There’s a slightly mean question I often ask British people with an interest in the living world: can you name the environment secretary? I don’t intend to show them up: it’s not them I’m testing. I watch the brows knit, a finger go up, the mouth open and close. “It’s, you know, the one who … no, they went, didn’t they? That other one …” It’s been like this for seven years.

Why? Because throughout this period, we’ve not had environment secretaries. We’ve had portals through which corporate lobbyists may pass. The last incumbent to represent the wider public interest (and I can scarcely bring myself to type these words) was Michael Gove. In his other roles, he’s widely remembered with loathing and disgust. Out of office, he continues to poison public life, as editor of the Spectator. But in this role, to general astonishment, he placed the public good above special interests.

Standard operating procedure, by contrast, is exemplified by the final acts of the outgoing secretary, whose name, to put you out of your misery, is Emma Reynolds. To give just one example – which could be seen as an embodiment of everything that has gone wrong here – she spent her last weeks in the post trying to remove the brakes on industrial chicken farming.

Ten tenacious trees that have defied gravity, faced the elements and even taken a hit from a cannonball are contending to be crowned the Woodland Trust’s UK Tree of the Year.

The Woodland Trust is inviting people to vote for Tree of the Year 2026, with ten spectacular specimens from across the UK fighting for the title.

This year's competition is about celebrating nature's great survivors, and has been given the theme ‘against the odds’. These arboreal miracles have faced plane crashes, Dutch elm disease, diggers, the English Civil War and cliff edges. But whatever has come their way, they have stood, clung and stayed alive for centuries – even millennia.

Orcas, Risso's dolphins, basking sharks and sunfish are among the spectacular marine species recently spotted around the coast, as The Wildlife Trusts launches National Marine Week to celebrate and protect the wildlife found in UK waters.

From orcas and Risso’s dolphins to basking sharks and sunfish, remarkable sightings around the coast in recent weeks showcase the rich diversity of marine wildlife found in UK waters as millions of people head to the coast this summer.

The sightings come as The Wildlife Trusts launches National Marine Week (25th July – 9th August), which explores the incredible journeys made by marine wildlife that live in or visit UK waters, and highlights the importance of protecting the connected seas, rivers and oceans these species depend on.

Approximately a billion tiny plastic nurdles have entered the River Tyne after a “devastating spill”, with the pellets thought to have spread much further than first thought.

Nurdles, which are usually 1mm-5mm in size, act as the raw material to manufacture most plastic products.

On Sunday, the Wind Orca ship collided with the berthed container ship BG Orange at the Port of Tyne, causing damage to a dockside crane and injuring one person.

A rare black-crowned night heron has been spotted on an estate in the south-west of England where an innovative river “reset” is transforming the area into an oasis for birdlife.

The heron was caught on camera in a jungly corner of the Holnicote Estate, where conservation experts have been restoring the landscape by allowing a river to return to its natural course.

As well as the heron, charismatic birds including white-tailed eagles, white storks and cranes have been seen at the National Trust estate.

Most of the sewage spills into England's waterways in the last two years may have been illegal but gone unpunished, according to new analysis.

UK law states that raw sewage should not be released during "normal" weather conditions, yet until now the regulator has not clarified exactly what that means.

But campaigner Prof Peter Hammond obtained a definition in secret court papers, and said it shows that for more than 80% of the time sewage was being spilled, the weather was "normal" - making the spills possibly illegal.

A "butterfly city" has been created in the shadow of office blocks and a shopping centre.

Ten species of butterfly have been spotted in a "mini meadow" in Hull city centre, according to a wildlife group.

Grass and wild flowers have been allowed to grow on part of a site owned by the Land Registry, near St Stephen's Shopping Centre.

Falcons nesting high on the skyline, foxes working the night streets and, in the suburbs, beavers building dams. Some of London's least-noticed residents are all around you, and a new campaign wants you to start looking.

London Wildlife Trust is using humour, wordplay and familiar London stereotypes to highlight the wild animals surviving in one of the world's busiest cities.

It says up to 50 pairs of peregrine falcons now nest on some of the capital's highest and most iconic buildings.

