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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 …

Shapwick Heath Peat Restoration – Bringing Bogs Back to Somerset

By Louise Treneman, Senior Reserve Manager Peatlands habitats, such as raised bog, blanket bog and fen, in good condition, are home to a wide range of species and store the largest amount of carbon of all habitats in England. However, …

Tracking Jack Snipe: Our quest to understand the UK’s most elusive bird

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Biodiversity, Evidence, Monitoring, Natural England, Nature, Nature Recovery, Wildlife
Jack Snipe head and bill profile. © Kevin Clements, Natural England.

By Kevin Clements, West Midlands Area Delivery Team The project The Jack Snipe is probably our most elusive and least understood bird. But a Natural England project aims to change that. It’s a small and secretive bird which, arguably, a …

Forests beneath the waves: celebrating our magnificent kelp 

Marina Rees, Marine Higher Officer at Natural England When I joined the Thames Solent team as a marine lead adviser, I jumped at the opportunity to work on a project which delved into the world of kelp. I have long …

England Ecosystem Survey: introducing England’s largest ever field survey

Sometimes the sun even shines while we’re out surveying! Surveyors out in the Lake District

By Isabel Sloman, Manager, and Elizabeth Mitchell, Senior Advisor for Engagement and Impact, Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment programme The England Ecosystem Survey (EES), the largest field survey ever undertaken in the UK, is now well underway. Working at thousands …

Dartmoor: achieving a future with thriving agriculture and thriving nature

Sheep grazing on dartmoor - the landscape is brown and poor condition where the sheep have been overgrazing. there are 5 sheep white within the picture, hills rolling in the background.

By Dave Slater, NE Regional Director for the South West Since our previous blog reflecting on the condition of Dartmoor’s special habitats there has been a lot of public discourse on what should happen on Dartmoor’s sites of special scientific …

Living England: From Satellite Imagery to a National Scale Habitat Map

By Alexandra Kilcoyne, Amy Woodget, Anne Stefaniak, Miles Clement, Chris Moore, Sophie Potter and Becky Trippier A new map that shows the extent and distribution of habitats in England has been launched on 5 April 2022. This probability map, which …