About 200 dormant orchids are being relocated to a new nature reserve to safeguard their future.

The orchids at Greenabella Marsh, near the Tees estuary, are to be transported and replanted at specially selected locations within the RSPB Saltholme nature reserve in Stockton-on-Tees and Seaton Common National Nature Reserve, Hartlepool.

The marsh is set to become an intertidal habitat as part of the Environment Agency's plan for flood alleviation in the area.

Pine marten kits have been born on Exmoor for the first time in over a hundred years, new footage has revealed.

A female marten with four babies was captured by camera traps as they explored the woodland.

Nine females and 10 males from Scottish Highlands populations were introduced to the area by the Two Moors Pine Marten Project last year.

Permission could be refused for a traditional hunt of young seabirds to take place on an uninhabited Hebridean island later this summer.

For centuries, gannets have been killed for their meat during an annual hunt on Sula Sgeir, a small rocky island 40 miles (64km) north of Ness on Lewis in the Western Isles.

NatureScot officials have recommended board members refuse granting a licence for this year's hunt due to the potential impact on Sula Sgeir's gannet population. The officials said animal welfare concerns were also considered.

Half of England has been declared officially in drought, as farmers warn the extreme conditions and record-breaking heatwaves are making it “harder, riskier and more costly” to produce food.

The Environment Agency says seven regions across central, eastern, and southern England are in drought after what is thought to be the driest July on record combined with soaring temperatures.

Agency bosses warned of lasting effects of the absence of rain on the environment, wildlife and the economy, while experts said farming was becoming increasingly precarious.

A wildlife conservation trust working to save a native frog species says it is "incredibly proud" after winning an award for the work.

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has been safeguarding Jersey's agile frog - the island's only native species of the animal - since 2001, following a steady population decline.

It has helped thousands of froglets back into the wild through its Agile Frog Recovery Programme, which has been recognised as the Best Conservation Project Award at the Conservation Awards.

A 10-year plan to clean up some of London's rivers and waterways has been announced by Sir Sadiq Khan, who says they have suffered from "decades of neglect and pollution".

A total of £1.8bn has been pledged by water companies, boroughs and charities, with London's mayor adding £2.7m across three years, on top of £13.6m already promised.

The city's main waterway, the River Thames, has been polluted by at least 72 billion litres of sewage discharges since 2020, BBC News revealed in 2023, although that figure was likely to be much higher.

A long orange beak poked curiously out from its wooden crate, followed by a sleek head and slender body. Then the first white stork of the morning flapped its wings and took to the air. Moments later a second emerged tentatively to stalk through the long grass, followed closely by a final sibling who stretched its wings and explored the length of the enclosure.

The trio of juvenile white storks have just arrived at their new home in Willington Wetlands in Derbyshire and conservationists are hopeful that their presence will kickstart the return of the birds to the Midlands after an absence of more than 600 years.

“It feels absolutely incredible,” said Katie Last, the living landscape officer for Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, who has overseen the project and manages the nature reserve. “To see white storks back at Willington feels like a real milestone. We’ve put years of work into restoring this landscape. I’m over the moon with how it all went. Our next aim is to get to the point where they’re a sustainable population and they can live outside, flying around and people can see them moving through the landscape.”

Gardeners across the UK are being urged to help hedgehogs and foxes ad the heatwaves take their toll on wildlife.

Animal rescue centres are “fit to bursting” with animals suffering from heatstroke, the RSPCA said.

The UK is going through the fourth heatwave in a row and temperatures are expected to peak as high as 35C across south-eastern England on Wednesday.

A conservation project in County Tyrone says it has been making progress tackling an invasive species that has been described as the UK's "most dangerous plant".

Giant hogweed contains a sap which can leave painful blistering and scarring when it comes into contact with human skin.

The plant can grow up five metres high, and it is usually found in places with damp soils, such as riverbanks and coastal areas.

Water charities are calling on new Prime Minister Andy Burnham to do more to prevent sewage and pollution ending up in our rivers.

Data compiled by environmental charity the Rivers Trust suggests there were sewage spillages in North Cotswolds rivers for at least 3,470 hours in the past year.

Campaigners say one of the big culprits is Thames Water, which services most of the North Cotswolds area.

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust has collected more than 100,000 seagrass seeds from underwater meadows in the Solent, providing the next generation of seed for its ongoing efforts to restore one of the UK’s rarest marine habitats.

The seeds were gathered from seagrass meadows during a series of low-tide collection sessions at Calshot in Hampshire and Seaview on the Isle of Wight, where volunteers waded and snorkelled through shallow waters to carefully collect mature seed from flowering shoots bearing flowering heads called spathes.

The collection forms the next stage of the Trust's long-term seagrass restoration programme, which has been working to bring this lost habitat back to the Solent since 2021.

Leading climate scientists who created Greater Manchester’s carbon neutral by 2038 commitment are urging Andy Burnham to unequivocally reject new drilling in the North Sea.

In a letter to the prime minister they said he, as mayor of Greater Manchester, had unveiled one of the UK’s most ambitious local climate programmes that tackled housing, green growth and public transport.

Reports over the weekend continued to suggest Burnham was set to give the green light to controversial new drilling in the North Sea by approving the Jackdaw and Rosebank oilfields, which were given approval under the Conservatives but put on hold by legal action. The ruling in court said a more detailed assessment of the environmental impact was required to take into account the effect on the climate of burning any fossil fuels extracted.