The UK is underinvesting in one of its most effective tools for tackling climate change, improving public health and supporting economic growth, according to a landmark report published today by the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA).

Launched at Horticulture, The Conference, The Value of Green Spaces is the third report in the HTA’s Value series, following The Value of Plants (2023) and The Value of Gardens (2025), setting out the economic, environmental and health contribution of environmental horticulture to the UK. This latest report demonstrates that parks, street trees, public planting and wider green infrastructure should be treated as essential national infrastructure alongside housing, transport and energy.

Bringing together significant economic, environmental and health evidence alongside new YouGov polling of 2,376 UK adults, the report shows how green spaces can cool towns and cities during heatwaves, reduce flood risk, improve mental and physical health, support biodiversity and help create healthier, more resilient communities.

Plans to create a "biodiversity haven" by rewilding 240 acres of land at Herstmonceux Castle Estate have been announced.

Bader College, which sits on the estate, has linked up with nature restoration organisation Nattergal to revive land previously used for farming by restoring pasture, grassland, and scrub habitats.

The rewilding aims to transform hundreds of acres of wildlife habitat and offer research opportunities to Queen's University in Canada which owns Bader College.

There is no chance of a birdie or an eagle any more. But there are skylarks, short-eared owls, avocets and curlew.

Sandilands, a former golf course on the Lincolnshire coast, has been transformed by the National Trust into a 2km-long nature reserve with wetlands, wading pools, rough grassland and coastal scrub.

The new reserve opens to the public on Saturday but the birds have already flocked in: little ringed plovers and avocets nested this summer as soon as fairways and bunkers were turned into shallow pools and islands for shore and marsh birds. Marsh harriers have been hunting over the reserve, with water rail, sandwich terns and spotted redshank also flying in.

Endangered dormice have been found on a farm that has been working to improve biodiversity and nature habitats.

Babers Farm in Marshwood, near Bridport, Dorset, is under the stewardship of the Countryside Regeneration Trust (CRT), which seeks to create nature-friendly farms.

Hazel dormice are a European Protected Species and are considered vulnerable to extinction, but their presence is a marker of a healthy, well-connected landscape.

It was a stifling evening in July and Matt Phelps was out for a stroll, when a piercing, whirring noise stopped him in his tracks. As an ecologist, Phelps knows his fauna – and he could think of no UK creature that could emit such a sound.

“It was like the classic sound effect of a cricket in a film, a beeping sort of little trilling sound,” said Phelps, who works at Knepp Estate in West Sussex. He returned with entomologist Graeme Lyons to track it down. But the sound, though incredibly loud, “seemed to be all around us … it was very ventriloquial”.

The duo hunted for three hours. Night fell before they realised their quarry was, said Phelps, “literally below the ground where we stood”.

When Alistair and Diane Gould bought Furnace Brook in 2013, they had big plans. It was an idyllic spot: a stream-fed fishing lake nestled in a secluded valley in the High Weald, East Sussex, surrounded by woodland and fields. “People loved to come fishing here because it’s so beautiful,” says Diane. “Some of them had been coming for so many years that they got to know the individual fish.”

Diane moved here from Kent in 2000, when Furnace Brook was owned by a distant relative. Her two younger sons, then 10 and 14, flourished. They would chat to the anglers about the fish they were catching and throwing back in, and sell them bacon sandwiches. Her elder son, Simon, moved from London to join them in 2006 and became a keen angler himself, and then the fishing manager, or bailiff, looking after the fish and the landscape around the lake.

Beavers have been released to roam wild beyond a nature reserve after an enclosure gate was opened for the first time.

The animals were first introduced at Ham Fen, near Sandwich, two decades ago, and have been contributing to the ecosystem’s management since.

A new levy on developers to allow almost 16,000 homes to be built in the environmentally protected Norfolk Broads has been cut by tens of thousands of pounds per house, the Guardian can reveal.

Ministers say the government’s environmental delivery plans (EDPs) were created to unblock housing growth across the country and are a “win-win” for development and nature.

They allow environmental damage to protected habitats and species to be overlooked as long as developers pay into a nature restoration fund, which is used for conservation actions at a later date designed to address the impacts. Once the first instalment of the fee is paid, work can start immediately.

Conservationists from the Scottish Seabird Centre and RSPB Scotland have raised concerns about the future of the puffin populations in the Firth of Forth as new counts reveal declines on all but one of the local islands off the coast of North Berwick.

Puffins are one of Scotland’s most iconic seabird species and a huge draw for visitors from all over the world. However, the climate crisis, overfishing, invasive species, pollution and habitat loss are driving them to the edge of extinction. Despite global declines, the Firth of Forth has been a stronghold for these hardy little seabirds, with over 100,000 puffins returning to the area to breed every spring.

