may have for all our wildlife.

Here’s a summary of what the plant hunters found:

• 647 different plant species in bloom, the third highest total in the history of the Hunt.
• 25,000 individual plant records – a record number.
• The three most frequently recorded species were Daisy, Dandelion and Groundsel.
• Almost half (48%) of the species in bloom were flowering later than expected vs around a quarter flowering earlier than expected.
• Just over half (52%) of the species in bloom were native to Britain and Ireland.

Water quality monitors installed in response to toxic pollution near England's largest lake are ineffective, campaigners have claimed.

The Environment Agency (EA) installed the monitors at Cunsey Beck, which feeds into Windermere in the Lake District, after a fish kill in June 2022 in which "100% of life" within the river was suspected to have died.

Save Windermere campaigners claimed a test they carried out using non-toxic dye showed the equipment was wrongly placed, meaning it could not pick up flow coming from a nearby sewage pipe.

People are being urged to spend an hour this weekend counting the birds in their garden, park or local green space for the world’s largest survey of garden wildlife.

More than 9m birds were counted last year by 600,000 participants in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, providing a vital snapshot of how wild birds are faring.

This year’s survey will reveal whether the recent cold spell across Britain has adversely affected numbers, particularly of smaller birds such as long-tailed tits and wrens, which struggle in prolonged cold.

If government ministers and civil servants are grey squirrels, they may think they can rest easy – the predatory pine marten in the Westminster jungle is leaving them in peace.

A campaigner who has “created a landscape of fear” over the authorities’ failure to protect nature is stepping back from Wild Justice to spend more time with the wildlife – and grandchildren – in his garden.

But Mark Avery has vowed that the campaign group he co-founded with Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay six years ago will redouble its efforts to pounce on broken government promises and law enforcement that fails to restore biodiversity in Britain.

Charities that bid for a share of millions of pounds of water company fines to restore rivers in England polluted by sewage say the UK government will be guilty of an appalling breach of trust if the cash is diverted to Treasury coffers.

“I appreciate that the Labour government have inherited a mess, I am a Labour supporter myself, but I think this is a really deeply appalling decision for a Labour government given the promises they made, and it is a really worrying indication of where we are headed,” said Kathryn Soares, chief executive of the Nene Rivers Trust. Soares runs one of a number of groups waiting more than eight months for grants from an £11m fund made up of water company fines for pollution which Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, wants to divert to the Treasury, it was revealed on Sunday.

Since Labour came to power in July, charities and groups including veterans organisations that applied for some of the money, told the Guardian they had been “fobbed off” by the new Labour administration about their applications.

Floods, financial fears, and furious farmers have marked the start of this year and it’s already clear that the environmental crises facing the UK have never been greater. Communities are under water and the Office for Environmental Protection has warned that green goals are under threat. A week ago we were told that 2024 was the warmest year on record and that 2024 was the first year with temperatures 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Gloomy news indeed.

As the Chancellor demands that regulators tasked with protecting nature ‘tear down the barriers’ to growth, she appears unaware of the critical role nature plays in the UK. Nature protections are not blocking the UK’s success – they underpin our economy and make us safer. A nation that undermines nature is a house of cards with shaky foundations.

The Wildlife Trusts have identified five areas where we believe political action can have the most significant impact on nature recovery – and which would also solve a raft of other related problems at the same time. From planning reform to the next Environmental Improvement Plan, it is vital that the UK Government improves its focus on supporting nature-friendly farmers, restoring fresh waters and making us more resilient to the climate crisis. It must recognise that the nature and climate crises are the biggest long-term threats to economic growth.

An increase in the temperature of Scotland’s seas over the last decade has been found to be changing the types of animals and plants found on rocky shores in Scotland to those that favour warmer waters, according to a NatureScot study published today.

The report investigated changes in over 50 species at 167 locations around Scotland’s coasts over the last decade. The study found clear evidence of warming in rocky shore communities. The shift towards warm-water species was shown by an increase of 0.14 degrees Celsius in the average temperature preference of the community, at the same time as a small increase in average sea temperature around Scotland of 0.20 degrees Celsius was recorded. While these temperature rises may seem small, they translate into significant changes in the natural world, highlighting that climate change is already having an effect on Scotland’s rocky coasts.

