The Daily Telegraph, and The Times report beavers should be given legal status as a native species, the Government has been urged ahead of the start of the Scottish killing season. The Beaver Trust, a charity, has, in partnership with a range of other groups, drawn up a series of proposals on the future of the “sometimes troublesome” dam-building creatures which were almost hunted to extinction.
Photo by Pat Gaines under Creative Commons.
The Guardian reports fishing time in first half of 2020 almost double that in whole of last year, Greenpeace says. Supertrawlers vastly stepped up their fishing in the UK’s protected waters during the coronavirus lockdown earlier this year, while most of the UK’s smaller vessels were confined to port.
The Guardian reports painstaking conservation effort to accommodate insect’s complex lifecycle pays off. The biggest reintroduction to date of the large blue has led to the rare butterfly flying on a Cotswold hillside where it has not been seen for 150 years.
About 750 butterflies emerged on to Rodborough Common in Gloucestershire this summer after 1,100 larvae were released last autumn following five years of innovative grassland management to create optimum habitat.
Large Blue ovipositing photo by Paul Ritchie under creative commons.
The BBC reports golden eagles have bred at a “rewilding” estate in the Scottish Highlands for the first time in 40 years. An eagle pair successfully reared the chick at an artificial eyrie on the 10,000-acre Dundreggan estate.
The Guardian reports scheme in West Sussex leads to first chicks of the species hatching in the wild since the 15th century. The sound was both primeval yet utterly fresh and new: a time-travelling throwback to the middle ages; yet, at the same time, a portent of a brighter future for our rural landscape…But this wasn’t in France, Spain or Poland, where I have watched them in the past, but in West Sussex: at the Knepp Wildland Project.
The Natural History Museum reportsa quarter of British mammals are at risk of extinction. Conservation organisations have worked together to produce the first official Red List for British mammals.
Water Vole photo by Peter Trimming under creative commons.
The Financial Times reports firefighters in Surrey had brought a large blaze on heathland in Surrey under control by Saturday morning marking the latest wildfire in the UK in a year that was already on course to become the worst on record.
Homes were evacuated around Chobham Common in Surrey, on the south-western fringes of London, after the grass fire broke out on Friday. The flames engulfed more than 60 hectares of land — an area the size of 75 football pitches, and spread to the nearby Wentworth golf course forcing organisers to suspend a tournament.
Chobham Common photo by Ben Robinson under creative commons.
BBC report fifteen families of beavers have been given the permanent “right to remain” on the River Otter in East Devon. The decision was made by the government following a five-year study by the Devon Wildlife Trust into beavers’ impact on the local environment. The Trust called it “the most ground-breaking government decision for England’s wildlife for a generation”. It’s the first time an extinct native mammal has been given government backing to be reintroduced in England.
Photo by Pat Gaines under Creative Commons.
Surrey Comet reports hedgehogs in Surrey and across the UK are now at imminent risk of extinction according to a new study that highlighted what scientists have called the Sixth Mass Extinction. The survey was carried out by the Mammal Society and concluded that a staggering number of the UK’s native mammal species — one in four — are now endangered and it “imminent” risk of extinction.
The Independent reports inevitably, some of the food we buy needs to be tossed. Food eventually goes bad. Leftovers sometimes go uneaten. Most fruit and vegetables have inedible bits: pips, seeds, rinds and cores. Rather than putting it in the landfill bin, we can do something better with these scraps.