UK Nature and Environment

The beach walkers and their playful dogs running in arcs on the rippled sand seemed blind to the casual alien in their midst. Anchored above the tideline, it wobbled slightly in the breeze, spiny green pods raised like medieval weapons.

“Casual aliens” are non-native species that occasionally escape from cultivation, grow for a while and then die off without establishing a population. Botanical jargon aside, the term’s otherworldly weirdness particularly suited this plant. Its thick, branching stems, jagged leaves and menacing seed cases reminded me of the man-eating specimen in Little Shop of Horrors. Though not carnivorous like the one in the musical, it could still kill.

Thornapple (Datura stramonium) is one of the most poisonous plants in Britain. It contains three potent alkaloid toxins that block the body’s neurotransmitters, causing intense nausea, delirium, coma and death. Originating in Central America but now widespread round the world, it’s part of the Solanaceae family, which includes potatoes, tomatoes and deadly nightshade. It’s relatively common in North America, where it’s known as jimsonweed...

The UK will miss the UN’s deadline to publish a new national plan for how it will address nature loss ahead of the COP16 biodiversity summit in Colombia this month, Carbon Brief understands.

At COP15 in 2022, countries agreed to submit new national nature plans – known as “national biodiversity strategies and action plans”, or NBSAPs – “ahead” of COP16, which will take place in Cali from 21 October to 1 November.

In December 2023 at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, the UK pledged to publish its nature strategy by May of this year – and even organised a launch event at Wicken Fen nature reserve in Cambridge for that month – before a change of government in Scotland forced a postponement.

A petition calling for stronger laws to protect important trees like the Sycamore Gap is tantalisingly close to its 100,000 target, says the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity.

A year after the Sycamore Gap trees's devastating overnight felling at its famous Hadrian's Wall location, a rallying cry for people to back the Woodland Trust's Living Legends campaign – demanding legal protection for the UK's oldest and most special trees – has been issued.

More than 95,000 people have already pledged their support, and Trust head of campaigning Adam Cormack says passing the 100,000 mark is a "significant milestone" at a time when tree protection laws in England are under review and a new Tree Protection Bill for Northern Ireland will be out for consultation later this year.

Those looking out across the moor in West Yorkshire these days will see clough valleys studded with pale green tree tubes, each housing two-year-old saplings – a whopping 65,000 new trees that have been planted this year.

In 20 years, it is expected these trees will have grown into montane woodlands full of oak, birch, hazel, rowan and holly, creating wildlife-friendly corridors through the cloughs across the moor, boosting biodiversity and helping to mitigate the effects of climate change.

They represent the first stage in Landscapes for Water, a joint project for the National Trust and Yorkshire Water – the region’s two biggest landowners - that will plant an estimated 300,000 trees over 5,500 hectares of the South Pennines in the next four years.

A POD of dolphins were photographed playfully swimming off the Dorset coast.

Don Williams, a Dorset Camera Club member, was sailing along the Dorset coast with City Cruises Poole, when he came across the photogenic creatures.

He was driving the Solent Scene towards Swanage Pier as the dolphins glided alongside the vessel.

The dolphins are believed to be bottlenose dolphins.

The amount of land that is protected for nature in England has fallen to just 2.93%, despite government promises to conserve 30% of it by 2030, new data reveals.

Campaigners are calling for a “rapid rescue package for UK nature”, as government delegates head to Cop16, the international nature summit, which will take place from 21 October in Colombia. They intend to ask other countries to stick to ambitious nature targets.

The commitment to protect 30% of land for nature by 2030 was made in 2020 by the then prime minister, Boris Johnson. But according to a report by Wildlife and Countryside Link, the amount of land in England that can be said to be effectively protected for nature has fallen to just 2.93%, while the amount of sea protected is at 9.92%.

The Great Western Community Forest (GWCF) is celebrating its 30th year after it was originally founded in 1994.

GWCF covers an area of 39,000 hectares (more than 168 square miles) stretching from the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty to the River Thames.

Community forests are spread across a mix of community woodland, private woodland, on-street, urban woodland, wooded habitat corridors and hedgerows.

The aim of the forest is to connect communities to green spaces, promote biodiversity, improve flood defences and reach 30% tree cover across the GWCF area.

People are being urged to record hedgehog sightings to help save them.

The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester, and North Merseyside is asking people to record hedgehog sightings to "Help a Hog" this autumn.

