UK Nature and Environment

A solar-powered wildlife camera has captured the moment a grey seal pup was born.

The birth was live-streamed from Blakeney Point in Norfolk, which is home to the UK's largest grey seal colony.

Tracey Sizeland, area ranger for the National Trust said the camera was set up to "enable people to enjoy this amazing wildlife spectacle without causing disturbance to the seals".

Early indications are that record numbers of seal pups will be born on Blakeney Point this winter.

A blue mussel may not be the first thing that springs to mind when it comes to Northern Ireland's water quality heroes.

But for scientist Matt Service at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), they are "little ecosystem water treatment plants on their own".

In Belfast Lough where the mussels are cultivated, regular sewage spills are threatening the environment, the economy and public health, according to a report by NI Water.

Officials say the lough is facing a crisis if investment in sewage infrastructure is not increased.

Works have begun on a 2.5km (1.5 miles) stretch of river to restore its ecosystem back to its original state.

A revitalising programme has started on the River Ver, which is a rare chalk stream and flows through St Albans, Hertfordshire, which will develop its surrounding environments and create new wetlands for wildlife and biodiversity.

St Albans City and District Council has been working on the project in partnership with the Environment Agency and Affinity Water.

Wildlife experts have said there have been no further signs of a mouse in one of the Isles of Scilly.

The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust said it had conducted an "intensive incursion response" with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) since 31 October, when probable signs of a mouse had been found on St Agnes.

Mice and rats were previously eradicated from the island as part of measures to protect its population of storm petrels as they would be considered likely to eat the birds' eggs, the RSPB said.

The trust said it would increase monitoring and reduce its use of rodenticide until the new year when it planned to stop the operation.

Scotland’s leading conservation charity, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, has welcomed the Scottish Government’s new Biodiversity Strategy and Delivery Plans. However, they have also warned that despite some good ambitions, the Government must go further to meet its own stated targets, calling for more action and funding to support work on the ground by local government, charities and communities.

Recent collaborative work that Edinburgh University and the Scottish Wildlife Trust carried out showed that there is real urgency required in tackling the biodiversity crisis and that acting early enhances resilience, whereas failure to invest in nature now will only cost us more in the long run. Simply put: by acting now for nature, we minimise long-term costs and keep our options open for future decisions.

Proposed cuts to England’s most beautiful landscapes pose an “existential threat”, the managers of the National Landscapes Association have warned.

These 46 regions, including the Chilterns, the Cotswolds, the Wye Valley and the north Pennines, used to be known as areas of outstanding natural beauty but were renamed this year as “national landscapes”. They cover 15% of England, including 20% of the coastline.

However, those who run the parks have said the environment secretary, Steve Reed, has given no assurances about the budget for the national landscapes. The day-to-day spending budget of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will be cut by 2% in the financial year 2025-26. It is understood this will be spread across departments, and the national landscapes teams have been told to expect a 12% cut.

They are rich, damp, dappled places of twisted branches, vivid green mosses and lichens, important homes for rare birds, bats and insects, and steeped in myths and tales.

But a report from a group of conservation organisations has concluded that the remaining pockets of temperate, or Celtic, rainforests of Wales are in a parlous condition and is calling for urgent action from the Welsh government.

The newly created Alliance for Wales’ Rainforests (AWR) says only about one in five of the 68 sites it has surveyed are in good condition and none could be rated as in very good condition. Invasive species such as rhododendron and ivy are present at 70% of the sites, with many of them suffering from insensitive grazing and air pollution.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT) has bought a farm in the heart of one of its nature reserves.

It said the purchase of Dryham Farm, within North Cave Wetlands near Hull, was a "once in a lifetime opportunity to secure an incredible space". The fee was not disclosed.

Managers said it would help them plan for the future while minimising disruption to wildlife.

Butterfly Conservation has launched a dedicated programme to save one of Wales’s most endangered species.

The charity is training dozens of people, leading survey expeditions and working with landowners to improve habitat for the stunning Marsh Fritillary.

The charity has been awarded £174,000 from the Welsh Government's Nature Networks Fund (round three) to create a Wales Marsh Fritillary Recovery Partnership, and has employed a dedicated member of staff, John Hitchens, as its Wales Marsh Fritillary Recovery Project Officer.

The partnership will be made up of environmental charities, statutory bodies, volunteers, landowners and managers who can share their knowledge and work together to help the vulnerable species.

Water quality has been designated as poor in a record number of bathing areas this year after 16 rivers were included in summer testing for harmful bacteria, figures reveal.

The push to clean up England’s rivers has led to an increase in demand for bathing water status at river locations across the country. Rivers suffer from water company sewage pollution and agricultural pollution, and the results show river water quality is distinctly worse than that of coastal bathing sites. The results come after sewage pollution into rivers by water companies reached record levels last year.

This year, 16 river areas were designated as bathing water sites out 27 new areas, which meant they were tested for harmful bacteria, E coli and intestinal enterococci.

The UK’s endangered red squirrel population could have an unlikely savior – an AI detection program.

Genysys Engine, an AI research company in Northern Ireland, has developed a program which identifies red and gray squirrels with 97 percent accuracy.

Red squirrels are native to the UK and have been there for thousands of years, whereas their gray counterparts were brought to the country from the US in the 19th century. Both species compete for the same resources and spread diseases, including squirrel pox, which is fatal for the reds but not grays, and so the red population has dramatically dropped.

White-tailed eagles (also known as sea eagles), disappeared from England’s skies more than 200 years ago but have slowly been making a return to the south of the country since 2019. A pair of the birds successfully bred for the first time last year and now there are plans to reintroduce even more.