Such wildlife has adapted well to city life but remains under growing pressure, the Trust says.

England’s Community Forests network has today announced the continuation of its flagship Trees for Climate programme, marking the milestone with the launch of a significant new partnership maximising the benefits of community-led urban and rural woodland creation across the country.

Funded by UK Government through the national Defra Trees Programme, Trees for Climate will be taken to new heights by a partnership combining the rich placed-based knowledge and relationships of England’s Community Forests network, the scale and experience of the National Trust and Woodland Trust as national organisations, and the supporting, enabling and championing role of the Community Forest Trust.

As the new prime minister begins his first week in office, new polling commissioned by WWF has revealed that a majority of Britons believe the Government is failing to do enough to protect nature and tackle the climate crisis.

The findings come as the UK reels from a series of extreme heatwaves that have laid bare the growing human and environmental cost of climate change. The recent heat is estimated to have contributed to more than 2,000 deaths, closed schools and sparked wildfires that threaten wildlife and habitats across the country.

The poll, conducted by More in Common, found that 76% of people care about nature, climate and the environment, but 61% believe that politicians do not care much or at all about these issues. The findings point to growing public dissatisfaction with the government’s environmental record, with a majority (57%) saying the government isn't doing enough to protect nature and the climate.

For years, volunteers have craned their necks and tested their patience to peer into the crevices of the cliffs hoping for a glimpse of fluffy joy.

Finally it all paid off as a puffling – baby puffin – poked its way into the sunshine, becoming the first to be spotted on the coast of Dorset in southern England for three decades.

“Seeing the puffling was a great thrill,” said the marine ornithologist Richard Caldow. “Every chick matters. One puffling alone won’t save this colony but one is a whole lot better news than none.”

Lancashire Wildlife Trust are urging residents and visitors to take immediate action following the confirmation of a squirrel pox outbreak in Formby, warning that the coming weeks could be critical for one of England's most important remaining red squirrel strongholds.

A squirrel pox outbreak has now been confirmed in Formby, raising fears for a population that has already suffered devastating losses. During the last major outbreak in 2008, Formby's red squirrel population fell by an estimated 80%.

Carried without symptoms by invasive, non-native grey squirrels, squirrel pox can spread unnoticed before reaching vulnerable red squirrel populations. For red squirrels, the disease is fatal, causing shivering and painful lesions that make it increasingly difficult to eat, move, and see. Most succumb to the illness within just two weeks.

Five osprey chicks at Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve, four females and one male, were recently tagged and weighed by a licenced and experienced bird ringer, and given a coloured ID leg ring.

This is a record number of osprey chicks to be tagged in one year at our wetland nature reserve near Witherslack. Previously the highest number of osprey chicks in one season at Foulshaw Moss was three.

The increase in numbers is down to the fact that there are now two pairs of breeding ospreys at Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve. There are two chicks on nest 1 (the long-standing pair Blue 35 and White YW, who started breeding here in 2014) and three chicks on nest 2, which is occupied by the more recent pair, Blue 717 and her mate Blue 476, who first bred here last year.

Councillors have voted unanimously to take more action to protect a famous river following a campaign spearheaded by a woman who "married" the waterway three years ago.

Researcher and performance poet Meg Avon staged a wedding to the River Avon in 2023 to raise awareness of pollution and rapidly declining biodiversity.

She and campaign group We Are Avon persuaded Bath and North East Somerset Council to this month endorse a charter recognising the river's right to thrive, flow sustainably and not be polluted.

Farmers have a crucial role in cleaning up one of the UK's most polluted river systems and could save money in the process, a new study has shown.

The eastern and western Cleddau rivers in Pembrokeshire flow through farmland which produces as much as 25% of Wales' milk.

Researchers from Lancaster University found the area's farms were buying in far more fertiliser and processed animal feed than needed, causing a build-up of phosphorus in the soil and polluting waterways.

England’s ‘tree deserts’ need more trees to tackle soaring temperatures in towns and cities, according to a new report by the Woodland Trust.

