UK Nature and Environment

As a barrister at Garden Court Chambers in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, I see people swearing the usual oaths all the time. “I swear by Almighty God” if you are religious, “I solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm” if you’re not.

But when it came to my own time to finally do jury service, I realised this usual courtroom practice – representing a powerful promise to do something – didn’t mean that much to me. So I asked the judge if I could do something a little different – swear an oath on the river Roding, the third biggest river in London, where I live on my houseboat.

It wasn’t a rejection of the religious oath or the secular affirmation. Or, because I find it objectionable to swear on the Bible. It was more about finding an oath that was genuinely meaningful for me.

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A shoal of Tuna in a feeding frenzy has been caught on video off the Cornwall coast by one of of the owners of the Healey’s Cyder.

Joe Healey, whose company owns the Gylly Beach Café and Fives Cyder House in Falmouth, was en-route from Falmouth to Salcombe in his boat on Monday when they saw a lot of splashing ahead of them five miles off Fowey.

“As we got closer, it was hard to tell what was happening, we thought initially dolphins, circling and feeding, but it became apparent they weren’t dolphins,” he told the Packet.

A species of owl which usually breeds in Scotland and Russia has produced a brood in an area of Kent for the first time in five years.

Short-eared owls have reared two broods at Elmley Nature Reserve, on the Isle of Sheppey.

The birds often stay at the site for winter before heading north during summer, but weather conditions and food abundance has seen them stay put on Sheppey.

The moth, often labelled the ugly butterfly, might not surprise anyone by its presence in Durham. We’ve all encountered these seemingly annoying creatures, escaping the long, dark winters to flutter around our accommodation lights. However, upon deeper inspection there is so much more to moths than what first meets the eye (which is admittedly not a lot).

Recently, it seems these nocturnal insects have come out of hiding, revealing their true beauty. The RSPB Saltholme nature reserve in County Durham has identified its 500th species of moth, the Reed Minor Moth, which had not been sighted in 50 years.

In a statement obtained by the BBC, Chris Francis, senior site manager at RSPB Saltholme, argues that moths are being unfairly overlooked, asserting that they are “just as impressive and beautiful as butterflies.”

Hmm - "AI assisted reporter".

A new collaboration aims to enhance wildlife habitats and manage flood risks in Norfolk.

The Environment Agency and the Norfolk Rivers Trust have partnered to launch a project concentrated on the River Glaven, a rare chalk stream home to endangered wildlife.

The two-year project, costing £130k, was funded by the Environment Agency and other partners.

One of the 200 globally identified chalk streams, this location in North Norfolk is among 58 such habitats found in East Anglia.

PLANS have been lodged to restore a natural habitat in south Cumbria.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust has submitted a planning application to Westmorland and Furness Council to restore the peat bog and river habitat at Burns Beck Moss Nature Reserve in Killington.

According to planning documents, the proposed works involve the replacement and improvement of boardwalk access to routes across the nature reserve.

The design and access statement says: “The existing narrow dilapidated boardwalk will be replaced with wheelchair accessible boardwalks and wheelchair accessible raised viewing platforms/bird hides.”

Plans add the restoration of the peat bog will act as a ‘natural flood management service’ for communities downstream in the Lune catchment area.

A rare species of plant has been found growing in a quarry after work to transform it into a nature reserve.

Sandy Heath Quarry in Bedfordshire is still being mined, but the RSPB, external is working with land owners Tarmac, external to create 80 hectares (200 acres) of wildlife-friendly land once mineral extraction ends.

Weedy frillwort, external, which is 5mm tall, was found at the sand quarry, the first time it has been found in the county.

A species of butterfly which is thought to have died out in England more than 60 years ago is showing signs of breeding in Kent.

The large tortoiseshell butterfly was common in the UK but disappeared in the 1960s, possibly because of Dutch elm disease, although scientists have been unable to confirm this.

Now they are making a comeback, with more than 30 spotted in a Kent woodland this year.

