It sounds like something out of a Thomas Hardy novel: a merry band of men and women roaming the West Country cutting meadows by hand in exchange for hunks of bread and cheese.

But the conservation charity English Heritage is recruiting a team of volunteer scythers to maintain 21st-century meadowland in the old-fashioned way.

The first scythers have been trained and will use their new skills in the meadows around an abbey in Somerset, where it is hoped that as well as helping to keep the age-old practice alive, they will protect a rare type of bumblebee.

White-tailed eagle chicks have successfully fledged from wild nests in England for the fourth consecutive year.

Two out of five pairs of eagles released by a reintroduction project successfully bred and raised young with one chick fledging from a nest in Dorset and two more in Sussex.

The project, run by Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, aims to return the species to England. Nine birds have been born in the wild since it began in 2019.

Scientists have identified hundreds of genes that could help some European ash trees withstand the fungal disease that has ravaged woodland landscapes across Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Researchers from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Forest Research and partner organisations have produced the first pangenome of European ash, a genetic reference that captures DNA variation across multiple trees rather than relying on a single specimen.

Surrey Wildlife Trust has introduced 30 nationally-endangered water voles to a nature reserve near Elstead.

The release on the River Wey comes following a "successful" release on the upper river.

The water voles are being introduced downstream on 10 sites between Frensham and Elstead, the wildlife trust said.

Nearly half parliamentary constituencies have limited access to nature, despite climate extremes increasing need for cool, shady and nature-rich spaces

A new paper, unveiled today (17th September) by The Wildlife Trusts, outlines how improving access to nature across Britain should be a priority for Prime Minister Burnham’s Government. It follows research suggesting many still do not have parks, gardens or bodies of water within a 15-minute walk of their home, undermining the public health benefits associated with spending time outdoors.

Following the heat emergency of the summer, when inner city temperatures soared to over 38 C, the paper – Unlocking nature for all: How to increase access to nature for a fairer, healthier country – suggests that to reduce the impacts of climate extremes and improve physical health and well-being outcomes, peoples’ access to nature must improve.

The ancient craft of hedge laying is experiencing a strong revival as farmers use techniques that peaked in the 18th and 19th centuries to boost wildlife, capture carbon and help tackle flooding.

Hedge laying, which restores and revives mature hedges to keep them fresh, was among the four most popular categories of capital grants selected by farmers out of a total pot of £225m provided by the government this year to support practical environmental improvements on farms and across the countryside.

The 2,500 farmers across England who applied for grants to restore and maintain their mature hedgerows using a craft that dates back thousands of years, will – if the grants are approved – lay 1,300km (800 miles) of mature hedgerows, enough to stretch from Land’s End to Hadrian’s Wall and back.

A new report shows that another 35 beavers were moved to new homes in the Highlands in 2025/26 as the population continues to expand.

NatureScot has today published its annual Beaver Management Report covering April 2025 to March 2026.

Over the period, 84 beavers were removed under licence at 22 sites where their activities had the potential to cause serious impacts, with the majority (62 or 74%) being trapped and removed largely from prime agricultural land.

The recording-breaking heat of 2026 delivered the second-best British butterfly season of the past 16 years, according to the Big Butterfly Count.

The largest insect count in the world, in which more than 100,000 volunteers counted almost 1.4m common butterflies and day-flying moths, confirmed what many people experienced – a noticeable profusion of butterflies during the five-heatwave summer.

Particularly numerous were painted ladies, a migratory species which arrives in Britain each summer via a relay of several generations flying from sub-Saharan Africa. Their numbers were up 335% on last year, with the Butterfly Conservation count recording their second-highest numbers since the count began in 2010.

A Dorset landscape full of rare orchids and butterflies that inspired Victorian writer Thomas Hardy has been named England’s newest national nature reserve.

More than 330 hectares of important habitat at Lyscombe on the Dorset Downs, the equivalent to 468 football pitches, have been marked out as an area of focus for conservation and nature restoration by the government body Natural England.

