UK Nature and Environment

Butterfly experts are celebrating the completion of an £8,000 project to help Chalk Hill Blues, Brown Hairstreaks and Grizzled Skippers in Somerset.

National charity Butterfly Conservation has erected the new 850-metre boundary around its Stoke Camp nature reserve in the Mendip Hills.

The fence is not to keep butterflies on site, but the all-important cows and sheep that graze the vegetation and create perfect habitat for a host of rare and vulnerable species.

Rising above the rich woodlands of the Duddon Valley lies Mart Crag, one of several Cumbrian landmarks that are reminders of the historical presence of the pine marten, an elusive forest dweller that was once widespread in Cumbria and across the UK.

Now a project led by the University of Cumbria has thrown a lifeline to the few remaining pine martens in the south of the county. It has released 13 healthy adults (eight females and five males) in Forestry England’s Grizedale Forest and the Rusland Valley. The animals were moved recently under licence from strong populations in the Scottish Highlands*.

In Cumbria, a growing movement of landowners and conservation groups share a vision to restore nature by returning native species as the building blocks of healthy ecosystems. Twenty years ago, many species were endangered or completely absent in south Cumbria.

Campaigners have called for an “ecological Domesday survey” requiring large landowners to report on how they are looking after their land for nature.

They say the assessment, so-called for its echoes of the Domesday survey nearly a thousand years ago in 1086 that asked landowners to report on the land they owned, would help deliver a much-needed boost for nature.

Landowners with 1,000 acres or more should be required to submit wildlife surveys and plans for how they will restore habitats, species and carbon stores every five years, which should be made available online to the public, the leading conservationists say.

Connecting the Coast, an ambitious three-year Nature Recovery project backed by Welsh Government funding, is drawing to a close, having taken impressive strides in protecting and enhancing the fragile ecosystems of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

The project, designed to safeguard coastal habitats and enhance biodiversity in farmland adjacent to the iconic coastline, works in close collaboration with local farmers and landowners, to restore habitats, strengthen ecosystem resilience, and promote sustainable land management.

Connecting the Coast has yielded impressive results, with land management changes creating flourishing habitats for wildlife. This is evident in the reappearance of coastal wildflowers like centaury and sheep’s bit where conservation grazing has been implemented and the appearance of scarce arable plants, such as weasel’s snout and bugloss, in crop margins that have been left unsprayed.

Public encouraged to ‘have your voice heard’ in third National Park consultation, following community conversations, surveys and fieldwork.

NatureScot has opened the formal (statutory) consultation on whether a new National Park should be established in Galloway and parts of South and East Ayrshire. The consultation will include looking at what a potential new Park might consist of - from its boundary to its board makeup, and even what the Park could be called. It will also seek to gauge opinion on the proposal and alternatives to it.

The formal consultation will run from today (7 November) until 14 February 2025 and is accessible on the NatureScot website and in print, audio and Gaelic versions. During the second half of November, a consultation leaflet will be distributed to 52,000 households and businesses within the proposed area.

Almost 56m litres of sewage was dumped in a river in 2023, according to campaigners.

The Cleddau Project said Welsh Water data showed pumps at Picton in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, were running at 80% capacity from July 2022 to February 2024.

That meant 55,857,000 litres of waste - equivalent to 17 tankers a day - which should have been going to a sewage treatment plant, was instead going into special conservation area the Western Cleddau.

A coalition of nature charities including Butterfly Conservation is battling plans to put a golf course on an internationally-important wildlife site for the second time in 10 years.

An application to create the leisure facility at the Coul Links site on the east coast of Scotland will be discussed at a public inquiry starting on Monday (11 November).

The threat to this precious place has shocked many across Scotland and the coalition is working together to oppose the plans. The coalition is made up of Butterfly Conservation, Buglife Scotland, Marine Conservation Society, National Trust for Scotland, Plantlife Scotland, RSPB Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

Conservationists on an island 28 miles off the UK mainland are concerned after signs there may be a mouse there, potentially putting a colony of seabirds at risk.

Mice and rats have been eradicated from St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly, as part of measures to protect its "nationally significant population of storm petrels".

The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust said "probable" signs of a mouse including droppings and urine had been spotted, and suspects the creature was brought in within some animal feed.

The trust has been running a successful program with the RSPB and others to get rid of rodents on the islands for the past decade, which has led to the petrel population "bouncing back", it said.

Nature campaigners have called for taxpayers to take stakes in forest and peatland projects designed to store carbon, to avoid all the profits from carbon credits going to private investors.