A Cornish conservation charity has launched an ambitious rewilding project intended to benefit creatures from marsh fritillary butterflies living high on the moor to long-snouted seahorses in seagrass in a bay five miles away.

The Tor to Shore project will stretch from Helman Tor, a reserve topped with a granite boulder summit near Bodmin, to St Austell Bay via the tumbling River Par, its idea to improve a landscape at scale.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded the Cornwall Wildlife Trust a £265,000 development grant for the project, and if it goes to plan another £3m should follow.

After repeated warnings of continued failures from official watchdogs and nature charities, the new UK Government will undertake a rapid review of targets to cut waste and improve air quality, water and biodiversity.

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Steve Reed ordered the rapid review earlier this week and stated that it will be complete before the end of the year.

The review will assess whether the targets set out in the Environment Act and plans for their delivery detailed in the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) are sufficient to meet the scale of the nation’s environmental challenges in line with science.

Granted Royal Assent in 2021 after a process delayed by Covid-19, the Environment Act includes an array of legally binding targets created to reduce waste, halt species decline, restore nature and waterways and enhance woodland cover. Marine conservation and air pollution are also covered, among other topics.

Stephen Fry is urging the public to join calls for Government action to save the UK’s oceans in its first 100 days in office.

The actor has teamed up with the Blue Marine Foundation, a charity dedicated to restoring the ocean to health, to raise awareness over issues like bottom trawling and overfishing.

In a video shared online and social media on Wednesday, he said: “Our oceans sustains all life on Earth as we know it.

An 'ambitious' Ben Nevis nature restoration project has been launched by a community organisation.

The Nevis Landscape Partnership, has secured over £80,000 of funding from the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund to launch the Nevis Nature Network.

The landscape-scale nature restoration project encompasses the iconic Glen Nevis and Ben Nevis. It aims to work in partnership with landowners to restore and expand degraded ancient habitats and secure a future for rare and vulnerable species.

This iconic landscape attracts about half a million visitors every year with well over one hundred thousand of those summiting Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the British Isles.

It was once woodland where Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king, rode in pursuit of deer. Over recent decades, the hillside with a panoramic view of London has become arable fields, pony paddocks and a Christmas tree plantation.

But now Harold’s Park, a 200-hectare (500 acre) farm just north of the M25 on the edge of the capital, is to be rewilded and returned to something like the tangled wood pasture once enjoyed by King Harold.

Ancient oak pollards will be allowed to spread their acorns, old hedges will sprout into the fields, field drains will be broken up and ponds restored, helping invertebrates, wildflowers and birds and people rediscover the hillside, which enjoys spectacular views of the London skyline from the Shard to Wembley stadium.

Far out in the Channel, the lights of ships at anchor flickered while the lighthouse at Anvil Point emitted its steadier beam. Late on, a crescent moon shone a coppery orange.

But, undoubtedly, the most extraordinary light source to be seen was the vivid green gleam from the glow-worms that inhabit the herb-rich grassland on the cliffs and quarries in this tucked-away corner of southern Britain.

“It is a wonderful sight,” said Ben Cooke, the National Trust area ranger for Purbeck in Dorset, whose job includes monitoring the glow-worms and caring for their habitat.

Three stranded dolphins were saved in a successful rescue mission by residents on Orkney.

The mammals washed up on the sand in the Bay of Tuquoy, near Westray on Friday evening.

The alarm was raised at 5.30pm but due to the rural location British Divers Marine Life Rescue medics were some time away.

A frantic rescue operation was launched by a team of locals, who were given instructions by the charity to maintain the dolphins' conditions until they arrived.

The pair of Roseate Terns nesting in Hampshire has successfully fledged two chicks, with the juvenile birds being seen around the colony at Normandy Marsh.

One of Britain's rarest and localised breeding species, few Roseate Tern pairs found are found nesting away from the species' stronghold at Coquet Island in Northumberland.

However, a pair settled in the tern colony at Normandy Lagoon in May – and the Hampshire Ornithological Society (HOS) initially minimised publicity about the birds. Photos later showed that both the male and the female had been ringed at Rockabill Island in Co Dublin, in 2017 and 2018 respectively, where an internationally important colony of the species is found.

