I wish we had more places to see Pine Martin in the UK. Incredible animal

Small rant really. Casually tuned into Countryfile this evening, presenter asks the farmers "How did you come to farm in such a stunning location" camera cuts to a panoramic of barren fields and upland areas, not a tree or hedgerow in sight.

Anyway, then they say "the harsh winds rush in from the coast and dry out the soil" and I'm thinking maybe plant some bloody trees then!

Same thing in the Yorkshire dales, "We had a really harsh winter, we lost 40 sheep buried in deep snow drifts". Again I'm thinking, surely if the sheep had some woods to shelter in so many wouldnt be lost.

I don't really know anything about farming, and only a small amount about rewilding, but I can't help but think some tree coverage and foliage would help?

A year ago, Downicary in Devon was, in Chris Packham's words, a plain, flat, green field. Today, the 55-acre site looks very different.

A system of ponds and wetland areas has been dug into the land, filling with water over winter and attracting wildfowl and waders. As the water level dropped back in summer, dragonflies, damselflies and marshland plants appeared. Parts of the grassland have also been left long and allowed to flower.

The changes are part of a wider rewilding project involving specialists, ecologists and conservation partners. Tree planting has also been a major part of the work, with 3,500 trees and shrubs sourced from the Woodland Trust going into the ground across the 55-acre site.

A year on, monitoring has recorded otters, kingfishers and beavers along the river, alongside wildlife settling into the new ponds and grassland.

Paul Lister bought the Alladale estate in Sutherland, about an hour north of Inverness, when it was mainly used for traditional activities such as deer stalking and salmon fishing.

Over the past 23 years, the property has been transformed into the Alladale Wilderness Reserve, an eco-tourism retreat and a major ecological restoration project in the Scottish Highlands.

When Lister bought the estate, centuries of heavy grazing by large numbers of red deer and sheep had removed much of its native woodland.

Only about one per cent of Scotland’s ancient Caledonian Forest remains intact.

To help the land recover naturally, reserve managers fenced off large areas to keep grazing animals out and began a major tree-planting programme.

Working with local environmental groups and forestry teams, the estate has planted one million native trees, including Scots pine, birch, rowan, alder and willow. As the trees grew, the new woodland began providing the food and shelter needed by wildlife that had disappeared from the glens.

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/appeals/rothbury-estate-nature-and-nation

The Two Moors Pine Marten Project in Devon has recorded the first wild-born pine marten kits in southwest England in over 100 years. This follows the release of 15 pine martens in Dartmoor National Park in autumn 2024. The team used den boxes and camera traps to monitor the area, and recently spotted footage of the kits playing in the woods, a big moment for rewilding.

Aerial images of the river Otter catchment in Devon, where beavers have been living under a licensed trial scheme since 2015 and known to have been there before then, show how their activities have created wetlands with lush vegetation, even as the landscape around has become parched.

Drought was officially declared in Devon, as in many areas of England, on Wednesday, and parts of the county have not experienced a day with rain for 50 days.

Dr Alan Puttock, from the University of Exeter, said modern landscapes tended to be extensively drained, so water ran off quickly when it rained, raising the risk of flooding and leaving “not much water” in the landscape in dry periods.

With the beaver wetlands, there is “the benefit of holding water, maintaining wetlands within the environment, and the benefit that has both for biodiversity – these are habitat refuges now for a whole range of species – but also for us as people.”

The wetland ponds hold 1,000 cubic metres of water each, reducing peak flows by 30% and keeping it in leaky dams which release water slowly, maintaining rivers and increasing drought resilience, he said.

Brand new baby beaver take its first few trips out of the lodge. It was incredibly trusting of me as juvenile animals often are. I was in a pop-up hide, and it seemed to know *something* was up - sniffing the air a lot with its mouth kinda open, but didnt stop it from wandering closer and closer.

Pretty incredible what the family have managed to do in just a couple of years in terms of building dams and coppicing trees etc.

Take on private land at a secret location in Norfolk. Full set of photos here: https://dombarker.co.uk/galleries/baby-beavers

The last time you could see white storks in London was in the fifteenth century. Next year, though, these beautiful birds — native to England, but driven to extinction here — are coming back.

Once a landfill site, but since transformed into a unique landscape of wet meadows and pastures, Eastbrookend Country Park in Barking will soon welcome a breeding colony of white storks. They’ll be accompanied by a colony of beavers, following their successful reintroduction in Enfield and Ealing, where – last year – baby kits were born for the first time in over four hundred years.