A report from the Revive Coalition, an umbrella group for Scottish land reform and conservation charities, says carbon credits also need to be used much more effectively to bolster demand and help the UK meet its net zero targets.

It argues that current policies are failing to restore nature quickly enough: it notes that upland areas are so heavily degraded by overgrazing and deforestation that Scotland is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

A whale that washed up near a coastal resort has been formally identified as a Sowerby's beaked whale, which is rarely seen at sea.

The body of the juvenile male was found on Saturday near Smallmouth Beach in Weymouth, Dorset.

Experts from London Zoo confirmed the species, which is thought to inhabit deep ocean trenches in the North Atlantic.

National Geographic will be streaming a new documentary about an unlikely bond between a man and an otter in Shetland.

Billy Mail met Molly, a starving pup, in 2021 when he saw her jumping off a pontoon into the sea near his Shetland home. Mail wanted to see how close he could get to her before she fled. But it turned out that Molly had no intention of running away.

She was starving and alone, Mail said. “She had a lack of fear that was really interesting because otters are normally pretty scared. I think it was just desperation. She needed food.”

But even after she regained her strength and was fending for herself, Molly kept visiting the Mails and became a “breath of fresh air” in their lives.

A project restoring seven areas of Welsh peatland has successfully installed an impressive 16km of fencing on sites in Pembrokeshire which will enable safe and sustainable grazing on 280 hectares of common land.

Grazing plays a key role in maintaining these landscapes by reducing the dominance of invasive vegetation that choke areas where important “bog building” mosses need to thrive and form the all-important peat.

The five-year, £5 million LIFEquake project, funded by EU LIFE and supported by Welsh Government is being delivered by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) in partnership with Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, Eryri National Park and National Trust.

LIFEquake, focusses on transition mire and quaking bog habitats –so called because the ground literally ‘quakes’ underfoot.

The latest update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has seen four familiar shorebirds moved to higher threat categories.

Grey Plover, Dunlin, Ruddy Turnstone and Curlew Sandpiper, all of which are regular sights for UK birders, are of increasing conservation concern.

Scientists reviewing the conservation status of the world's bird populations have confirmed that these four species have suffered significant declines in their numbers. As a result, they have moved to higher threat categories on the global Red List.

A new report, published today, reveals an almost record-breaking number of rare birds bred, or attempted to breed, in the UK in 2022.

The latest annual report of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP) (Rare Breeding Birds in the UK in 2022), funded by JNCC, RSPB and BTO and published in the journal British Birds, aims to track the progress of the UK’s rarest breeding birds by compiling data from conservationists, scientists, and thousands of volunteer birdwatchers.

The latest report reveals that 107 species and races of rare native birds were reported breeding, or attempting to breed, in the UK in 2022; this is the second-highest total since the Panel began reporting in 1973, and suggests a continuation of the increasing trend in the number of rare breeding bird species in the UK, largely driven by the arrival of colonising species. This included the first confirmed breeding by Glossy Ibis, with a pair raising one chick at a wetland site in Cambridgeshire. This elegant wading bird was once only found on Mediterranean coasts in Europe but has been moving northwards in recent decades.

Processes intended to decontaminate noxious liquid landfill waste before it enters rivers and sewers have been found to increase the levels of some of the worst toxic chemicals, a study has shown.

Landfills are well known to be a main source of PFAS forever chemicals – or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – but the new study shows that the treatment plants designed to clean up the liquid waste can instead boost the levels of banned PFAS such as PFOA and PFOS, in some cases by as much as 1,335%.

PFAS are a family of about 15,000 human-made chemicals with nonstick properties that are used in a wide range of consumer products and industrial processes. They can take thousands of years to break down in the environment and the handful that have been studied in detail have been found to be toxic, with PFOA and PFOS linked to cancers and other diseases. PFAS pollution is widespread, having been found in the remotest parts of the world, and it is thought every US citizen has it in their blood.

The population of the corncrake, one of Scotland's rarest birds, has seen a "promising" increase on the isle of Canna, the National Trust for Scotland says.

A survey on the small island in the Inner Hebrides found 12 to 14 calling mates compared to one or two in previous seasons.

Corncrakes have been in decline due to intensive agricultural methods and are one of 26 priority species listed by the trust.

The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) said the "buoyant" population can be attributed to new farming practices that support conservation.

Thousands of "giant spiders" which were released into the wild by a zoo are thriving in the wild and have had a record mating season, conservationists have said.

Chester Zoo released the spiders a decade ago as part of a project with the RSPB which aimed to save the species from extinction.