Located north of Dorchester, the landscape is home to ancient woodland and chalk grassland flora, including at least six different species of orchid such as pyramidal and bee orchids, as well as rare chalkhill blue butterflies.

After one of the hottest summers on record, the humble pond is needed more than ever in the South Downs National Park.

Six new ponds will now be created or restored for nature as the National Park’s Pounds for Ponds scheme announces a new tranche of projects.

Over the past three years more than 30 ponds across Sussex and Hampshire have been transformed into havens for wildlife and now several more are in the offing.

One of the UK's largest spider species has been spotted in the West Midlands as warmer temperatures push it more than 100 miles from its usual habitat.

The wasp spider, known for its distinctive yellow, black and white stripes, is traditionally found in southern England but has been recorded increasingly further north in recent years

Unlike its namesake, the species cannot fly, but spiderlings can travel long distances by "ballooning" on silk strands carried by the wind.

Wales’ relationship with nature may be changing, according to new research which suggests children are growing up recognising wildlife through pictures rather than through real-life outdoor experiences.

A new survey of 1,000 UK parents by holidaylodges.co.uk has uncovered what it’s calling Britain’s growing “nature knowledge gap”, revealing that while children correctly identify 94% of wildlife they can see, recognition drops dramatically when they’re asked to identify the sounds of nature. Just 65% could recognise the call of a crow, falling to 57% for a fox and 50% for a tawny owl. Most strikingly, fewer than half (41%) recognised the familiar coo of a wood pigeon.

The findings come as children spend an average of 3.35 hours every day on screens, while fewer than one in ten spend time immersed in nature daily.

A free diver has said he "couldn't believe his luck" after spotting a giant jellyfish off the Welsh coastline.

Iestyn Morgan, from Pembrokeshire, said the lion's mane was the "length of a bus" with a size of about 10 to 15 metres (32ft 8in to 49ft 2in).

The 21-year-old conservationist, who records footage for social media to raise awareness about the "threats our seas are facing", said it was the first lion's mane he had seen in Wales.

New research commissioned by Wildlife and Countryside Link reveals that annual investment in protected nature sites needs to increase from around £1.1 billion today to approximately £2 billion to restore England’s protected places by 2042, the deadline for key Environment Act nature targets. This investment would also help deliver 30by30 – the commitment to protect and effectively manage 30% of England’s land and sea for nature by 2030.

England’s protected places, such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, National Landscapes, and National Parks, have the potential to be the crown jewels of a thriving landscape – places where wildlife flourishes and people can experience nature at its best. But decades of underinvestment, pollution and intensive industry have left too many habitats damaged and wildlife disappearing. With the right protection and investment, these places could once again become the thriving heart of nature's recovery across England and help keep our country safe from climate risks.

The research estimates that delivering 30by30 on land could create or restore at least one million hectares of wildlife-rich habitat – helping to build a bigger, better-connected network where nature can flourish.

As a summer of record-breaking dry weather and prolonged heat begins to come to a close, thousands of citizen scientists are preparing to take part in the Big River Watch to help monitor the impacts of extreme weather and pollution on river health and inform vital conservation work by The Rivers Trust.

From 18th – 24th September 2026, the public are invited to record observations of pollution, wildlife, and river conditions through The Rivers Trust's free Big River Watch app. Surveys take just 15 minutes to complete and key results are published in near-real time on the Big River Watch online dashboard, allowing anyone to see and help build a national picture of river health across one week.

Being the UK and Ireland's largest mass-participation river health survey, the Big River Watch returns at a crucial time following a summer of climate-change induced weather extremes which have caused significant stress for rivers and waterways. As much of the UK and Ireland begins to see rain return, the risk of 'weather whiplash' could increase pollutants entering waterways through soil runoff, or it may trigger significant flooding across the landscape, further exacerbating the poor state of rivers, endangering wildlife and causing anguish for communities. Now more than ever, The Rivers Trusts needs the public's help to fully understand the impact this is having on our waterways.

A restored wetland in Cheshire is now home to almost two-thirds of the UK's breeding black-necked grebes, one of the country's rarest breeding birds.

