What lies beneath: the data shaping the future of offshore wind energy

Jumping bottlenose dolphin.

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 …

Collaborating at scale for nature and people

Nature Returns site on Exmoor. Credit: Mike Morecroft

In this post, Mike Morecroft, Deputy Director for Climate Change Science at Natural England, reflects on the Resilient Landscapes and Seas partnership symposium held recently in Edinburgh, where conservationists, scientists and land managers from across the UK and beyond came …

Guest blog: Using Biodiversity Net Gain to Support Dynamic Habitats

How do you create dynamic habitat systems, that are allowed to shift, grow, and reshape themselves naturally, within the rules of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)? BNG requires that developers leave nature in a measurably better state either on site and …

Defining Success for Wildlife: What Does "Thriving" Really Mean?

Pine Marten. Credit: Robert Cruikshanks

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 …

The Bat Advice Service (BAS) – Reforming Natural England’s advice for householders 

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Development, Licensing, Natural England, Nature, Protected sites and species

By Matt Heard, National Delivery Director In this blog we explain how we are reforming the Bat Advice Service, the free support available to householders and places of worship who have bat roosts in their buildings. We cover what the current …

ReSCUE takes flight: Survey campaign to address gaps in seabird flight height data.

Wind turbines in the North Sea. Credit: Andrew Harwood

By Rachel Mewes – Marine Ornithology Specialist and ReSCUE Project Support, Eddie Cole – ReSCUE Project Lead and Andrew Harwood – Senior Marine Ornithology Specialist and ReSCUE Technical Lead Offshore wind expansion is critical to the UK government’s ambitions to …

Hinkley Point C - Supporting Sustainable Growth and Restoring the Severn Estuary

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Development, Growth, Natural England

By Dave Slater, NE Regional Director for the South West Hinkley Point C will be the UK's largest nuclear power station, providing low-carbon energy to millions of homes. But building it in the Severn Estuary, one of Britain's most important …

Beaver Update: Two new licensed wild release projects, more to follow!

image of beaver on grass

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 …

Greener, Faster, Better: How Partnership Working is Streamlining Development on the Lower Thames Crossing

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Development, Growth, Natural England, Nature

By Marian Spain, CEO of Natural England It’s not often that a major infrastructure project is associated with being green, but recently I visited a project which aims to be ‘Britain’s greenest road’. This is a bold claim but one …

A new mapping tool to support beaver reintroductions and dispersal across England

Posted by: and , Posted on: - Categories: Biodiversity, Science and evidence, Species re-introductions, Species recovery
A Eurasian Beaver in water

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 …