Hedgehog populations have been declining in the UK, but gardens could provide a refuge.

Our wetlands are wonderous places – so precious for our wildlife and spellbinding for our senses at any time of year. Each one is different – a floodplain, a remnant of a huge marsh or fen, a wild oasis reclaimed for nature from industry – but each of these delicate ecosystems needs protection and careful management to support the abundant life that depends on it.

Wetlands are designed to soak up and hold water, releasing it much more slowly than a flowing river or stream would. This means they are important flood defences which can absorb excess rainwater and surface water during periods of wet weather, storing it and letting it trickle out slowly to prevent flash flooding.

Our wetlands are also vital for our wildlife: 40% of the world's species rely on wetlands in some way. Yorkshire’s wetlands are both ancient and new; some are historic remnants of a wilder landscape, now surrounded by urban sprawl, whilst others are reclaimed from industry, representing a new start for nature and wildlife.

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust has issued an urgent appeal to help save critically endangered rare bats inhabiting Green Lane Wood Nature Reserve in Trowbridge.

The trust needs to raise £2,000 to unlock a £20,000 grant to help save a breeding roost of rare Bechstein’s bats in the wood.

The Bechstein's bat is one of the UK’s rarest bats, found in parts of southern England and south east Wales.

It is found almost exclusively in woodland habitats. The destruction of ancient mature forests, along with intensive woodland management practices, has led to a decline in its numbers.

Almost £130,000 could be spent by an Essex council on creating wildflower grass verges.

The plan is set to be agreed by Rochford District Council on Thursday, following a trial at the Turret House open space between Hockley and Rayleigh.

Councillors said it would result in highway verges looking better and being more eco-friendly for plants and wildlife.

Bugs Matter, led by conservation charities Kent Wildlife Trust and Buglife, is one of the UK’s few long-term citizen science surveys of flying insect abundance, generating critically important data.

This year saw greater participation than ever before, with a total of 8,850 journeys made, covering over 250,000 miles. Lots more people joined in the survey too – 188 new participants joined the effort to provide crucial data on flying insect numbers.

Citizen scientists in England recorded the greatest number of journeys (7,501 journeys), followed by those in Scotland (737 journeys), Wales (367journeys) and Northern Ireland (220 journeys).

A new project by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) is underway to translocate black grouse from their stronghold in the North Pennines to the North York Moors to expand their range and help them to recolonise areas where they have not bred for nearly 200 years.

Black grouse are red listed as a species of high conservation concern. In England, they are now largely restricted to the North Pennines, which includes parts of County Durham, Northumberland, Cumbria and North Yorkshire. Here, numbers remain broadly stable, fluctuating between 1-2,000 displaying males over the last 25 years.

The North York Moors have been selected following landscape-scale habitat improvements on the fringes of moorland managed for grouse shooting. This has included the removal of conifer woodland and restoration to bog, heath and scrub woodland, moorland grasslands being managed more extensively and bracken control restoring bilberry and heather moorland. There have been sporadic sightings of black grouse in the North York Moors, but there is no record of them breeding here since the 1840s.

A two-year project across three counties has uncovered more than 1,300 hectares (3,271 acres) of previously unknown ancient woodland.

These are woods that have persisted since 1600, packed with a range of forest-loving plant life, fungi, insects and micro-organisations, making up some 2.5% of UK land (609,990 hectares or 1,507,318 acres), external.

The project was run by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. The total area of ancient woodland in the area is now known to be 12,552 hectares (31,016 acres).

"An amateur photographer was spooked by an alien-like fungus that resembles a hand reaching out from a grave.

The bright red fungi is known as Devil’s Fingers due to its spindly tentacles that protrude from the ground.

It gives off a rotting flesh-like smell to attract flies and insects which it feeds on.

It is usually found in late October but has appeared early due to the wet weather, and Julia Rosser stumbled across the rare sight in the New Forest, Hants.

Mrs Rosser, 67, a retired teacher from Bournemouth, said: ‘I have found Devil’s Fingers in roughly the same area last year so I was on the lookout for them.

‘They burst out of the ground with these red tentacles or fingers. This one looked more like a hand than any I have ever seen before. It looked like it was reaching out from beyond the grave. It looked very creepy.’

The fungi is native to New Zealand and Australia and is believed to have been brought to France during the First World War in military supplies..."

