UK Nature and Environment

A Highland nature reserve famed as a home for ospreys has been expanded - 50 years after the protected area was created.

In 1954, Loch Garten, north of Aviemore, had the first confirmed pair of breeding ospreys since the species went extinct in the UK in 1916 due to habitat loss and persecution.

RSPB Scotland bought the loch and surrounding woodland at Abernethy in 1975.

Sandwich terns at NatureScot’s Forvie National Nature Reserve (NNR) have had their best breeding season for decades.

This is particularly good news after colonies were devastated by avian flu two years ago. The peak count of 1,102 fledged young was the highest recorded at the reserve since at least the mid-1980s.

Forvie is hugely important for the species, a summer visitor to our coastline, with up to 10% of the UK population breeding there some years.

A new environmental milestone has been reached in the gas distribution sector.

Cadent’s Tatling End site near Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, has become the first in the UK gas network to earn The Wildlife Trusts’ Biodiversity Benchmark, recognising its commitment to nature-friendly land management.

The Wildlife Trust created the Biodiversity Benchmark to encourage organisations to manage their land for wildlife.

New research confirms that the first year of a project to reintroduce wildcats to Scotland was highly effective, with survival and reproduction rates exceeding expectations.

The study, published in a special edition of IUCN’s Cat News, concludes that breeding for release is an effective strategy for wildcat conservation, with 95 percent of released cats surviving their first ten months in the wild.

Approved under licence from NatureScot, and led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the Saving Wildcats partnership carefully selected a number of wildcats to be bred and prepared for life in the wild at a specialist breeding-for-release-centre at Highland Wildlife Park, before releasing 19 individuals into the Cairngorms National Park in the summer of 2023. Those animals were initially all tracked using GPS radio collars.

One of the first white-tailed eagles to fledge in England for hundreds of years has vanished in suspicious circumstances, alongside two more “devastating” disappearances of the reintroduced raptor.

Police are appealing for public help as they investigate the disappearances, which are a setback to the bird’s successful reintroduction. Their disappearance is being investigated by several police forces and the National Wildlife Crime Unit.

The RSPB is offering a £10,000 reward for information leading to a conviction. Dr James Robinson, RSPB chief operating officer, said: “The RSPB is shocked with this news, so much so that we are offering an overall reward of £10,000 for information that leads to a conviction in these cases. Eagle tag-data is so precise that the point of death and any subsequent movement of the tag will be known to investigators, so we urge the public to come forward with information. Raptor persecution has no place in modern society, let alone threatening such an important UK government-backed reintroduction scheme like this.”

Restoration efforts on a Scottish loch have been boosted by experimental techniques using sea-going robotics that can identify the most suitable reintroduction sites.

Loch Melfort on the Kilchoan Estate, south of Oban, Argyll, has an ongoing oyster restoration project and is a sanctuary for the critically endangered flapper skate.

A collaboration involving scientists and robotics engineers from the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) Enterprise team, Unique Group and the University of Glasgow is currently planning a major survey of the loch, following a successful trial of autonomous surface vehicles.

A conservation team has confirmed sightings of Britain's fastest-declining mammal, the water vole, in a river's catchment area for the first time in nearly 20 years.

River Thame Conservation Trust (RTCT) volunteers captured video evidence of the species at two sites - on the River Thame near Chearsley, Buckinghamshire, and another on the Chalgrove Brook in Stadhampton, Oxfordshire.

The footage was gathered using motion-sensor wildlife cameras placed across the catchment area and is part of the trust's long-running monitoring project to detect signs of water voles and other key river species.

The government has broken its promise to protect nature by weakening planning rules for housing developers, groups have said.

While developers once had to create “biodiversity net gain” (BNG), meaning creating 10% more space for nature on site than there was before the building took place, the housing minister Matthew Pennycook announced exemptions to this rule on Tuesday.

Under the new rules developments under 0.2 hectares are exempted from the policy. Analysis from the Wildlife Trusts has found that this means a combined area across England the size of Windsor forest will now not be restored for nature.

New Forest Programme Manager Gemma Stride explains how her PhD research will uncover the impacts of pollution – and help us understand whether reducing combined sewage overflows will help biodiversity recover.

Freshwaters occupy less than one percent of the planet’s surface, yet they support nearly ten percent of all known species. These ecosystems are astonishingly rich and vital, but are also threatened. Globally, freshwater species populations have declined more rapidly than those of terrestrial or marine environments.

