Category Archives: Uncategorised

How a dead hedge in your garden could be a haven for wildlife this winter

iNews reports how dead branches and twigs can be a surprisingly useful resource for a range of garden animals, from insects and other invertebrates to small mammals and birds.

They can be turned into simple log piles, obelisks made from long branches or even an ambitious “dead hedge”.

Now is a good time to begin any such projects because autumn and winter are the right months for pruning many trees and shrubs. It is easier to see what needs to be removed once their branches are bare.

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Hunters duck lead ban

Ducks are still commonly killed with lead shot in England despite a ban and voluntary moves by shooting groups, new research shows.

Lead is highly toxic to both humans and wildlife, and using it to kill ducks has been illegal in England since 1999. In 2020, leading shooting organisationsannounced a plan to end the use of lead shot for hunting all live quarry. The British government is due to review legislation on lead ammunition in the coming months.

Thousands more badgers to be culled this year

Badger photo by Sally Langstaff under creative commons

Born Free Foundation report the Labour government has published details of badger culling licenses that could result in the targeting of almost 40,000 additional badgers in 2024. These culls, across the High-Risk bovine TB area in England, will be in addition to the 230,000 that have been killed since licensed culling was introduced in 2013.

First ever National Hedgehog Conservation Strategy launched by leading wildlife charities

The first ever National Hedgehog Conservation Strategy has been published by leading wildlife charities People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS).

The strategy has been created in response to trends highlighted in the State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2022 report, also published by BHPS and PTES, which revealed that native hedgehogs have declined by between 30-75% in rural areas since 2000. To tackle this ongoing decline, BHPS and PTES have worked collaboratively with over 30 leading conservation NGOs, academics, educational institutions, hedgehog rehabilitators and organisations within the transport and farming sectors*, to create a topline, national strategy that can guide the change that’s desperately needed.

More on the RPSB website here.

Urgent Call to Save England’s Wildlife as Protected Land Shrinks to 2.93%

88com reports the amount of land in England effectively protected for nature has plummeted to just 2.93%, according to newly released data, raising alarm among environmental experts. This stark figure casts doubt on the UK government’s commitment to conserve 30% of the country’s land for nature by 2030, a pledge made four years ago under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Environmental campaigners are urgently calling for a “rapid rescue package” to restore nature, as government officials prepare to attend CoP16, the international summit on biodiversity. The event, set to take place in Colombia later this month, will see UK delegates urging global counterparts to stick to ambitious nature conservation targets. However, domestic progress on this front is faltering.

UK to appoint nature envoy for first time

The Guardian reports the UK government is planning to appoint a special envoy for nature for the first time, as the foreign secretary, David Lammy, seeks to put the UK at the centre of global efforts to tackle the world’s ecological crises, the Guardian has learned.

Labour will also appoint a new climate envoy, after the Tories abolished the post over a year ago, a move that dismayed foreign governments and climate campaigners.

‘Nature’s church’: living cowpats and rainforests transform Exmoor national park

The Guardian reports in the picturesque area in south-west England, farmers and conservationists are turning around the long decline.

Exmoor national park, like all of England’s national parks, has failed to protect nature since they were set up 75 years ago. Only 15% of Exmoor’s sites of special scientific interest are in favourable condition.

One reason is that most national park land is privately owned by farmers, who embraced fertiliser and pesticide-fuelled intensification in past decades, decimating wildlife. The parks own a tiny proportion of the land and have few powers outside planning controls.

But Holly Purdey is trying to reconcile farming and fauna. She took on the 81-hectare (200-acre) Horner farm in Exmoor national park in 2018, challenging herself to produce beef and lamb while restoring nature to land she says had been “trashed” by intensive farming.

Free the beaver: Calls to officially release animals into UK waterways

Photo by Pat Gaines under Creative Commons

Country Living reports wildlife charities are calling for beavers to be released into rivers across England and Wales – putting an end to enclosures and making the animals officially wild.

Last week, the Wildlife Trusts published A vision for the return of beavers to England and Wales, a report that urges the government to bring the animals back to rivers and asks for “illegal wild populations to be allowed to stay.

Drought ‘biggest threat’ to UK nature reserves, say Wildlife Trusts

BirdGuides reports a new report published by The Wildlife Trusts, Embracing Nature, has identified drought as the current leading threat to their nature reserves.

The Wildlife Trusts, which are among the UK’s largest landowners with 2,600 nature reserves covering nearly 100,000 ha, also point to pollution, invasive species and habitat fragmentation as high risks. Drought is also considered to be the leading threat for the next 30 years, followed by other climate-driven dangers such as heatwaves and wildfires.