Shading from trees can reduce surface temperatures by more than 10°C, but 11 million people in the UK currently live in tree deserts – defined as having less than 10% tree cover.

The new report from the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity highlights the positive effects of trees on climate, flooding, air pollution, health and wellbeing, but reveals that the most economically disadvantaged communities often live in areas worst affected by low tree cover.

UK bumblebees could suffer sharp falls in their numbers as heatwaves become more frequent and intense, new analysis suggests.

The findings - shared exclusively with the BBC - draw on data from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust's long-running national monitoring scheme, which shows a decline in populations after the record-breaking heat of 2022.

The warning comes as Britain emerges from a third heatwave in as many months, with temperatures in the range where bumblebees can struggle to fly without overheating.

A new report from Wildlife and Countryside Link has exposed the shocking scale of accidental wildlife deaths in UK fisheries - with more than 1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises estimated to be caught every year in UK waters.

The report, Hidden in the haul: The true scale of bycatch, warns that bycatch remains one of the most serious and avoidable threats facing marine wildlife. Alongside cetaceans, the analysis estimates that fishing vessels operating in UK waters catch more than 10,000 seabirds, around 500 seals, over 120 tonnes of protected sharks, skates and rays, and more than 1,000 endangered Atlantic salmon (just in the northeast mackerel fishery) every year.

Bycatch is the accidental capture or entanglement of non-target animals in fishing gear. For whales, dolphins and porpoises, it can mean drowning in nets or suffering serious injuries from entanglement. The report also warns that the true scale of the problem is likely to be even greater, because monitoring and reporting across much of the UK fishing fleet remains inadequate.

Truly wild areas should be “within striking distance of everyone” so people can see how nature-rich their landscapes could be, conservationists have said.

As nature has declined in the UK, each generation accepts a world with progressively less wildlife as normal and only understands the losses since they were young, in a phenomenon known as shifting baselines.

But some flagship “rewilding” sites are reversing the trend, amazing experts and the public with how much nature they can hold and prompting calls for more places where people can find inspiration – and a boost to health and wellbeing – from being close to the wild.

A "hidden" record of UK's historic biodiversity including flowers picked two centuries ago with links to Charles Darwin is being digitised.

More than 10,000 dried and pressed specimens held at the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) herbarium in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, are being photographed and digitally catalogued to make them more accessible to researchers.

Described by RAU as a "time-capsule record of biodiversity in the UK", researchers said the possibilities are endless, branching out into climate change, habitat management, genetics, and much more.

The first confirmed breeding Bittern has been recorded at a nature reserve in Dorset, a charity has said.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said the milestone at Lodmoor Nature Reserve marked the first breeding recorded in the county since 1883.

The charity said the female Bittern had been seen making regular feeding flights across the reserve.

The maximum fine for fly-tippers is to increase to £5,000, while litterers will also face higher fines of up to £750.

Announcing the fines, Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds MP said: "Criminals who break the rules will face heftier fines that will be paid to clean up the mess they make.

"We are sending a clear message to those who dump their rubbish - we are coming after you and you will pay the price.”

Forty eight young curlews are being released back into their natural habitat as part of efforts to protect the species.

The Eurasian curlew is an iconic resident of the Shropshire Hills and the Welsh Marches, but declining numbers have seen the species added to the UK's Red List of highest conservation concern.

But non-profit organisation Curlew Country is hoping to improve the chances of Shropshire's curlews by making sure the young birds get the best possible start in life.

A three-year project to help four threatened species has been given a boost to focus on orchards across three counties.

The funding from Natural England's Species Recovery Programme will see £590,121 spent on schemes covering Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.

The aim is to support landowners to restore and create habitat for noble chafer beetles, red-horned cardinal click beetles, orchard toothcrust fungus and mistletoe marble moths.

A butterfly charity says the UK could be set for a "bumper" year of the insects as it launches its annual appeal for the public to count them.

Butterfly Conservation, based at East Lulworth, in Dorset, said the hot and dry spring meant it was already seeing an increase in several species.

On Friday, it launched its Big Butterfly Count, a yearly event asking members of the public to report the butterflies they see.