Toad patrol volunteers helped almost 10,000 animals cross a road last year, volunteer say.

The Toads on Roads Patrol is a group of volunteers going out every night between January and March to Hawkridge Reservoir on the Quantocks in Somerset to carry toads, frogs and newts over the road.

The group is part of the Friends of the Quantocks group and is continuing to help with the crossing this year.

It's the size of 168 football pitches and – if utilised correctly – could provide the perfect place for threatened species to thrive once more.

But, for hundreds of years, a 296-acre (120-hectare) plot of former arable farmland in The Fens has been the antithesis to a wildlife paradise, having long been drained dry.

That was until the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) decided to reinvigorate the soil site by rewetting it, creating a new nature-friendly peatland at Lakenheath Fen, in Suffolk.

Wrens under roses, and Robins are smitten... as we spread our wings and soar beak-first into March, nature is undoubtedly waking from its slumber. With the colourful confetti cannon that is spring primed to fire, some of the best sights to see this month are just a wing tip away.

From romantic Robins to ravenous Wrens, there’s all kinds of amazing action taking place for home birds to admire. Venture further afield and you might spot a pair of in-spiralling Buzzards preparing to nest or hear raucous Rooks rebuilding their rookeries.

One thing’s for sure, spring is well and truly on its way, so let’s take a look at our top five birding spectacles to catch this March.

Dozens of new wild spaces are set to be created to attract butterflies, moths, and other wildlife across Glasgow.

Working with Glasgow City Council, the Butterfly Conservation charity hopes to open 40 habitats for wildlife during the two-year project.

Their aim is to fight the decline in common butterflies and moths across the UK by creating habitat in urban areas, and inspire people to take more actions to help wildlife.

Two films have been produced to highlight the work which is being undertaken by Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Biodiversity Boost Project for readers and nature lovers to enjoy. The Project was made possible by a £750,000 grant from the Species Survival Fund, in partnership with Defra and the National Lottery Fund.

The Species Survival Fund is a short-termed programme designed to support the creation and restoration of wildlife rich habitats in England. The Biodiversity Boost Project will help in this aim by increasing and enhancing the habitats across the wildlife charity’s Hauxley, East Chevington and West Chevington reserves as well as Northumberland Zoo over the last 18 months.

The project revolves around restructuring of plantation woodland, reedbeds and waterways as well as creation of species rich grassland, a wildflower meadow and wetlands areas. Partners of the project include EcoNorth, Flexigraze and Northumberland Zoo.

A rare butterfly is at the centre of a major nature recovery scheme aiming to bring wildlife back to Wiltshire farmland.

The Duke of Burgundy butterfly, one of Britain’s rarest butterflies, is among the wildlife being prioritised in a 56-hectare habitat restoration project at Stonehill Habitat Bank in south Wiltshire.

The scheme is based at Red House Farm and sits within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs National Landscape.

Environment Agency (EA) staff have downgraded thousands of serious pollution incidents by water companies in England without visiting to investigate, data unearthed by freedom of information (FoI) requests suggests.

The figures were obtained by Robert Forrester, a whistleblower who left the agency in January and has spent nine years shining a light on the state of the water industry. His identity was revealed in the Channel 4 docudrama Dirty Business this week, and he has vowed to carry on fighting to expose the truth.

The data shows 2,778 serious pollution incidents by water companies were reported in 2024. Of these, 2,735 (98%) were downgraded to minor incidents by officials, FoI data shows. Officers only attended 496 of these before downgrading the pollution event; the rest were deemed minor events on water company evidence alone, the data suggests.

Sarah Lambert took her usual morning swim for 40 minutes off Exmouth town beach before her volunteer shift helping disabled people get access to the water.

A wheelchair user herself, Lambert’s regular sea swims twice a week between the lifeboat station and HeyDays restaurant were the perfect form of exercise for her disability.

It was August 2024, and a dry summer’s day on England’s south-west coast.

New research is being carried out to understand how underground fungal networks influence the creation of woodland.

As part of a commitment to create about 260,000 hectares of new woodland across England, the project taking place at Wild Haweswater in Cumbria aims to help establish resilient and ecologically rich trees in its upland landscapes.

Researchers will look at whether microscopic soil organisms could help tree survival consistently across sites.

This winter's extreme flooding has destroyed nests, drowned small mammals and threatens a sharp drop in butterflies and other species this spring.

Relentless storms and near‑constant rainfall – described as "apocalyptic" by one expert – have brought some of the South West's worst flooding in decades.

While the human impact has been widely felt, nature groups say the toll on local wildlife is only beginning to emerge.

Could lynx, the elusive wild cat driven to extinction in Britain more than 1,000 years ago, become the new Loch Ness monster? “Whether Nessie’s there or not, she draws tourists,” said Margaret Luckwell, a resident of Moray, Scotland. “It would be the same with lynx. I’d love to see a lynx in the wild.”

Luckwell’s view is a majority one among local people gathering at village halls across the Highlands, as a painstaking consultation slowly gathers momentum for the apex predator’s return to Scottish forests.

A six-year effort by the Lynx to Scotland coalition of charities does not aim simply to create a supportive majority – 61% of Scots are already in favour, according to a 2025 poll – but to build acceptance among residents likely to remain opposed to lynx, including farmers, gamekeepers and deer stalkers.