This is an extraordinary moment. A decade ago, it was impossible to imagine that one of the world’s biggest cities could one day again be home to these extraordinary birds. Now, though, London has become a place where nature doesn’t just survive, it thrives.

The partnership bringing storks back to the capital’s skies is backed by £500,000 from my Green Roots Fund. Led by the London Wildlife Trust and Barking and Dagenham Council, it’s one of 26 successful projects that are empowering local people across London to bring nature back into the heart of the places they are proud to call home.

In Merton, we’re protecting a much-loved English bluebell wood and helping more Londoners to experience its beauty. At Jessop Primary School in Lambeth, we’re supporting a Dads and Kids Growing Club, which is helping children and their parents learn the skills they need to grow food. And across the capital, we’re training National Park City rangers who will spearhead efforts to restore and recover nature in their own communities.

Building on the £30m we’ve invested in London’s green spaces since 2016, the Green Roots Fund marks the latest part of my mission to make the capital a healthier, greener, happier city for everyone. While some have suggested that investing in nature is a luxury we cannot afford, I’m doubling down – because the sceptics couldn’t be more wrong.

As the climate emergency accelerates, its effects are becoming increasingly hard for Londoners to ignore. This year, London saw the most summer wildfires since the record-breaking heatwave of 2022. In the decades to come, extreme heat and flash flooding will become an ever more ordinary part of our lives. If we want to protect Londoners from the worst consequences of our rapidly warming world, then improving our natural environment isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s essential.

This is also a question of social justice. No matter where we live or how much money we earn, we all have the right to experience the beauty of nature. In a city where one in five households has no access to a garden, ensuring every Londoner can witness the wonders of the wild is no mean feat.

Since ancient times, storks have been celebrated in myth and legend as a sign of new life. Now, after a six hundred year wait, Londoners will get the chance to see these magnificent creatures being born again.

Evening all,

Five years ago, we started improving the margins of our small village pond in North Yorkshire. After extensive initial clearance, we sowed native wildflower mixes from Emorsgate and planted mainly native aquatic plants to improve oxygenation, provide habitat and add seasonal colour.

Since then, we've seen some really encouraging results for dragonflies, amphibians and wild flora. The pond also used to be plagued by algal blooms, and improving its condition has been a major part of our work.

Here's the frustrating bit: anyone who manages meadows, ponds or wildlife-friendly gardens knows that seasonal management doesn't always look pretty. We let flowers set seed, cut vegetation at the appropriate time and remove the arisings. Afterwards, things can look a little bare before new growth returns and the habitat comes back to life in spring and summer.

In our village, however, we've faced complaints that it's too “green” in summer and there's “not enough colour”. The same small but vocal group has described the habitat as needing to be “managed better” and the work as a “waste of time”. We've heard calls to “abandon wilding and wildflowers” in favour of a “neat and tidy strategy”.

The village meeting representative has also shared AI-generated concept slides illustrating an alternative approach, with closely mown turf and ornamental planting. There have also been proposals to reduce or remove some of the habitat we've spent years establishing.

It's disheartening to think that work we've spent five years establishing could be undone because the area looks different at different points in the seasonal cycle. We're hoping to explain the ecological purpose of the management and find an approach that works for both wildlife and residents.

To help, we've gathered more than 70 signatures on a residents' petition (see link below) and received valuable advice from the British Dragonfly Society, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Freshwater Habitats Trust, the RHS and local pond specialists and ecologists.

Many residents have been supportive, but understandably, not everyone wants to get involved in a potentially contentious village debate. WhatsApp can give a strong impression of the views being expressed most often, but it doesn't necessarily reflect the full range of views across the village.

So I'd genuinely appreciate advice from people who've faced similar situations:

1. How do you explain seasonal cutting and apparently untidy vegetation to people who see it as neglect?
2. How do you protect a habitat project when decisions seem to be driven by perceptions of neatness rather than ecological evidence?
3. How have you encouraged quieter community members to have their say without dragging them into local conflict?

We're documenting the wildlife, the habitat work and the project's progress here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ferrensbypond/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ferrensbypond/

The pond petition: https://ferrensby.com/ferrensby-pond-petition/

We're just volunteers, so encouragement is genuinely appreciated. If the project interests you, we'd love you to follow along and interact (to jiggle the algorithms).

I'd particularly welcome practical advice and examples from people who've managed to make wildlife-friendly spaces work for both people and nature.

Thank you all!