Evidence

Crayfish clawing their way back in Nottinghamshire: A conservation success story in the making

Bare hand holding a crayfish above a blue bucket.

By Danielle Greaves, Higher Officer - Species Reintroduction and Recovery, Natural England Hidden beneath the surface of Nottinghamshire's rivers and streams lives an increasingly rare species – the white-clawed crayfish. As the UK's only native freshwater crayfish, these creatures play …

Unearthing the Past to Restore Our Future: The Role of Palaeontology in Nature Recovery

By Joshua Smith, NE Senior Specialist Palaeontologist Fossils represent evidence of past life stored in the sequence of rocks below our feet. Like the pages of a book, England's rock record tells the story of changing continents, climates and environments …

The power of DNA: using innovation for nature’s recovery

A Natural England adviser taking a water sample from a pond to monitor DNA

By Andrew Nisbet, Natural England's Deputy Director for Monitoring Natural England is at the forefront of introducing innovative technologies into biodiversity monitoring. Environmental DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the DNA that can be obtained from an environmental sample such as water, …

Wildlife licensing: enabling development while protecting Nature - annual summary 2024  

A bat hunting an insect

By Gemma Ole's, Deputy Director, Natural England Wildlife Licensing Service At Natural England we help balance economic growth with nature protection. Wildlife licensing is a vital tool to enable this. Our licences are broad ranging and allow development and other …

Action to restore or create at least 38,877 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat has been undertaken since January 2023

By Dr Ruth Hall, Principal specialist for habitats at Natural England Today, for the first time we can start to understand our progress towards the Environment Act habitat target, which is to restore or create at least 500,000 hectares of …

Protecting one of England's rarest marine habitats: Natural England's work on maerl

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Biodiversity, Evidence, Marine environment, Monitoring, Natural England, Nature
Maerl researcher and academic Professor Jason Hall-Spencer showing Phumatolithon calcareum maerl. Credit Matt Slater

By Angela Gall, Marine Senior Officer Hidden beneath the waves along the south coast of Cornwall lies an ancient marine habitat, maerl beds. These pink, twiglet-shaped rhodoliths are free-living, calcified red seaweeds forming intricate, three-dimensional structures on the seabed. They're …

Two more years: extending ambitions for Nature recovery

Tony walks with King Charles along a path in the Lincolnshire NNR. It's a beautiful sunny day, the King wears a light beige coloured suit. Tony has a blue shirt - he carries a pair of binoculars in his hand.

By Tony Juniper CBE, Chair of Natural England I was delighted to be invited to serve a third term as Chair of Natural England and look forward to continuing to lead the organisation as it adopts and implements a new …

Using our evidence to plan our approach to the management of Dartmoor's SSSIs

A view across Dartmoor with a large rocky formation in the foreground

Today we have published a Review of the evidence for the management of Dartmoor’s Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). As an evidence-led organisation, we use this to inform our advice to farmers and stakeholders on Dartmoor. Our job is …

Growing the evidence base to recover England’s treasured peatland landscapes

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Evidence, Peat

England’s peatland landscapes are places of inspiration, adventure and beauty. From the sweeping moors of the Pennines to the ancient heaths and mires of the New Forest, these treasured landscapes are more than just amazing wild spaces to visit. They …

Mountain hares in decline: New research reveals diminishing numbers in the Peak District 

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Biodiversity, Evidence, Monitoring, Natural England, Nature, Science and evidence, Wildlife

By Dr Carlos Bedson The Peak District is home to England's only population of mountain hares, a remarkable Arctic species introduced here in the 1870s by sporting landowners. These cold-adapted mammals, with their distinctive seasonal white winter coats, have become …