Last Wednesday, in a layby outside Brackley, Northamptonshire, Trish Savill and her band of self-styled Wombles proudly took photos of their morning’s work: 28 bags stacked neatly against the verge.

It had taken them an hour, but they had barely made a dent in the sprawl of unrecognisable, rotting refuse already working its way into the soil, mixed with dumped white goods and some more dubious finds.

One bag contained 12 empty shoe boxes, the likely aftermath of a theft. Another contained dozens of bottles of what Savill called “driver Tizer – as we affectionately call piss in a bottle”.

A new Marine Protected Area (MPA) strategy for Northern Ireland "must deliver real, tangible action", a bird charity has said.

The updated strategy, launched by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera), should mean areas like Strangford Lough will be better protected in five years' time.

Forty-eight MPAs have already been identified as part of an "ecologically significant" network of places "deserving of enhanced protection".

Fly-tipping incidents across England have reached the highest level since current records began, with most offences continuing to involve household waste.

In 2024-25, 1.26m fly-tipping incidents were recorded by local authorities, an increase of 9% on the 1.15m reported in the year before, according to data released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on Wednesday.

This data does not include the 98 incidents of large-scale, illegal dumping dealt with by the Environment Agency, or those cleared by private landowners.

A farming family is working to boost the numbers of rare butterflies on their land.

The Duke of Burgundy butterfly has declined in numbers in recent decades, with the Butterfly Conservation Society warning "intense efforts" are needed to protect it.

Sonja and Perin Dineley, of Red House Farm on the edge of Cranborne Chase in Wiltshire, are launching a major habitat restoration scheme to boost numbers of the rare insect in their area.

New report urges Government to stop pollution at source, fix the broken water system, and restore nature to England’s rivers, lakes and seas in next generation water reforms.

A major coalition of environmental organisations, including The Wildlife Trusts, National Trust, Wildlife & Countryside Link, and nearly 40 others, today launches Clean Water Now, a new report setting out the urgent reforms needed in the upcoming Water Reform Bill.

Currently, sewage, farming pollution, and chemicals pollute rivers, lakes, and seas, with just 14% of English rivers in good ecological condition. Habitats are shrinking, wildlife is suffering, and people are getting sick. If Government doesn't act now, this once-in-a-generation opportunity to change the rules could slip away, leaving England’s waters in decline for years.

DAERA Minister Andrew Muir has launched a new strategy to protect Northern Ireland’s marine environment over the next five years.

The Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Strategy for the Northern Ireland Inshore Region 2025–2030 sets out how Northern Ireland will further develop and manage its network of MPAs to safeguard key habitats and species, close remaining ecological gaps and support nature‑based solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Marine Protected Areas (MPA) are specially designated zones within the marine environment that have been identified as ecologically significant and deserving of enhanced protection.

A balloon seller says she refuses to serve customers who intend to release them due to the environmental impact and danger to wildlife.

Naomi Spittles, 32, from Lincoln, has been trading for eight years and was recently asked to provide 200 balloons for a memorial, but turned the order down.

She has called for balloon releases to be banned nationally: "What goes up, must come down, and they don't go to heaven."

On a stony slope in Glen Affric, hopes are high that one of Britain’s rarest ferns can regain a foothold and recover.

Staff from Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) have translocated and planted 250 oblong woodsia (Woodsia ilvensis) on a hillside in the glen.

The small mountain fern was virtually wiped out by commercial collectors responding to the Victorian craze for ferns – pteridomania – that began in the late 1840s and continues to be threatened by habitat fragmentation and climate change.

White-tailed eagles, pine martens and beavers will be released across England before the May elections as the Labour government attempts to staunch the flow of nature-loving voters to the Green party.

Plans to reintroduce these lost species to the country have been mooted for years, but the previous Conservative government failed to get them over the line after opposition from landowners and its own MPs.

Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, is understood to have told the regulator Natural England to dust off these plans and expedite them so there is a flood of good nature news before the polls open.

A £1.72m chalk river restoration project has been completed after two years of work which is set to enhance local wildlife.

Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust was awarded money from the government's Species Survival Fund early in 2024 for its Chalk Rivers project.

Hundreds of volunteers helped restore chalk rivers in Hertfordshire which support species like the endangered water vole, brown trout - and kingfishers.

A lawsuit against South West Water (SWW) over sewage pollution in coastal areas is being expanded.

Law firm Leigh Day said it was opening the claim to include people from the Devon towns of Dawlish, Sidmouth and Teignmouth, as well as Newquay and Penzance in Cornwall. It was previously limited to people living in Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton and Lympstone.

Lawyers argued SWW's failings were "wide and entrenched in many coastal towns across the Devon and Cornwall region".

A new law designed to reverse the loss of wildlife and better protect nature in Wales has been passed in the Senedd.

It will lead to legally-binding targets on boosting biodiversity, similar to those already in place for tackling climate change.

A new organisation is to be created too to hold the Welsh government and public bodies to account on their efforts to protect the environment.

One of the largest birds of prey in the UK has been spotted far from its usual breeding ground, delighting nature lovers.

The white-tailed eagle was seen by bird watchers at locations including Druridge Bay, Sunderland and Hartlepool over the weekend.

Jo Richardson was enjoying a walk around Holywell Pond in Whitley Bay when she was told the bird of prey had landed in trees at the back of the pond.