In a nation grappling with a severe decline in insect populations, a recent study by Make It Wild presents a beacon of hope.

The conservation group’s latest moth surveys in North Yorkshire reveal a promising increase in these nocturnal pollinators, underscoring the critical importance of rewilding and habitat preservation.

The decline in the UK’s insects has reached alarming levels, with leading entomologist Dave Goulson estimating a 90 to 95 percent drop compared to a century ago, and a stark 78 percent decrease just within the last year. This decline is vividly illustrated by the dwindling numbers of insects found on car number plates—a modern method of measuring population density that reflects broader environmental trends.

Goals to stop the decline of nature and clean up the air and water in England are slipping out of reach, a new report has warned.

An audit of the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), which is the mechanism by which the government’s legally binding targets for improving nature should be met, has found that plans for thriving plants and wildlife and clean air are deteriorating. This plan was supposed to replace the EU-derived environmental regulations the UK used until the Environment Act was passed in 2021 after Brexit.

The report found that there was no data to measure many of the metrics such as habitat creation for wildlife and the status of sites of special scientific interest. It also highlighted that the government was off track to meet its woodland creation targets, and that water leakage from pipes had in fact increased since the targets were set.

West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service (WYRFS) are tackling the fire off Wessendenhead Road in Meltham.

A total of 10 pumps are at the scene from Huddersfield, Halifax, Skelmanthorpe, Slaithwaite, Mirfield, Cleckheaton, Dewsbury, Ossett and Meltham stations.

Specialist wildlife teams are also in attendance, along with five additional pumps and support appliances.

A WYFRS spokesperson said: “This is a 4km fire front. Crews are using beaters and a water relay to tackle the situation.”

A council has committed to measures that it has said will help hedgehogs thrive.

They are officially classed as vulnerable to extinction in the UK and were added to the "red list" of Britain's under-threat mammals in 2020.

South Ribble Council said the Hedgehog Action Plan was about giving them "room to roam" to reduce the number of them killed on the roads.

Ideas included building ramps on ditches and ponds and leaving gaps in hedges and fences.

New figures show that 90% of beavers removed from conflict areas in Tayside in 2023/24 were moved to new homes after a huge effort by NatureScot and partners to relocate families and help expand the population across Scotland.

The latest report on beaver management shows that 85 beavers were removed to prevent serious damage to agriculture in the period from January 2023 to April 2024 – down from 108 in 2022.

Of these, 77 animals were trapped and moved to licensed projects, compared with 45 in the previous year. Just eight beavers were killed under licence over the 16-month period, down from 63 in the calendar year 2022.

Using data from a project focused on slug species diversity in British gardens, researchers aimed to understand the accuracy of species identification and its impact on calculating species richness, abundance, and diversity.

Publishing their findings in the journal People and Nature, the scientists analysed the differences between the identifications made by project participants and the experienced slug researcher to give a unique insight in to how often mistakes in identification were made.

Led by Newcastle University and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the research team asked participants to carry out a torchlit search of their gardens once every four weeks, and to collect any slugs they found. Participants then attempted to identify them to species level, before sending them in to the researchers at RHS for identification. The scientists analysed the differences between the identifications made by project participants and the experienced slug researcher to give a unique insight in to how often mistakes in identification were made.

Using data from a project focused on slug species diversity in British gardens, researchers aimed to understand the accuracy of species identification and its impact on calculating species richness, abundance, and diversity.

Publishing their findings in the journal People and Nature, the scientists analysed the differences between the identifications made by project participants and the experienced slug researcher to give a unique insight in to how often mistakes in identification were made.

Led by Newcastle University and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the research team asked participants to carry out a torchlit search of their gardens once every four weeks, and to collect any slugs they found. Participants then attempted to identify them to species level, before sending them in to the researchers at RHS for identification. The scientists analysed the differences between the identifications made by project participants and the experienced slug researcher to give a unique insight in to how often mistakes in identification were made.