More than 10,000 breeding female Fen Raft spiders have been recorded this year, with zoo bosses hailing the breeding programme "a success".

Amid the negative daily news, a beacon of hope shines through.

Transition Chichester have recently completed a film festival at Chichester Cinema and the documentary film, ‘Our Sea Forest’ filled me with hope. A packed auditorium were inspired during the 30-minute showing of the impact of increased trawling since the 1980s and encouraging revival of the marine ecosystems off the Sussex coast.

The two heroes of the show were the Sussex Wildlife Trust and the 73 year-old free diver Eric Smith, who have worked alongside the fisheries management authority and other charities and partners.

A project to boost biodiversity in a former plantation woodland has seen conservationists take some unusual measures to liven up its “boring” trees.

Work is being under taken at Goblin Combe in North Somerset by the Avon and Somerset Wildlife Trust in a bid to boost the population of three species of bats and dormice.

The site was previously a timber plantation, meaning the trees “are quite young and quite dull” for wildlife, reserve manager Andy Jones said.

As well as tree-thinning to allow more light to the woodland floor, the team have been “veteranising” some young trees to give them the right features to attract bats, birds and insects.

Chris Packham has criticised the Government for not mentioning climate or nature in its Budget during a protest march against water pollution in central London.

The naturalist and TV presenter said the omission was “scary” given the “parlous state” of the UK’s lakes, rivers and seas as he addressed demonstrators in London on Sunday.

An estimated 15,000 people joined a range of environmental groups, including River Action, Greenpeace, the Wildlife Trusts and British Rowing, on the March for Clean Water to demand tougher action on keeping the UK’s waterways clean.

A rare fungus has been spotted in an East Anglian park for the first time by a Suffolk woman.

Favolaschia Calocera also known as Orange Ping Pong Bat Fungus, was discovered by fungi enthusiast Astrid Ivy Martin, 44, whilst walking through Orwell Park.

The fungus originates from Madagascar and has been spotted in the UK on a number of occasions since 2012 where it was thought to have made the 9,000 kilometre journey on imported wood.

Montane scrub provides protection from flooding, avalanches, rockfalls and landslides and supports a range of rare insects and scarce birds.

Overgrazing by deer and sheep on Scotland’s peaks since the 18th century contributed to a rapid decline in high-altitude woodland. By the 1990s, native montane willows were nearly extinct, with the largest remaining patch equivalent to the size of a tennis court.

Since then, almost 400,000 montane willows have been planted within 2,659 hectares managed for the restoration of mountain woodlands across Scotland, bringing the trees back from the brink of extinction.

A new species of moth has been seen on Alderney that wildlife experts believe is a first sighting for the Channel Islands.

The Robust Tabby moth (Pandesma robusta) was recorded in October by the head of Alderney Wildlife Trust's (AWT) moth monitoring team, Lou Collings.

The charity said the Robust Tabby, which is a member of the Erebidae family, had been found across a range extending from Asia through Africa to the Mediterranean, as far north as Spain and Portugal.

The AWT said the moth's appearance in Alderney was "intriguing" and could be the result of recent strong southerly winds blowing it off its usual course.

A nature charity is searching for a team of conservationists to live and work on a remote island off the south coast of the Isle of Man.

Manx Wildlife Trust has had a bird observatory based on the Calf of Man since the 1950s, and over the years the team has grown from one to four.

The charity is looking for a bird warden, assistant bird warden, estate warden and assistant estate warden.

Calf Manager Lara Howe said the roles gave the charity "really important information about what is going on with our bird species" and allowed for long-term data collection.

Sea eagles were last seen soaring over the shimmering mud flats and brackish tidal waters of the Severn estuary more than 150 years ago. Now wildlife charities have unveiled innovative plans to bring the raptor back to the estuary, which flows into the Bristol Channel between south-west England and south Wales, by 2026.

“Sea eagles used to be common in these regions. But they were wiped out through human persecution,” says Sophie-lee Williams, the founder of Eagle Reintroduction Wales, which is leading the project. “We strongly believe we have a moral duty to restore this lost native species to these landscapes.”

Britain’s sea eagles, which have a wing span of up to 2.4 metres, were shot and poisoned by landowners until the early 20th century, with the last known native eagle shot in Shetland in 1918. However, birds from Norway were brought to Scotland in the 1970s and 1980s and there are now estimated to be 152 pairs across the country. Some of the Scottish birds were released on the Isle of Wight in 2019, with three eaglets successfully reared by their parents so far.