This summer, conservationists completing puffin population counts on the islands of Craigleith (an RSPB nature reserve) and the Lamb, raised concerns over declines between the 2024 and 2026 counts (drops of around 20% on Craigleith and 15% on the Lamb). They echo concerns raised by NatureScot, who reported significant puffin population drops of over 30% on the Isle of May, one of the largest puffin colonies on the East Coast.

She is an unlikely harbinger of the climate emergency: a venomous black and yellow spider who spins mysterious patterns in her webs and eats her mates for breakfast.

Native to mainland Europe, north Africa and Asia, the Argiope bruennichi – commonly known as a wasp spider – is rarely seen in the north and west of Britain. But a fully grown female has been spotted in Cheshire for the first time by conservationists from Chester zoo, who stumbled across the large, brightly striped arachnid in a rewilded field.

The species, which mimics a wasp to deter predators, is thought to be the latest “climate refugee” extending its range northwards as the planet heats.

A rare snail found in just one lake in the UK started laying eggs on its six-hour journey from Wales to Kent, as a zoo joined a nationwide effort to save the species.

Glutinous snails are no bigger than a fingertip and used to be widespread across UK water ways.

It is thought habitat disruption and environmental changes reduced their population to such an extent that they are only now found in Llyn Tegid, a lake in Eryri National Park, also known as Snowdonia.

The reds and golds of autumn leaves may be beginning to appear, but exactly when the season arrives is not always as predictable as the calendar might suggest.

Now, Forestry England is asking people to help track the changing colours of forests to create a record of when and how autumn arrives across the country.

The Autumn Leaf Watch citizen science project invites people to become “autumn spotters” using Forestry England’s new autumn colour tracker.

From behind a giant bank of screens in a small windowless room, Estelle Morgan, animal team leader from the Saving Wildcats partnership, is keeping an eye on the latest wildcats being bred in captivity for release into the Cairngorms.

"It's like Big Brother for cats", she says of the 72 cameras being used to watch over the animals in their enclosures.

They are assessing whether they're healthy and have the behavioural potential to survive in the wild.

Wildlife in England and Wales will be affected by the current drought for years to come, the government has said.

This summer saw large parts of England and all of Wales plunged into a serious drought, with both recording their driest Julys since records began in 1836.

The lack of rainfall combined with successive heatwaves and new temperature records have placed a significant strain on water supplies, with demand for water increasing by as much as 30% on the hottest days. Scientists said this extreme weather was only possible due to the climate crisis caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

One of the UK’s most precious underwater habitats – Dorset’s seagrass meadows – is recovering thanks to “eco moorings” designed to prevent the seabed being ripped up, a study has revealed.

Scars caused by traditional anchors in some areas of seagrass in Studland Bay have almost entirely vanished, which is boosting the number of seahorses that thrive in the submerged meadows.

The Studland Bay Marine Partnership, which includes a wide range of organisations including conservationists and boating enthusiasts, hopes the findings could help protect and restore seagrass in other busy marine environments around the UK.

Leading wildlife charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) is calling for volunteers across the UK to record sightings of wild mammals in gardens and other urban green spaces this autumn, by taking part in the charity’s Living with Mammals survey.

Living with Mammals has been running all year, but PTES is keen for those not already taking part to look out for their wild neighbours during September, October and November, when many of the UK’s mammals are busy preparing for winter. The survey helps conservationists to monitor changes in wild mammal populations, and crucially, identify those in most need of urgent conservation action. So whether you’re lucky enough to spot a hedgehog in your garden, notice a fox on your street or see squirrels in your local park, all records help PTES to build a nationwide picture of the green health of our towns and cities.

David Wembridge, Conservation Research and Strategy Officer at People’s Trust for Endangered Species explains: “The autumn months are a great time to spot mammals as juveniles disperse and individuals prepare for winter by building up fat reserves and caching nuts and seeds underground. This year, too, is a great opportunity to understand how different species have been affected by this year’s extremely hot, dry summer.”

Thirteen Hen Harrier chicks have successfully fledged at RSPB Geltsdale in Cumbria. The remarkable achievement marks the highest number of Hen Harrier chicks to fledge at the nature reserve in a single breeding season since records began more than a century ago. It reflects the dedication of reserve staff and volunteers, who worked tirelessly to protect nesting birds and support the adults as they raised their young.

Two whales have died after a pod was spotted in the Thames Estuary.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said it was called after reports that 25 long-finned pilot whales were seen close to Coalhouse Fort at East Tilbury and at Tilbury in Essex on Thursday.

