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Thousands have objected to plans to dump dredged sediment in a protected marine area, according to a charity.

Sussex Wildlife Trust said that more than 6,000 people responded to a public consultation on whether Brighton Marina should dispose of material in the Beachy Head West Marine Conservation Zone.

The charity said the practice risked harming the "nationally important wildlife hotspot" running parallel to the coast from Brighton to Eastbourne.

People are being asked for their views about a project to create a new woodland in Lincolnshire.

The Hagworthingham Wood project was one of five announced by Forestry England in 2025. The others will be created at Cadney, North Carlton, Newball and Mickleholme.

The 252-acre (102 hectare) woodland would feature a mix of trees and shrubs to support hedgehogs, bats, woodland birds, plants and insects, Forestry England said.

A tiny, neon-bright sea slug spotted during a public beach walk in Devon has become one of the rarest marine finds ever recorded in the UK.

The fire tip sea slug, known to scientists as Hermaea Variopicta, was discovered during a Shoresearch survey at Wembury in late March.

It was found by someone taking part in the Devon Wildlife Trust event, with photos taken by the trust's marine engagement assistant Jake Taylor-Bruce.

This year’s British Wildlife Photography Awards celebrates the wonder of the natural world. Whether it’s a patchwork leaf-cutter bee hard at work or the springtime spectacle of boxing hares, here’s our pick of the best shots

When the Queen Elizabeth II garden opens in Regent’s Park this month, the first people to visit the Royal Parks’ £5m biodiversity project will quickly discover they are not, in fact, the first visitors.

That honour belongs to a hairy-footed flower bee, a breeding pair of geese, some dragonfly nymphs, a flock of grey wagtails, a prickle of hedgehogs, an armada of newts, a flutter of spring butterflies and a “very cheeky” fox.

The Royal Parks has transformed the former brownfield site – which was historically used as a horticultural nursery – into a 8,000 sq metre (two-acre) paradise for flora and fauna, bringing about an estimated 184% increase in biodiverse wildlife habitat.

Wildlife experts have been left devastated by the continued intentional destruction of dune habitat on the Ardeer Peninsula in Ayrshire by its landowners – despite the dunes being ear-marked as part of a potential Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Local community groups and national wildlife organisations called on Scottish Government agency NatureScot to designate the special habitats of the Ardeer Peninsula as part of a Garnock Estuary SSSI back in 2022, building on a long-running local campaign to protect its wildlife. As it stands, much of the Ardeer Peninsula remains under threat from a Special Development Order dating back to 1953 which removes the requirements for planning permission that are needed almost anywhere else in Scotland.

In a welcomed move, NatureScot has been reviewing the potential boundaries for a SSSI in recent years, a vital step towards protecting its mosaic of dunes, grassland, woodlands, scrub and wetlands.

The UK Government has published its response to a consultation on improving the implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) for minor, medium and brownfield development, setting out a package of reforms expected to come into force before 31 July 2026 (subject to parliamentary scheduling).

BNG remains “widely considered to be a world-leading environmental policy”, and Government has reiterated that it “remains committed to BNG and recognises the importance of BNG in delivering nature-positive homes and infrastructure that this country needs.”

However, the response is primarily aimed at reducing burdens on developers (especially smaller ones) rather than strengthening outcomes for nature.

More than 15m juvenile oysters are to be released into the North Sea in one of the biggest rewilding projects in UK waters.

The scheme, which will use a unique rearing process, hopes to re-establish a huge oyster bed around Orkney that experts say will create a “trophic cascade” of climate and ecological benefits.

Richard Land, the marine expert leading the project, said it would have a knock-on impact on the entire ecosystem. “It won’t just benefit fish and the bay, it will benefit sea mammals, seabirds and the whole environment.”

A countryside organisation has launched a campaign to crown the UK's 16th National Park to mark its 100th birthday.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) in Somerset wants to have the Somerset Levels recognised with the honour - the UK's largest wetland. The levels are the UK's biggest lowland wetlands, and are used as flood plains during the winter to protect urban areas of Somerset.

The UK has 15 national parks. The first one was the Peak District in 1951 and the most recent was the South Downs, which was designated in 2010.

Marine experts say orca sightings are "definitely up" in one part of the UK's coast but it is not clear why.

On Wednesday, fishermen spotted a pod of up to 10 off the Northumberland coast, one of several visits orcas - or killer whales - have made to the area in recent years.

The North East Cetacean Project's coordinator, Martin Kitching, said there had been sporadic sightings from north of the Tees, past the Wear and Tyne estuaries to the Scottish border since 2000, but in 2025 there were "five verified sightings in Northumberland alone".

A new report has found that the Darwin Tree of Life project, which aims to sequence the genomes of all complex life in the UK and Ireland, could generate billions of pounds for the global economy.

It is estimated that there are as many as 70,000 species of animals, fungi and plants in the UK. These range from the red squirrel and oak tree to the haircap moss and orange-clubbed sea slug.

The Darwin Tree of Life is an ambitious project to sequence the genomes of all these species. Over the last decade scientists have been going out into the field to collect new, high-quality samples of these animals and plants so that their DNA can be extracted and sequenced using modern techniques.