Nearly three-quarters of England’s woods inaccessible to public, study finds

Exclusive: Campaigners call for government to introduce right-to-roam bill that allows people to walk around their local woodlands Helena Horton Environment reporter Fri 13 Mar 2026 06.00 CET Prefer the Guardian on Google

Nearly three-quarters of England’s woods are off-limits to the public, buried government documents show.

The study by Forest Research, which is a government-funded quango, found that 73% of English woodland is publicly inaccessible.

The research also found that more than a third of the trees on the Woodland Trust’s ancient tree inventory are inaccessible to the public.

Welsh Water is to pay a proposed £44.7m after the industry regulator found “serious and unacceptable” breaches in the supplier’s sewage and network services.

The water authority for England and Wales, Ofwat, said the non-profit Dŵr Cymru, or Welsh Water, failed to properly operate, maintain and upgrade its wastewater network to ensure it could cope with levels of sewage.

Ofwat also found the company also did not have “adequate processes in place or oversight by senior bosses”.

“What you’ve got there from the sun on your face is a massive boost of serotonin!” says Alison Greenwood, founder of Dose of Nature, the charity successfully prescribing time outside as a treatment for mental health.

Greenwood is striding round Pensford Field, a tiny patch of wildness tucked behind houses in south-west London. The bright day is illuminating the early blackthorn blossom, gleaming off the pond where a heron watches tiny froglets and shadows of birch trees on a wood-chip path. “All these trees and plants are giving off phytoncides, and they’re good for your immune system too,” the former NHS psychologist says.

Natural coastal habitats - such as sand dunes, shingle and saltmarsh - provide millions of pounds worth of flood risk benefits to communities in Wales, according to a new study.

Undertaken by Natural Resources Wales (NRW), marine consultants ABPmer and economic consultant eftec, the Wales-wide study has looked at different types of coastal habitat and examined the role they play in mitigating flood risk.

It looked at the characteristics of the different habitats and their effectiveness in buffering wave energy, reducing wave height and reducing tidal flooding.

Following a landmark land acquisition at Middleton Moor, a significant milestone in the Trust’s vision to reconnect landscapes and create more space for nature at scale, this project marks the next major step in its long-term strategy to restore lost species.

Supported by more than £300,000 from Veolia Environmental Trust through the Landfill Communities Fund, the project represents an exciting opportunity for white stork recovery in the region. Centred at Willington Wetlands, the Trust plans to create a purpose-built white stork enclosure in consultation with Celtic Rewilding, specialists running a captive breeding facility just over the border in Staffordshire.

The enclosure, located within a low-disturbance conservation area and designed to be predator-proof and adaptable for future species recovery projects, will support breeding, chick development, and carefully managed soft releases into the wider landscape.

A greedy beaver's sweet tooth led to him being captured twice by rangers monitoring the animals' health.

National Trust rangers spent two months trying to capture the family of beavers at Wallington, in Northumberland, using tasty fruit and veg to lure them into a humane trap.

But after being caught and found to be in good health, the father of the family was captured again when he returned for more snacks.

An east London borough has declared a Nature Emergency - triggering a community workshop to come up with an action plan to deal with it.

Redbridge Council made the declaration in response to declining nature across the UK and its impact on local wildlife, and is now seeking community input to help shape its first-ever Nature Emergency Action Plan.

The in-person workshop will be held on March 18, 2026 from 6.30pm to 8pm in the Gloucester Room at Redbridge Central Library in Ilford. The workshop will include breakout sessions to engage attendees in shaping the draft plan’s themes and priorities.

A female curlew at the centre of a study by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has broken the UK longevity record at the age of nearly 34.

The bird was spotted last week, identified through her colour rings and her age confirmed as 33 years and 8 or 9 months.

Mrs Ogdens Curlew Elli BlogInitially ringed as a juvenile on Brownsea Island in September 1992, she would have hatched that summer. In 2022, researchers from GWCT recaptured her in the New Forest, colour ringed her and fitted her with a satellite tag. That summer, with the help of Forestry England rangers who monitored and supported curlew breeding in the area, she successfully fledged one chick at the age of 29.

