Landscape

Experience and expertise advising Natural England’s Board:  Natural England’s Landscape Advisory Panel after three and a half years. 

Landscape Advisory Panel members, with Natural England staff, during their July 2025 meeting, in Winchester

By Co-Chairs Dame Caroline Spelman and Sarah Mukherjee MBE. Together, we have the pleasure of Co-Chairing Natural England’s Landscape Advisory Panel (NELAP), Sarah as our external Co-Chair, drawing upon her long experience, including as a Member of Julian Glover’s Landscapes …

New Weed Control Handbook Published: A Smarter, Greener Approach to Vegetation Management

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Biodiversity, Landscape, Natural England, Nature, Nature Recovery, Weed Control
Himalayan balsam on a field edge. Natural England

By Patrick Shannon-Hughes, Environmental Quality for Nature Senior Officer (Agri Chemicals) We’re pleased to release the updated Weed Control Handbook: Guidance for Herbicide Use on Nature Conservation Sites - a long-awaited refresh of the 2002 Herbicide Handbook. This new edition …

Wildfires: Nature’s role in resisting the spark

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Biodiversity, Countryside Code, Landscape, Natural England, Nature, Nature Recovery, Wildfire
Fire stops at a wet gully edge in Dove Stone 2018. Credit: Jon Bird (RSPB)

Updated (3 October 2025) By Sallie Bailey, Natural England’s Chief Scientist This year we have witnessed wildfires ravaging England’s uplands and heaths on a historic scale, with prolonged hot and dry weather providing the ideal conditions for blazes lasting weeks. …

24 hour 'bioblitz' at one of England's newest National Nature Reserves

By Karen Faux - Local Nature Recovery Senior at Natural England In July, over 50 Natural England staff and partners came together for a 24 hour species recording event (or ‘bioblitz’) on the recently declared North Kent Woods and Downs …

Nurturing Cumbria's Hidden Gem: East of Eden Nature Recovery Project

By Katharine Milnes, East of Eden Nature Recovery Project Senior Advisor A Landscape of Contrasts Venture east of the M6, away from Cumbria's famous Lake District mountains, and you'll discover Cumbria's own Eden. Here, the wide, fertile valley of the …

Protected Site Strategies – Problems Shared

By David Burton, Principal Officer, Protected Site Strategies “Whatever lies on the horizon, these reserves might just offer a simple vision of how good things could be.” Professor John Wedgwood Clarke, Wild Westcountry Odyssey 2025 So reflected academic and poet …

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 …

Green Infrastructure: the catalyst for Urban Greening 

It’s two years since Natural England launched the Green Infrastructure (GI) Framework to support the creation of good quality Green Infrastructure. It’s well documented that we need to build a more sustainable future, and at the forefront of this movement …

Saving species in Somerset; the work of the Somerset, Coast Levels and Moors Nature Recovery Project

By Simon Phelps – Natural England Over the past three years, the Somerset Coast, Levels and Moors Nature Recovery Project has been working hard to save some of our most threatened wetland species. I’m fortunate to not only be leading …

1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act - a reflection from Navroza Ladha

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Landscape, Nature, Parks, trails and nature reserves, Wildlife

By Navroza Ladha, Chief Officer for Legal, Governance and External Affairs at Natural England On the 16 December this year (2024) we will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the groundbreaking “1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act”, …