The pressures are complex and ubiquitous: land-use change, invasive species, water abstraction, and – of course – pollution. Here in the UK, most rivers and lakes fail to meet ‘Good’ ecological status under the Water Framework Directive. Despite decades of investment, water pollution remains one of the biggest challenges facing our rivers today.

Counting Britain’s farmland birds will be easier than ever next winter as the Big Farmland Bird Count returns in February 2026 with a new digital recording platform and a renewed push to demonstrate how farming can help nature recover.

The national annual census, run by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) and supported by the NFU, will take place from 6 to 22 February 2026 and will be launched from its birthplace at the Trust’s Allerton Project demonstration farm in Leicestershire.

Farmland birds have declined by 63% since 1970 — the equivalent of around 70 million birds — with more than 60% of species affected. Winter remains a particularly challenging period, when food shortages and cold temperatures take their toll, and the BFBC highlights both the scale of the problem and how it can be addressed.

An ambitious project to protect rare and endangered white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) across Derbyshire has completed another successful translocation of the species. 

Working with partners at Buglife, AECOM, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and Birmingham Sea Life Centre, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust coordinated the relocation of native white-clawed crayfish which are under threat from non-native signal crayfish living in the same area. 

Over the course of the entire project, hundreds of the native species have been moved to ‘ark’ sites at secret locations in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, where it is anticipated the crayfish will thrive.

A community celebration at Dorset Wildlife Trust's Wild Woodbury reserve saw the planting of 420 trees.

Close to 300 people attended the event near Bere Regis to mark the site's four-year transformation from farmland into a wildlife haven.

The reserve, acquired by Dorset Wildlife Trust in 2021, is now home to a mix of wetlands, woodlands, and meadows, offering refuge to diverse species including otters, skylarks and orchids.

Across the wild beauty of the Cairngorms, peregrine falcons – the fastest creature on earth – should be in their hunting element.

However, a disturbing new report has triggered concerns among wildlife crime specialists that in Scotland’s precious national park, the ‘top gun’ hunters of the skies - top speed of 200mph - have become the hunted.

The first park-wide survey examining the number of peregrine falcons across its area revealed the number of breeding pairs has slumped by 56 per cent since 2002.

Landmark programme to remove invasive rodents sees remarkable recovery of Manx Shearwater and other threatened species on the Calf of Man.

Manx National Heritage (MNH) and Manx Wildlife Trust (MWT) are delighted to have won the award for Environmental or Sustainable Initiative of the Year at the Media Isle of Man Awards for Excellence for their long-term partnership work on the Calf of Man.

Since 2012, the two charities have collaborated on an enduring conservation project that has transformed the ecological outlook for the incredible island nature reserve, working to remove invasive species and restore natural habitats, enabling the return of key seabird populations, particularly ground-nesting species vulnerable to predation from brown rats (Rattus norvegicus).

A highly invasive species of mussel which can cause extensive environmental damage to waterways has been detected in Northern Ireland for the first time.

The quagga mussel is a non-native mollusc from eastern Europe which breeds extremely quickly, often out-competing and replacing other mussels.

Quantities of quagga were collected during routine surveys in Lower Lough Erne and on 10 December the species was formally identified through DNA analysis.

A marine biologist lecturer has said how "immensely proud" she is to see her students helping with rising wildlife call-outs.

A new course at Kendal College, Cumbria, has trained budding marine wildlife enthusiasts, with its facility one of a handful in England that can specifically rehabilitate seal pups and otters.

Programme leader Sarah Neill said it had been "fantastic" to see her students "bossing it out in the field" while helping with "real-life marine animal rescues".

Suffolk Wildlife Trust has confirmed the successful purchase of Worlingham Marshes after meeting its £775,000 fundraising target, securing 154 ha of marsh, fen, wet woodland and grazing land in the Lower Waveney Valley.

The acquisition was made possible through a matched-funding scheme linked to a major National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, supported by donations from members, volunteers, local communities and businesses.

Formerly privately owned and managed for grazing and wildfowling, the site will now be restored as a mosaic of wetland habitats. The trust intends to enhance grazing marsh, fen, scrub and wet woodland, improve water management and re-establish traditional dyke systems – part of a long-term ambition to reverse wetland loss in this corner of the Broads National Park.

