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Avon Wildlife Trust and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) are now working with people across Bristol and Bath to create a 43 mile (70km) "bee-line" for the Pollinator Pathways Project.

It will run from Chew Valley, up the east of Bath, to South Gloucestershire to help pollinator insect populations grow.

Shelly Easton, head of nature's recovery at Avon Wildlife Trust said: "The focus this time is on hoverflies because they're vital for food security. A third of our food requires pollination. This includes apples, strawberries, nuts and rapeseed oil."

The carefully planned introductions of European perch (Perca fluviatilis), have taken place at five sites in the county: Sandy Water Park; Morolwg, Ashpits and Lower Lliedi reservoir in Llanelli, and a private pond in Cynheidre.

Their introduction follows extensive research into predator-prey relationships. Perch, a native species, have been identified as a natural predator of Topmouth gudgeon and provide an effective method of population control without the need for chemical intervention. Topmouth gudgeon is listed under the retained EU Invasive Alien Species Regulation 2014 and is a GB rapid response priority species.

Its presence threatens native wildlife and habitats, and its rapid spread could have serious national ecological consequences.

New research from the University of Oxford has provided fresh insights into how bird songs evolve over time, revealing a significant role for population dynamics in shaping song diversity and change. The findings – based on an analysis of over 100,000 bird songs – have been published today in the journal Current Biology.

The researchers spent three years collecting over twenty thousand hours of sound recordings from a wild population of great tits (Parus major) in Oxfordshire, which has been studied for the past 77 years as part of the Wytham Great Tit study. Their aim was to investigate how the movement, age, and turnover of birds within a population influences the diversity and evolution of their songs – including which songs become locally popular, which fade away, and how varied their song repertoires become.

To achieve this, they used a new approach involving training an AI model to recognise individual birds based on their songs alone and measure song differences between individuals. This method allowed them to track variations in song repertoires across the population and uncover patterns in song evolution.

The devastating crash between a US oil tanker and a Portuguese cargo ship has left many worried for the welfare of Hull's wildlife after it was revealed the tanker left in flames was carrying jet fuel when it was hit in the North Sea.

More than 30 casualties have been brought ashore after a crash between an oil tanker and a cargo vessel created “a massive fireball” 10 miles off the coast of East Yorkshire at around 9.30am this morning, with a huge rescue attempt currently ongoing.

The oil tanker, the MV Stena Immaculate, has been confirmed to be carrying jet fuel with the company operating the vessel, US logistics firm Crowley, believing some fuel may have been released. In a statement to the BBC the Florida based company said: "A fire occurred as a result of the collision, and fuel was reportedly released. The Stena Immaculate crew abandoned the vessel following multiple explosions onboard."

The UK and Welsh governments have announced a joint £1 million research initiative for the heavily polluted River Wye.

The river, which runs for 130 miles from central Wales to the Severn Estuary in south-west England, has seen its water quality and wildlife drastically decline after years of exposure to agricultural pollution, sewage discharges and phosphates.

Water minister Emma Hardy and Welsh deputy first minister Huw Irranca-Davies announced the funding during a roundtable meeting in Monmouth on Monday.

The cross-border research programme will investigate the sources of pollution and pressures facing the river, as well as study the impacts of changing farming practices and land management, the Government said.

Urban foxes are sourcing more than a third of their diet from humans – raising concerns they could face health risks from processed foods.

Scientists at Nottingham Trent University analysed the whiskers of nearly 100 foxes to reveal that food sourced directly or indirectly from people made up 35% of city fox diets, compared with only 6% for their country cousins.

Foxes are omnivores that eat a range of foods from small mammals, birds, beetles, grubs and worms to fruit and carrion.

Beavers can now be released under a new government license scheme, meaning wild beavers living in our rivers and streams for the first time in 400 years.

So, what will this mean for the natural world?

The National Farmers Union is concerned that their chewing and flooding of land could impact agriculture.

But pioneering trial schemes that have been running in the South East of England could hold the key to keeping everyone happy and using the beavers as 'ecosystem engineers'.