One whale, a female, was found dead on Saturday and another was found on Sunday morning.

Vaccines for ash trees, skin treatments for newts and gene-edited swallowtail butterflies are among 14 tax-funded projects from the UK’s “invention agency” aiming to accelerate nature’s ability to adapt to the climate crisis.

The £54m accelerated adaptation programme from the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) – a public body that funds high-risk, high-reward tech projects – aims to investigate applications of biotechnology that can speed up wild species’ evolution and help them to adapt to new threats such as global warming and disease.

The 14 teams announced on Monday will receive a share of an initial £30m in grants over the next two years. They will develop tools to protect native British wildlife species, including the English oak tree and critical pollinators such as the buff-tailed bumblebee, said Yannick Wurm, the director of the accelerated adaptation programme at Aria.

Pioneering new AI and citizen science framework could help reverse dramatic decline in hedgehog numbers and use community action to secure their future

Wildlife charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) has been awarded a £143,000 development grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to support a new hedgehog conservation initiative called Hedgehogs in Focus: tracking trends for community conservation. Thanks to National Lottery players, this initial support will lay the foundations for implementing effective monitoring of hedgehog populations and other wild mammals across England, which could play an important role in reversing the dramatic decline in hedgehog numbers recorded over recent decades.

The winners of the first Orkney Nature Festival photography competition have been announced.

More than 200 entries were received for the inaugural contest, competing in six categories.

Winners were selected for adults and under 18s for topics including species of Orkney and natural landscapes.

Endangered red squirrel populations have plummeted from about 3.5 million to less than 300,000 in the UK, with their grey-haired rivals continuing to thrive.

But when exactly did the squirrel stand-off begin and how bad has the situation become?

In England, the situation is particularly dire for reds.

The Woodland Trust reckons there are only 39,000 of them left, while the Save Our Reds campaign thinks just 15,000 remain, including in conservation areas such as Formby on Merseyside.

A voluntary clean-up group is marking a decade of finding unusual items in Bristol Harbour, ranging from an inflatable doll to a Nintendo Switch.

Clean Up Bristol Harbour was launched in September 2016 in a bid to remove plastic pollution from in and around Bristol's waterways.

The group has fished out some unusual items from the harbour in the past 10 years, including a message in a bottle containing a note in Spanish, a kettle, tennis balls, glasses and single shoes as well as the inflatable doll and Nintendo Switch.

Summer is at an end, and suddenly spiders seem to be everywhere – in your house, in your garden, in your hair. Fresh webs hang from doorways, walls, shrubs and fence posts, creating invisible obstacle courses. Where do all these spiders come from, what kind are they and what, if anything, should we do about them?

The short answer to the question “Why are there so many more spiders at this time of year?” is: there aren’t. They are just more obvious. Dave Clarke, an ectotherm (“cold-blooded” animal) specialist at the Zoological Society of London, says: “There are more spiders around in the spring, because that’s when they hatch from their egg sacs, and there are hundreds of babies in each egg sac. But they’re small and not very obvious. They grow up during the summer and, at this time of year, they reach their maximum size.” Their webs are also correspondingly larger.

The other reason they are more apparent is that they are finding their way indoors in the desperate search for a mate. Dr Sara Goodacre, professor of evolutionary biology and genetics at the University of Nottingham, says: “The ones you see in your home at the minute, the really big, fat, hairy ones, they’re usually teenage males that are lost – emotionally, geographically – and are just hoping they might find a female so they can continue the life cycle.”

A threatened farmland bird is thriving in East Yorkshire, bucking a national trend of "catastrophic declines” across Britain. RSPB Bempton Cliffs is giving the Tree Sparrow - affectionately known by bird watchers as ‘Spuggies’ - a late-summer boost, with a dedicated patch of sunflowers providing a food source for the declining bird species. Visitors are welcome to spot the sociable birds and enjoy the blooms.

This area of East Yorkshire has become a vital stronghold and the Tree Sparrows are said to be “thriving” at RSPB Bempton Cliffs. The splash of late-summer colour gives the colony an extra boost. The sunflowers will be left to seed and will be left to stand as natural bird feeders for Tree Sparrows and other farmland birds throughout the autumn and winter.

Tree Sparrows remain on the Red List of birds of highest conservation concern. The latest Breeding Bird Survey results reveal that numbers in England fell by 54 per cent between 2019 and 2024, reversing some of the recovery seen during the 1990s and 2000s. However, East Yorkshire remains a national stronghold. RSPB Bempton Cliffs has credited a combination of targeted habitat management, provision of nest boxes as well as holes in buildings and year-round food provision as helping maintain a healthy colony.