Work to release 15 pine martens into woods across Dartmoor has been completed, the Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) says.

The mammals, which are related to weasels and otters, were brought down from Scotland.

They were kept in soft-release pens for three days to get them used to their surroundings before being allowed to run wild, staff said.

Guernsey and Herm are experiencing a decline in wildlife species and habitats, according to the first State of Nature report by the Nature Commission.

Commission CEO Jessi Jennings said the report helped understand the state of the islands' habitats and species.

The report also highlighted trends in the abundance and distribution of habitats and species where possible, she added.

Ms Jennings said the report highlighted the lack of data collection, and how the States of Guernsey, businesses and the general public needed to help "enhance and protect" the environment.

Microplastic pollution in the world's oceans is often illustrated through evocative images of wildlife caught within large items floating on the surface, or microplastics blending in among the sand on otherwise pristine beaches.

The mass of plastics supplied to the ocean each year is vast, potentially up to 12.7 million tons through riverine input in addition to marine-based sources from fishing, aquaculture and shipping industries; yet, that which is observed on the surface does not match accordingly. Consequently, there are missing microplastic sinks in the marine realm.

New research, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, has identified the North Sea as home to some of these plastic sinks.

Two species of butterfly have made dramatic appearances in Scotland in a suspected response to climate change.

The Gatekeeper, never officially recorded north of the border before, has been spotted in several places in Scotland this summer, while the White-letter Hairstreak - only recorded around the River Tweed for the first time in 2017 - has now appeared 100 miles further north in Dundee.

The surprise sightings are being announced by Butterfly Conservation just days after we declared a UK-wide Butterfly Emergency following the worst-ever results of our Big Butterfly Count this summer.

The Government needs to establish strategies for individual industries to help reach national and global nature targets, WWF and Aviva have said.

The wildlife charity and insurance giant said businesses need “clarity and stability” before investing in solutions to restore nature and move away from environmentally-harmful practices.

In a joint report on Tuesday they urged the UK Government to set out clear plans and strategies – dubbed “nature-positive pathways”.

New support for local authorities and community organisations to improve access to green space within our urban neighbourhoods. Everyone feels the benefit when nature is part of our daily lives. Evidence shows it makes us healthier, happier, more connected and more resilient.

But years of squeezed resources and competition for urban space means nature, green areas and historic parks have been neglected or lost from many neighbourhoods.

Our new strategic initiative, Nature Towns and Cities, aims to enable 100 places across the UK to transform access to green space in urban areas and bring nature closer to home for us all to enjoy.

It is backed by a partnership between us, the National Trust and Natural England, working closely with NatureScot, Natural Resources Wales and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

A major rescue operation is underway to save nine pilot whales that have become stranded on mudflats off the coast of Sheppey. The whales became trapped during low tide in the Swale earlier today.

The rescue effort involves thirty members of British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), who are using specialist equipment to navigate the difficult mudflats and reach the whales. Rescuers are hopeful that the pod will be able to refloat when the tide comes in during the early hours of Tuesday.

EDIT

It seems that one of the polit whales died and the rest are no longer there.

Further EDIT

Three other whales were found dead later

Earlier this month we held our latest Big River Watch week, a citizen science initiative where we encourage everyone in the UK and Ireland to spend time by their local rivers and share what they observe through our free app. This event saw a fantastic turn out, with 4,800 participants connecting with our rivers and submitting 2,700 surveys. Altogether, across a single week, we spent an incredible total of 50 days watching and monitoring our rivers.

The recent Big River Watch ran from the 6th-12th of September and here is what you reported from the river’s edge:

The De Biesbosch National Park is alive with wildlife.

White tailed eagles, great egrets, ospreys and kingfishers can be spotted among the vast network of rivers and creeks that comprise the 9,000 hectare site in the Netherlands. Hundreds of beavers live in burrows across the park, ready to come out at night.

This landscape was created as part of the Dutch Government’s “Room for the Rivers” project, the purpose of which was to create spaces for waterways to flood to avoid ruining communities. In the process, it created areas for nature to flourish.

An emergency plan to save the UK's capercaillie population could lead to birds being introduced from continental Europe to help boost numbers.

There are thought to be 532 of the large grouse remaining, with all of them found in Scotland. Experts say they could be extinct within 30 years.

Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) and NatureScot have launched the five-year plan.