The report revealed that some warm-water species are flourishing, such as the purple topshell, particularly on the west coast of the country. Cold-water species, on the other hand, are experiencing mixed fortunes with some, such as beanweed, declining, while others, including cold-water barnacles, increasing in number. Overall, however, the modest temperature increase has already resulted in a small shift in dominance towards warm water species.

A Labour MP has called for a blanket ban on “bottom trawling” of seabeds in marine protected areas (MPAs), which she said destroys fragile ecosystems and habitats.

Katie White compared bottom trawling, which is the act of dragging heavy nets across the seabed, with “ripping up an orchard to pick an apple”.

One or two trawls can decimate an area for up to five years, the Leeds North West MP said, and currently only 5% of the UK’s marine protected areas ban this “destructive” practice.

Endangered red squirrels have been found for the first time in an 18-hectare Sitka spruce plantation in the Western Yorkshire Dales. This positive news is being announced to coincide with Red Squirrel Appreciation Day (21 January).

Reds had not been seen in the plantation before and the UK Squirrel Accord’s project officer, Julie Bailey, identified them. She believes the colony will prosper and increase. Since the squirrels have been confirmed, the owners now plan to manage the landscape with the population in mind.

Project Officer Bailey explained: “The plantation owners gave permission to survey a specific area using thermal imaging technology that picks up body heat. I found four individual red squirrels. I then placed two cameras in the area and was able to confirm a new colony of red squirrels. The plantation owners were delighted.”

Scotland must do more to help hydropower facilities maximise their output and prevent negative impacts on wildlife in the face of the challenges posed by climate change, according to a new report.

Scotland's Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW) commissioned the report, which is published today (Wednesday 22 January), and is based on research from the University of Glasgow and cbec eco-engineering.

They worked closely with partners at hydropower companies, Scottish Canals, SEPA and NatureScot on the report, which lays out a series of recommendations to help tackle the problem of sediment buildup at dams and weirs across the country.

An estimated 1500 beavers are now roaming the Scottish countryside, according to wildlife experts.

Hazel Forrest of the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) said the explosion in numbers would help tackle the climate and nature crises, with the dam-building animals making the nation more resilient to floods and droughts. But it comes amid longstanding anger from farmers over the illegal release of beavers into Tayside nearly 20 years ago which they say wrecked and flooded farmland, costing millions in damages.

Writing in the SWT’s blog, policy adviser for species Forrest said: “Beavers are well and truly back in the wild in Scotland. Following the success of the Scottish Beaver Trial (2009-2014), in which the Scottish Wildlife Trust was a lead partner, both the Knapdale beavers and the (originally unauthorised) population of beavers in Tayside were given leave to remain and allowed to expand their range naturally.

Are you busy? Stop what you’re doing and walk with me in my ancient woodland. I promise you it’ll do you good. The Japanese call it shinrin-yoku or “forest bathing”, a simple pleasure known to improve your health and wellbeing that is even prescribed by doctors as a form of medication. We can all reap the benefits of a walk among the trees here in the UK, as long as there are woods left to do it in.

Ancient woods (ones that have persisted since at least 1600 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 1750 in Scotland) are an amazing feature of our landscape. They are the UK’s richest and most complex terrestrial habitat and home to threatened species such as red squirrels, stag beetles, Scottish wildcats and bats.

In my own small patch of woodland in the south of England, which I bought in 2022, I spend my time in wooded glades that have existed since Elizabeth I was on the throne. The history of the place is, of course, even longer.

People have been asked to take part in a survey to give their views on the Surrey countryside.

Surrey County Council (SCC) wants to know what locals and visitors value most about the landscape and what they would change.

The council said it will use the results to "ensure our green spaces continue to be vibrant, accessible, and well cared for".

An exhibition about the potential return of lynx to the UK is coming to Cumbria soon.

The Missing Lynx exhibition is set to come to the University of Cumbria between January 23 and 31.

The free event at the Carlisle campus aims to give people the chance to have their say on plans to reintroduce lynx to the UK.

An ambitious three-year project to plant a hedge connecting the South Downs and New Forest national parks has reached the half way point.

The Hampshire Hedge project intends to create a "nature recovery corridor" linking woodlands, meadows, nature reserves, and sites of special scientific interest.

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England in Hampshire launched the initiative with community groups and landowners to improve existing hedgerows and replace lost ones.