A straight-backed, well-spoken former management consultant and ex-soldier in a wax jacket might not resemble much of a tree wizard, but the man leading me into a steep Cornish valley of gnarled, mossy oaks is called Merlin. He possesses hidden depths. And surfaces. Within minutes of meeting, as we head towards the Mother Tree – a venerable oak of special significance – Merlin Hanbury-Tenison reveals that he recently had a tattoo of the tree etched on his skin. I’m expecting him to roll up a sleeve to reveal a mini-tree outline, but he whips out his phone and shows me a picture: the 39-year-old’s entire back is covered with a spectacular full-colour painting of the oak. “It took 22 hours. I was quite sore,” he says, a little ruefully. “But I was in London afterwards, feeling quite overcome by the city and I had this moment: I’ve got the rainforest with me. Wherever I go, I feel like I’m carrying the forest and its story with me.”

Merlin is keen to tell the remarkable 5,000-year story of this fragment of Atlantic temperate rainforest – a rare habitat found in wet and mild westerly coastal regions and which is under more threat than tropical rainforests. In fact, he is now the custodian of this special, nature-rich landscape filled with ferns, mosses, lichens and fungi. He is slightly more reticent about his own remarkable life. Both stories are well worth telling.

Cabilla, a 250-acre hill-farm on the edge of Bodmin Moor, was bought in 1960 by his dad, the explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison. He wanted a place where he wouldn’t hear traffic and could drink from the stream. The call of a song thrush, not traffic noise, fills the valley to this day and Robin, now approaching 89, still drinks from the stream. Merlin has taken over the farm and has conjured up three big visions: he wants to expand the less-than-1% fragment of Atlantic rainforest that endures in western Britain; he hopes to demonstrate that a new kind of hill-farming is viable and employs local people; he also seeks to open up such forests to those who need them the most – the traumatised, the broken and stressed urbanites who don’t even realise they can thrive if they take time beneath an ancient tree, imbibe the smell of damp leaves and listen to the river dancing over the ferny rocks below.

The government has said it will “clean up Windermere” after criticism over the volume of sewage being pumped into England’s largest lake.

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, pledged “only rainwater” would enter the famous body of water in the Lake District, putting an end to the situation where it Windermere was being “choked by unacceptable levels of sewage pollution”.

Reed highlighted a range of measures being put in place, including investment from the water company United Utilities. The company, which has been a major polluter of the Unesco world heritage site, recently conceded defeat in its legal efforts to block the public from accessing data related to how much sewage it was dumping into the lake.

Millions of pounds of fines imposed on water firms will fund environmental schemes to protect the country’s waterways after fears the money would be diverted to the Treasury.

The water restoration fund was set up by the Conservative government to ensure that polluting water firms paid for the damage they caused. The fund received £11m in fines and penalties from April 2022 to October 2023.

It was reported in January that the Treasury was looking to keep money earmarked for projects across the country. River trusts have submitted bids to improve and monitor the health of a number of rivers, including the River Derwent in Derbyshire and the River Waveney on the Norfolk-Suffolk border.

Volunteers who are passionate about maintaining the Isle of Man's biosphere status are being sought to help guide its progress ahead of a ten-year review.

In 2016 the island became the first entire island nation to be granted the title by Unesco and the heritage body will undertake a periodic review in 2026.

Biosphere Isle of Man are on the hunt for individuals to join its board to contribute to the island's "journey towards a more sustainable future".

Chairman Jason Bissell the organisation was looking for people to "help guide our important work" and ensure it continues to benefit the community, environment and economy.

WILTSHIRE Council has launched a public consultation on its strategy for protecting nature in the county.

Residents, landowners, and organisations are invited to help shape the future of nature's recovery across Wiltshire and Swindon.

The six-week consultation offers the public a chance to review and provide feedback on the draft strategy, which will map out priority habitats, key species, and practical measures to expand, restore, and connect important natural resources across the region.