British wildlife will replace historical figures on the next series of Bank of England banknotes - and the public will get their say on which animals and birds will appear.

Images of wildlife would be difficult to counterfeit, while also allowing for a celebration of nature across the country, the Bank said.

It spells the end for the, sometimes controversial, choice of historical characters which have appeared on £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes for more than 50 years.

This week The Wildlife Trusts wait to hear whether the Government will weaken some of nature’s strongest protections, including slashing the habitats regulations and rules affecting national parks.

Smuggled under the cover of making it easier to build nuclear power more quickly, the recommendations of the Nuclear Regulatory Review could end up being applied to any infrastructure or housing development proposals. Yesterday, the Chancellor confirmed that the Government's response to the review recommendations would be published this week.

The Wildlife Trusts are seeking legal advice because they believe that the Government is at risk of breaking EU trade commitments if it goes ahead with the Review's recommendations to weaken nature laws.

UK reveals first assessment of progress towards national biodiversity targets today as government publishes its 7th National Report (7NR) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The report assesses the UK's progress against 23 national biodiversity targets which are aligned with the 23 targets in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

The GBF targets are designed to meet the CBD’s 2030 mission – to take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss to put nature on a path to recovery for the benefit of people and the planet. The targets are focussed on achieving the GBF’s goals; by 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.

The large tortoiseshell – an elusive and enigmatic butterfly that became extinct in Britain in the last century – is a UK resident species once again, with a flurry of early spring sightings.

Britain’s list of native butterflies has increased to 60 with the return of the insect after individuals emerged from hibernation in woodlands in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset, Cornwall and the Isle of Wight.

The sightings have led Butterfly Conservation to declare the large tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros) a resident species in the UK – as opposed to a migratory one – for the first time in the charity’s 58-year history.

Ultrasound repellers could keep hedgehogs off roads, scientists hope

Study shows animals hear very high frequencies, making it possible to design a deterrent to cut deaths Patrick Barkham Wed 11 Mar 2026 07.00 CET Prefer the Guardian on Google

Hedgehogs have been discovered to hear high-frequency ultrasound, raising hopes that they could be deterred from dangerous roads with ultrasound repellers.

Vehicles are estimated to kill up to one in three hedgehogs, a big factor in the much-loved mammal’s drastic decline across Europe over recent decades.

Researchers at the University of Oxford collaborated with colleagues in Denmark to test the auditory brainstem response of 20 hedgehogs rehabilitated in Danish wildlife rescue centres. Small electrodes placed on the animals recorded electrical signals travelling between the inner ear and the brain, while short bursts of sounds were played through a loudspeaker.

More volunteers are being recruited to help rescue a growing number of whales, dolphins and porpoises washing up on UK shores.

The British Divers Marine Life Rescue, which specialises in the rescue and protection of marine wildlife, says extra volunteers are needed to assess, give first aid and refloat stranded animals.

Director of welfare and conservation Dan Jarvis said: "There is a general upward increase in recent years of strandings around the UK, and we're also getting busier - particularly after winter storms."

The purpose built structure at Testwood Lakes Nature Reserve in Hampshire hopes to secure the long term future of the summer visitor at the site.

There’s a touch of old magic about toads, those shapeshifters of myth, superstition and folklore. Charismatic creatures with the pleasing Latin binomial bufo bufo, common toads have astonishing copper- or gold-coloured eyes and rugged, textured skin. “People say they look warty, which I’ve always thought is a bit unfair,” says Dr Silviu Petrovan, a conservationist and toad population researcher.

More prosaically, toads are great for your garden. “We say toads are a gardener’s best friend, because they eat all the pests,” says Jenny Tse-Leon, the head of conservation and impact at the British amphibian charity Froglife. Their spring migration is a dramatic event, during which hundreds of thousands of animals travel back to their ancestral breeding ponds. “Like the wildebeest of the Serengeti,” says Tse-Leon. “They’re just a lot smaller than wildebeest.” The males “piggyback” on potential partners: “You see them riding on the female’s back to get a lift to the pond.”