Woolston Eyes, near Warrington, was previously a dumping ground for dredging from the Manchester Ship Canal. It is now the site of the country's largest colony of the species.

Black-necked grebes are known for their distinctive golden facial tufts and average about 55 breeding pairs in the UK each year, according to the RSPB, external.

Results from a survey of Guernsey's freshwater habitats have been called "nothing short of incredible" as they reveal thousands of new species to the island.

The project from Guernsey Water and the Guernsey Nature Commission used environmental DNA to look for genetic traces left behind by organisms in the water.

The survey detected 2,630 organisms across 36 different groups, 2,249 of which had not been previously been recorded in the Guernsey Biological Records Database.

A new project is helping to gather data on sharks which can be found off the Kent coastline.

Sharks of Kent is an initiative from Kent Wildlife Trust, led by their marine partners Adonis Blue.

Sharks are caught and important information is gathered before they're released so that scientists can help to track their movements and behaviour.

A charity has removed more than a tonne of rubbish from some of the most remote coastlines in the UK.

Clean Ocean Sailing's team of 16 Cornwall-based volunteers collected just under 1.3 tonnes of plastic, fishing gear and other waste from nine islands around the Isles of Scilly during a three-week expedition.

The project builds on previous clean-up missions in Scilly, where ocean currents carry debris from across the Atlantic and deposit it on beaches.

Conservationists who have helped reintroduce a butterfly back into England have been awarded £150,000 to expand the project over the next three years.

In total, 46 Chequered Skippers were released into Rockingham Forest close to Corby, Northamptonshire, in May, using a donor population from Belgium.

The funding has been given to the Butterfly Conservation charity from Natural England's Species Recovery Programme with the hope the species will be reintroduced to Peterborough.

Charlie Sullivan has been a tattoo artist for 10 years and birds have always been the biggest inspiration for his artwork.

The 31-year-old, who works at the Golden Goose tattoo studio in Birmingham, said he had been drawing since he was a child and had always been obsessed with bird watching.

This love has led him to embark on a challenge to complete tattoos featuring every single bird native to Britain.

Rewilding areas do not usually conform to traditional notions of beauty in England’s green and pleasant land. Detractors may bewail the beaver-felled trees, untidy scrub, deadwood, weeds, mud and “mess”.

But a new exhibition highlights the aesthetic delights that can be discovered on rewilding sites where fungi grows on dying trees, water buffalo gather in new wetlands and brown-watered beaver pools flood once-desiccated fields.

The artist Rebecca Howard devoted two years to visiting rewilding projects across England before spending a month painting each of nine large canvases that reveal what happens when people step back from intensive management of land and allow wild nature to take a leading role.

A tiny snail found in only one lake in the UK has been dubbed as precious as an Egyptian artefact as conservationists bid to save it.

Several British zoos are setting up so-called ark populations of the glutinous snail, one of Europe's rarest species, using creatures bred in a back garden in Ceredigion.

"Beguiled by their cuteness," conservationist Ian Hughes has made it his "life-defining" mission to protect the threatened mollusc, which was once widespread in UK waters.

High up on a Manx hillside, Sarah Hickey effortlessly pushes a metre-long metal rod into the wet ground until it disappears almost to her hands.

"This is pretty deep here," she says, reading the markings on the probe. Beneath her boots is peat, built up over thousands of years and consisting of partially decayed plants and organic matter.

Hickey is the island's Peatland Officer and part of an Uplands team of just three, who, between them, manage about 8,000 hectares of the Island's hills.

More than 12,000 images were entered in the 2026 British Wildlife Photography Awards, which celebrate the variety, beauty and resilience of nature across the UK. The winning images range from familiar to overlooked forms of life, revealing behaviour, colour and texture in gardens, forests, rivers and coastal waters. Ben Lucas was named Young British Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his tender portrait of a mute swan cygnet asleep on its sibling. Together, the images offer a joyful record of Britain’s wildlife and a reminder of fragile habitats on which it depends.