Seal pups and jellyfish-like creatures are among the wildlife washed up on Dorset's beaches during storms this week.

Thousands of by-the-wind-sailors - organisms carried by ocean currents and the wind - were reported in Poole Bay and Kimmeridge.

Seal pups have also been washed ashore in recent days, with part of Weymouth beach temporarily cordoned off on Wednesday to ensure one of them could return to the sea, undisturbed.

A new study by the University of Portsmouth shows that plastic items make up more than seven in ten pieces of litter recorded across the UK, with countryside locations and public recreation areas carrying some of the heaviest burdens.

The research draws on ten years of citizen science data collected between 2015 and 2024, using artificial intelligence to bring together information from thousands of volunteers who logged litter through mobile apps, beach clean surveys and community projects. This has created one of the most comprehensive national overviews of litter pollution ever produced in the UK.

More than 460,000 individual litter records were analysed and standardised, allowing researchers to compare data that was previously fragmented or incompatible. By combining these records with detailed information on land use and local infrastructure, researchers identified where litter is accumulating, and which settings are most affected.

A historical former royal hunting ground is being transformed into a nature paradise – with the help of three pigs.

Harold's Park Wildland is a 509-acre nature reserve in Waltham Abbey, in Essex, but it has proved unsuccessful as arable farmland and as a Christmas tree plantation.

But owner Nattergal is on a mission to use "soft engineering" - a natural process to manage environmental challenges - to improve biodiversity.

Homeowners, schools and businesses are being offered the chance to install artificial nests to help reverse the decline in house martin numbers.

The distinctive dark blue and white birds, which migrate from Africa each spring, are on the UK's Red List of endangered bird species.

The Hampshire House Martins Project is offering free so-called nest cups, which save the birds time and energy compared to building their own mud nests.

More than 3,600 trees have been planted in Accrington's Bullough Park as part of an ambitious woodland creation scheme.

The new Bullough Community Woodland marks a major phase of environmental upgrades in the park.

It was completed during a week-long effort by volunteers and organised by the Prospects Foundation, with funding from the Forestry Commission.

A new woodland area, which is about the size of 30 football pitches, is being created in Nottinghamshire.

About 15,000 plants and shrubs will be planted across 54 acres (22 hectares) in Upper Broughton in Rushcliffe as part of a project by the borough council.

The site will be called Rushcliffe Woods and is set to feature a new meadow area, paths for the public to use, and wetlands for local species and wildlife.

EA to spend millions clearing Oxfordshire illegal waste mountain in break with policy

Announcement draws anger from Labour MP over refusal to remove tonnes of rubbish dumped near school in Wigan Sandra Laville Fri 12 Dec 2025 11.47 CET

The Environment Agency is to spend millions of pounds to clear an enormous illegal rubbish dump in Oxfordshire, saying the waste is at risk of catching fire.

But the decision announced on Thursday to clear up the thousands of tonnes of waste illegally dumped outside Kidlington has drawn an angry response from a Labour MP in Greater Manchester whose constituents have been living alongside 25,000 tonnes of toxic rubbish for nearly a year.

In Bickershaw, Wigan, criminals dumped the waste in a residential street adjacent to a primary school. During the summer heatwave the rubbish caught fire and burned for nine days, forcing the school to close and residents to stay indoors.

Important and well-loved tree species and Britain’s only remaining native cat are under critical threat without their conservation being prioritised according to a ‘genetic scorecard’ developed by scientists across Scotland.

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh and NatureScot have led the development of the most comprehensive analysis of the genetic health of Scotland’s native wild species - the key to all species being able to adapt and change in response to threats in the natural world. The Genetic Scorecard Indicator looks at the genetic diversity which underpins all living things’ ability to adapt to the effects of disease and climate change. Healthy, resilient native species provide society with food, medicine, and maintain carbon-storing ecosystems. When their genetic diversity is at risk, nature and biodiversity are also threatened.

NatureScot Biodiversity Evidence and Reporting Manager, David O’Brien said: “The state of Scotland’s native species relies on a healthy genetic diversity within many of the public’s favourite plants, animals and fungi. Without the conservation efforts to protect genetic diversity in species like wildcats and ash trees, they will be unable to adapt to threats from non-native species, disease, climate change and pollution. This groundbreaking research is a world-leading example of scientific collaboration in Scotland informing global conservation.”