The breed has an enormous wingspan of 2.5 metres (8.2ft), making it the UK’s largest bird of prey. A reintroduction project by Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England has been going from strength to strength and now there are plans to release up to 20 young eagles in Exmoor National Park.

White-tails used to breed in Exmoor before going extinct in from England in 1780. Experts say that Exmoor has proved to be particular hotspot for the birds and over the past few years they have been spotted visiting the area once again.

Plans to require Welsh farmers to have trees on 10% of their land in order to qualify for government funding have been dropped after widespread protests.

The requirement was part of planned changes to Welsh farming subsidies through the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS), which is to be introduced in 2026.

Now it is set to be replaced by "a tree planting and hedgerow creation plan", which farmers would need to start to make progress on with a view to delivering this by 2030.

The bumblebee population has made an impressive comeback in a developed area by increasing to 116 times what it was two years ago thanks to a nature restoration group.

Rewilding Denmarkfield, a 90-acre project based just north of Perth, has been working to restore nature to green spaces in an increasingly built up area for the past two years.

Statistics from the charity show in 2021, when some of the fields managed by the project were still barley monoculture, only 35 bumblebees were counted.

But by 2023, after just two years of nature restoration work in the same fields, the population increased to 4,056. The diversity of bumblebee also doubled, according to the charity, from five to ten different species.

A Natural Resources Wales (NRW) project on the Western Cleddau river in Pembrokeshire is harnessing the power of trees to reduce nutrient pollution and improve water quality.

Approximately 6,500 trees have been planted along the banks of the river near it’s confluence with the Eastern Cleddau, to soak up excess nutrients from agricultural land run off.

The corridors of trees, averaging 14metres in width, act as buffer strips between farmland and the river and have been planted on non-productive land. They have been introduced with the full support of the landowner, who was eager to introduce positive environmental change.

As well as providing benefits to the Special Area of Conservation river, the new trees will provide connection with existing natural woodland on the land, benefiting a range of plant and wildlife species.

An Oxfordshire wildlife trust has joined a group of charities in calling for action to protect the UK’s chalk streams.

The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust has joined the group of nature charities in urging the government to safeguard these rare habitats in planning reforms.

Chalk streams are characterised by their clear waters and diverse wildlife, with 85 per cent of the world's chalk streams found in England, including Letcombe Brook and Chalgrove Brook in Oxfordshire.

Cheshire’s ancient woodlands are a cherished part of the county’s natural heritage, offering not just a haven for wildlife but also a repository of memories for generations of local people.

These woodlands, some of which have existed since medieval times, provide an enchanting escape into nature and a living connection to the past.

As we look to the future, there is enormous potential to increase our native tree cover, benefiting wildlife, farming and the wider environment.

Volunteers have answered a conservation charity's call to help repair areas around walking routes, but icy conditions forced the cancellation of a summit climb.

Friends of the Lake District’s Fell Care Day had been due to include a trip to the top of the Old Man of Coniston on Friday to restore footpaths.

Other activities were able to go ahead though, including dry stone walling, renewing a bridleway and cutting back invasive plants.

A large area of chalk grassland in east Kent is to be restored to create habitats for key species.

The project will cover 20 acres (8 hectares) of land around Dover Castle and the Western Heights aiming to provide suitable homes for choughs, Adonis blue butterflies, early spider orchids and other flora and fauna.

A mixed-breed livestock herd will be introduced for long-term management through conservation grazing.

Invasive plants are to be removed from sand dunes to protect the coastline.

The ecological work by Natural England is to be carried out using large machinery on the dunes at Bamburgh, Northumberland, as part of the Life Wader project.

The invasive species are destroying the dunes by interrupting their natural cycle of movement and crowding out native plants and animals.

Britain is facing a future of increasingly catastrophic marine heatwaves that could destroy shellfish colonies and fisheries and have devastating impacts on communities around the coast of the UK.

That is the stark conclusion of a new report by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), based in Southampton, which is pressing for the launch of a targeted research programme as a matter of urgency to investigate how sudden temperature rises in coastal seawater could affect marine habitats and seafood production in the UK.

Across the planet, marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense as rising fossil fuel emissions force up atmospheric temperatures around the globe, causing the sea to warm.

National animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports has welcomed the ban on snares which comes into force in Scotland on Monday 25 November. It called on the UK government to deliver on its manifesto commitment and ban these barbaric traps in England as well.

The League has campaigned successfully with partners in recent years to get snares banned in both Scotland and Wales, leaving England and Northern Ireland as the only countries in the UK where they remain legal.

Water voles are returning to rivers and streams in the West Country after a 20-year absence.

The small mammals, often described as 'nature's engineers', are making a comeback to parts of the region including Lawrence Weston moor.

Made famous by 'Ratty' - who is actually a water vole - in The Wind in the Willows, the species was once commonly seem on Britain's rivers and streams.

Pine Martens have been released at two sites in the Lake District in an effort to grow populations of the mustelid.

Eight females and five males were released into Grizedale Forest and the Rusland Valley in a project led by the University of Cumbria and the University of Leeds.

It is the first of two releases by the Pine Marten Recovery Project in a bid to boost numbers in their ancestral woodlands. The martens were moved under licence from populations in the Scottish Highlands.

National Tree Week, brought to you by The Tree Council and partners, brings together the conservation sector, volunteers and tree-lovers to mark the start of the annual tree planting season.

There are now over 100 National Tree Week events submitted to our interactive map! Make sure to scroll through all pages to find activities near you.