By Katherine Walsh – Senior Environmental Specialist for terrestrial mammals within the Chief Scientist Directorate at Natural England England's red squirrel is one of our most beloved native species, yet it has quietly disappeared from most of the country over …
By Mike Smith – Deputy Director, Wildlife Licensing and Reform This blog outlines how Natural England is modernising the bat licensing system. It explores how we are building evidence to strengthen the planning system to deliver better outcomes for bat …
By Liz Frost, frequent visitor and fungi specialist, with Rachel Guy, Kingley Vale NNR Reserve Manager In mid-December 2025, amateur fungi enthusiast Liz Frost made an extraordinary discovery at Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve in West Sussex — spotting a …
By Greg Shaw, Senior Officer – Biodiversity Net Gain (Strategic Solutions and Biodiversity Net Gain Team). Across England, many communities face depleted green spaces and health inequalities. Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) can offer a clear link between development, wellbeing and …
By Alex Banks, Principal Specialist, Ornithology. Offshore wind development is a vitally important part of the UK government approach to tackling the climate crisis and addressing energy security. At the same time, it is also vitally important that we protect …
How do we know when a species is truly thriving, rather than just surviving? This is the question Natural England has been working to answer. We've now published new definitions that set out exactly what success looks like for four …
By Stuart Otway – Principal Officer, Complex Licensing; Delphine Pouget - Principal Officer, Species Recovery & Reintroductions; Giles Wagstaff - Senior Officer, Complex Licensing; Amy Radford – Senior Officer, Species Recovery & Reintroductions Two newly licensed beaver projects will very …
By Heather White - Senior Data Scientist and Daveron Smith - Principal Data Scientist In this blog, we launch the Beaver Considerations Assessment Toolkit (BCAT), a new mapping tool that has been developed by Natural England (NE), in collaboration with …
By David Feige, Northumberland County Council In this guest blog, David Feige, County Ecologist for Northumberland, explains the approach taken to approve a major new industrial development on a brownfield site at Cambois. The site contained a significant amount of …
By Chris Davis, Natural England’s Deputy Director for Landscape Recovery and Schemes Development At a time when the UK is facing serious environmental challenges such as climate change and loss of wildlife, restoring and protecting our natural capital is one …
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