The Wildlife Trusts has welcomed the news that eight new regional water councils will be set up in England to give public and local leaders a direct say in how water companies deliver for their area.

The new regional water councils will bring local leaders, customers and businesses together to set the priorities for their region, helping shape billions of pounds of investment in water and flood infrastructure.

Decisions about the water system are currently taken nationally, despite communities facing very different challenges. The new councils will change that, giving communities and local leaders a stronger voice over priorities including sewage and water quality, flooding, drought and future water supplies. Mayors will also receive new powers through the strengthened Water Bill to hold water companies to account for their performance.

A petition with almost 55,000 signatures was handed into Google’s flagship London office today, calling on it to withdraw controversial data centre plans for an Essex Local Wildlife Site, but they refused to accept it.

Google’s proposed Thurrock Data Centre campus would destroy much of the 52-hectare Arena Essex Local Wildlife Site, which is home to hundreds of species of invertebrate, including the Brown-banded Carder Bee (Bombus humilis) and Dingy Skipper butterfly (Erynnis tages), Red Listed Nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos) and Endangered Broad-leaved Cudweed (Filago pyramidata).

Nestled in a former quarry and wedged between the Mardyke Valley and Lakeside Retail Park, this unique wildlife haven has thrived almost unnoticed, alongside speedway at the Arena Essex Raceway until the track closed in 2018. Studies have revealed that the proposals would emit more carbon than an international airport, alongside increasing water demand in an area of exceptional drought stress, while offering few benefits for the local community.

New research by Queen’s University Belfast has found that noise pollution is having increasingly significant impacts on the development, behaviour and mortality of species worldwide.

The paper, published today in Science, is an analysis of 214 experimental studies on 177 aquatic and terrestrial species across six continents.

It shows that noise pollution changes physiology, development, or behaviour in 80% of the species studied, reduces fitness and abundance, and disrupts predator-prey interactions.

A rare fungus once thought extinct in Britain has been discovered at a wildlife park in Kent.

The crown-tipped coral fungus was spotted growing on a fallen log at Wildwood Trust near Canterbury by a keeper near the rabbit enclosure.

Also known as candelabra coral, the fungus went 116 years without a confirmed sighting before being rediscovered in Suffolk in 2012, heritage officer Steve Kirk said.

Warming seas around the UK and the wider north-east Atlantic could destabilise marine food webs, weaken ocean health and jeopardise food security by 2050, according to a four-year study.

Scientists who projected the impact of climate breakdown on four key groups of marine life crucial to maintaining ocean ecosystems in the region said their results challenged assumptions that in middle latitudes, such as the UK, marine biodiversity was likely to increase across the board.

Instead, their projections highlight a predator-prey imbalance that could “fundamentally reshape marine ecosystems” in unforeseen ways, they said.

Nine in 10 people believe National Parks can help support people’s mental health and wellbeing, while eight in 10 agree National Parks are taking action on climate and nature.

A new report from National Parks UK reveals strong public support for the wider role National Parks can play in people’s lives, alongside shared concerns about mental wellbeing, nature loss, access to nature and the impacts of climate change.

The Woodland Trust is urging ministers to strengthen the UK’s biosecurity measures after the emerald ash borer, a devastating tree pest responsible for killing millions of ash trees in the US, was detected for the first time in the EU.

The Trust has warned that the emerald ash borer is one of the world’s most destructive tree pests, and that the human movement of wood products is one of the principal ways it is spread.

The warning comes as the Government negotiates a new Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement with the European Union, designed to reduce trade barriers on plants, plant products and food. Government guidance suggests routine phytosanitary certification and border checks on many plant products moving from the EU into Great Britain will no longer be required once the agreement comes into force.

Wildlife across England has suffered a significant decline, but how much of London’s natural habitat and wildlife has been lost remains difficult to establish, with calls for better monitoring and more reliable figures to show what is happening to the capital’s biodiversity.

Government figures published in May 2026 show that the average abundance of monitored species in England fell by around 40% between 1970 and 2024. The indicator for priority species recorded an even greater decline, of around 80%.

However, these figures cover England as a whole and do not provide a separate measurement of wildlife loss across London.

Campaigners are calling on the UK government to protect the welfare of wild animals by cutting the maximum noise level of fireworks sold to the public from 120 to 90 decibels.

The Center for Wild Animal Welfare (CWAW) has said lowering the limit to 90dB – which is about one-eighth of the loudness of 120dB – would help to protect millions of wild animals from acute stress by reducing the area over which a firework disturbs surrounding wildlife.

This would help prevent incidents of harm, such as mass temporary displacement and fatal collisions among birds, that can occur during fireworks displays, it says.

A scrutiny panel has heard Jersey is in a "biodiversity crisis", amid concerns the government is not focusing on the environment enough.

Willie Peggie, government Director of Natural Environment, said the Environment Department needed time and resources for a state of nature report.

Piers Sangan, who runs Sangan Island Conversation, said a biodiversity crisis included more invasive species, fewer native species, and a decline in the ecosystem. He said the government had responsibility to ensure the environment did not "fall by the wayside" because it was a "fundamental part of our island".

A new species, the Blyth’s Reed Warbler, has bred in the UK for the first time, according to the latest report (Rare Breeding Birds in the UK in 2024) from the Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP), the independent body that monitors the country’s rarest breeding birds. A pair raised young at a site in Highland in 2024. The species typically breeds in Scandinavia and Russia, but its arrival as a UK breeding bird had been predicted: its breeding range has shifted west across Sweden and Norway in recent decades, and singing males have been reported in the UK since 2000. This is the first time, however, that a pair has been recorded. Blyth’s Reed Warbler is the fourth new confirmed breeding species that the RBBP has reported in the last ten years, following Iberian Chiffchaff (2015), Black-crowned Night Heron (2017) and Glossy Ibis (2022).

In addition, a new species features in an RBBP report for the first time; two male Red-breasted Flycatchers were reported holding territories in 2024, in woodland in North-east Scotland and Upper Forth, although neither succeeded in attracting a mate.

Anglian Water has been accused of "not taking polluting seriously" after it registered 12 serious incidents in 2025 and was rated "requires improvement" by regulators for the fifth year in a row.

The company, which supplies water and sewerage services across the East of England, parts of the East Midlands and Lincolnshire, admitted it had "more to do", but said bathing waters in its area were their cleanest in a decade.

Scientists and campaigners said they were still seeing high levels of pollution in the region's waterways, from the River Great Ouse in Bedfordshire to the River Deben in Suffolk.