England is “running out of time” to rescue nature-rich ancient woodlands buried under 20th century tree plantations, conservationists have warned.

The Woodland Trust warns the Government is falling far short of targets to restore planted ancient woodlands by 2030, with almost no woods on private land being restored in the last few years.

The charity says it is the “last chance” for what it describes as the country’s forgotten forests: long-standing native woodlands that were clear-felled or poisoned after the Second World War to make way for monoculture plantations of trees such as conifers for timber.

A student has recorded a sighting of a rare mushroom species.

Tom Haddon, 41, a student at the University of Northampton, spotted a wrinkled peach mushroom (Rhodotus palmatus) in woodland at Stanwick Lakes Nature Reserve in October.

Online wildlife logging platform iNaturalist said it was the only recorded sighting of the species in Northamptonshire it received in 2025.

A water company is using ancient hedge laying techniques to improve biodiversity near a lake.

Bristol Water said it wants to improve diverse wildlife at Blagdon Lake, a 440-acre reservoir and trout fishery in the Mendip Hills, Somerset.

A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), the work includes restoring thinning hedgerows by laying trimmed base stems horizontally.

A wildlife photographer has captured a fox swimming amongst wildfowl in East Yorkshire.

The fox is a regular swimmer at RSPB Blacktoft Sands, where she has chosen to rear her young in a den on an island in the tidal reedbed.

Pete Short, the reserve's manager, said the ducks and geese were relaxed around her in the water because they know she is "not in a position to attack them".

Environmental campaigners are calling for greater protection for chalk streams.

The streams are one of the world's rarest freshwater habitats and the vast majority are found in England.

The London Wildlife Trust says they do not have sufficient legal protection and wants them to be included in the National Planning Policy Framework, which is open for consultation until Tuesday.

One of the oldest nature reserves in Yorkshire is at increasing risk of drying out due to the impact of climate change, a charity has said.

Askham Bog in York, which was founded in 1946, is home to more than 800 species of moths and plants, some of which are more than 500 years old.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT), which maintains the site, has created a fund to protect it in response to the reserve's peat drying out more each year and threats from non-invasive species like Himalayan balsam.

The importance of protecting nature is not up for debate. One in six species in Britain is threatened with extinction. Since 1970, more than half our flowering plants have decreased in areas where they once thrived. In the 1950s, Britain’s hedgehog population was 30m strong. Now, it is believed to be under a million.

All this demands action. The problem is that a lot of the action we’ve taken – mainly in the form of legislation – fails to target the biggest drivers of nature loss. Instead, it bites when we try to build: wind turbines, solar farms, railways or nuclear power plants, making their construction lengthier, more expensive or, in some cases, impossible.

You’ll notice that these are all examples of green infrastructure – precisely the things we’ll need more of in order to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, which ultimately cause habitat loss on a massive scale. Greening the grid and providing clean electricity to homes, transport and industry is one of the most urgent tasks facing us. The only way to do it without generating a cost of living crisis that would dwarf our current predicament (and cause an anti-green backlash) is to get building – and fast.

A wildlife trust celebrating its centenary has bought what will become a new nature reserve for £4.6m.

The Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) was founded by Dr Sydney Long in 1926 after he purchased 435 acres of marsh at Cley next the Sea.

One hundred years on, NWT has announced it has purchased 336 acres of mostly arable land at Wood Norton, near its Foxley Wood site, after receiving £3.8m from the Natural England Nutrient Mitigation Scheme.

During the 20th Century, we lost 90% of lowland grasslands in England, mainly due to arable conversion and agricultural intensification.

We were starting to turn this around in recent years. Through the UK Government’s environmental land management offer, including the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship, farmers received financial support to restore and manage these precious habitats.

Recent announcements on SFI, although positive in other areas, dropped a vital action that provided the finance farmers needed to recover our meadows. Without remedy, this could become a missed opportunity for farmers and nature recovery, and see grassland habitat recovery stall.