nature

The use of pesticides on UK farms is to be reduced by 10% by 2030 under government plans to protect bees and other pollinators.

Campaigners welcomed the news, but said they were disappointed that the target applied only to arable farms and not to urban areas and parks.

The plan has been a long time coming – it has been delayed since 2018. The EU’s target for pesticide reduction is more ambitious; its member states aim to reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides, as well as the use of more hazardous pesticides, by 50% by 2030.

Puffin and gannet wildlife cameras in Alderney have gone live for the spring.

They allow visitors to Alderney Wildlife Trust’s website the chance to observe the animals in their natural habitat.

The trust said the gannet camera, external, located at the Giffoine near Les Étacs, showed the start of nesting season as the seabird returns to the island’s coastline, while the puffin camera, external at Burhou offered a look at the colony as it prepares for breeding season.

Beavers can now be released under a new government license scheme, meaning wild beavers living in our rivers and streams for the first time in 400 years.

So, what will this mean for the natural world?

The National Farmers Union is concerned that their chewing and flooding of land could impact agriculture.

But pioneering trial schemes that have been running in the South East of England could hold the key to keeping everyone happy and using the beavers as ‘ecosystem engineers’.

Wildlife trusts and environmental charities are joining calls for people to take part in No Mow May.

The campaign urges gardeners to avoid mowing their lawns to give pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, a boost by allowing wildflowers to thrive.

Avon Wildlife Trust and nature protection charity, Plantlife, are amongst the organisations supporting the annual campaign.

Simply create a wild patch, record its location online and encourage much-needed natural insect prey and nesting materials for native hedgehogs

This July, gardeners, families and individuals are being urged to create wild patches as part of a new campaign to make more spaces with natural insect food and nesting materials for native hedgehogs.

The new ‘Go WILD for Hedgehogs’ campaign from Hedgehog Street – run by wildlife charities People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) – simply involves leaving a wild, undisturbed patch in a garden and recording its location online. Not only does this create much-needed food and shelter for hedgehogs, but also tells conservationists at PTES and BHPS where hedgehog havens are, and where more are needed.

A campaign group has claimed five people and one dog fell ill after being infected with E. coli at a Yorkshire Dales beauty spot.

Volunteers from Stop Ure Pollution have been regularly testing the water at Aysgarth Falls and issued a “red alert” last week due to a level of bacteria nearly three times above the high risk threshold.

Yorkshire Water said bacteria in rivers could come from a variety of sources, including storm overflow discharges, agricultural run off, and wildlife. The firm said it was investing in improving river health.

One of the world’s rarest plants - with just four known examples left in the wild - has flowered at a nursery set up to try to prevent the decline of Wales’ Arctic alpine species.

Snowdonia hawkweed - nicknamed “the Welsh dodo” - was thought to be extinct until a plant was found in 2002 in Eryri National Park.

Ecologist Robbie Blackhall-Miles scaled a cliff face somewhere in the Ogwen Valley above Bethesda in 2023 to document the remaining plants and take a cutting to replant.

Everyone cherishes the sight of a wee black-nosed hedgehog pottering about in their garden - yet many remain oblivious to the challenges these prickly creatures face during the summer months.

While we humans may grumble about the heat, we have the luxury of fans, chilled pints or a refreshing plunge in the pool to keep us cool. In contrast, wild hedgehogs encounter two primary difficulties - a scarcity of succulent insects to feast upon and a lack of cool water bodies to frolic in.

The majority of hedgehogs are born in June and July, and according to Hedgehog Street, the charmingly named baby hedgehogs, or hoglets, are making appearances in back gardens nationwide.

Red squirrels are enjoying a nutty revival thanks to a stealthy forest assassin which is gobbling up their grey cousins.

Pine martens are stoat-like hunters which petrify the native bushy-tailed rodents but dozy greys are oblivious to their threat, a new study has found.

Numbers of native reds are soaring as they have lived alongside the predators for centuries and are wise to their wily ways. The cat-sized mammals are part of the weasel family and are critically endangered across the UK.

Labour is using post-Brexit freedoms to override EU nature laws and allow chalk streams and nightingale habitats to be destroyed, MPs have said.

The planning and infrastructure bill going through parliament will allow developers to circumvent EU-derived environmental protections and instead pay into a nature restoration fund.

This would override the habitats directive, which protects animals including otters, salmon and dormice. Under the new bill it will be possible to pay into the fund and build over their habitats.

Ladybirds are among the cutest creepy crawlies: you find handbags in the shape of them, and some people think they bring you luck if you wish on one.

But even the loveliest things can get a bit much, and you might have noticed there being rather a lot of the cute red bugs around this year.

Either we’re all about to see something extremely fortune happen (Keir Starmer would be happy about this), or there’s something else going on.

The UK is using Brexit to weaken crucial environmental protections and is falling behind the EU despite Labour’s manifesto pledge not to dilute standards, analysis has found.

Experts have said ministers are choosing to use Brexit to “actively go backwards” in some cases, though there are also areas where the UK has improved nature laws such as by banning sand eel fishing.

Despite having promised a “reset” with the EU, Keir Starmer’s government has failed to even start closing loopholes in environmental law that have widened since Brexit, and is in some cases choosing to delete EU environmental rules from the statute book.