31 Mar 2022
Britain’s loudest bird, the “booming” bittern, is making a recovery after almost disappearing from the UK twice. The RSPB reported the birds had had a “record-breaking year” in 2021, with 228 males counted, up from 209 in 2019. Ornithologist Dr Alex Lees described it as a “spectacular conservation success story” thanks to the restoration of wetland habitats. […]
31 Mar 2022
On World Water Day, the English and Welsh water regulator, Ofwat, has awarded £5.2m to innovative projects using new technology and cross-sector collaborations to improve water quality, reduce pollution and enhance services for consumers. Between now and the summer, the Water Breakthrough Challenge will award up to £39m to projects across England and Wales. The […]
31 Mar 2022
Environment Secretary George Eustice has appointed Judith Batchelar as Deputy Chair of the Environment Agency. Judith’s term will run from 1 April 2022 until the end of her second term on 31 March 2025. This follows the announcement of her reappointment to the EA Board in October 2021. Richard Macdonald’s term as Deputy Chair ends […]
31 Mar 2022
A superhuman effort by an army of volunteers during the UK’s first COVID-19 lockdown has resulted in 5.2 million rainfall observations, recorded by hand on paper sheets now stored in the Met Office archives, being added to a digital national record. The record now has significantly more data for pre-1960 and has filled in what […]
23 Mar 2022
Defra has launched a targets consultation and new Nature Recovery Green Paper and there has been extensive coverage of the announcement. Some reports criticised the developments and Defra has responded to some of these. The Nature Recovery Green Paper sets out the ambition to enable nature’s recovery in England, laying out proposals to support the […]
23 Mar 2022
Tiny particles that rub off of tyres are likely harming freshwater and coastal estuary ecosystems. The first study, published in Chemosphere last month, found that exposure to tyre particles had harmful effects on organisms from coastal estuaries, while the second, published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, found the same for freshwater organisms. Both studies grow out of […]
23 Mar 2022
On 17 March we covered a report by the Senedd’s Climate Change Committee which was calling on the Welsh Government to take urgent action to tackle sewage discharges made by water companies into Welsh rivers. There was a report of over 105,000 incidents of untreated sewage being dumped into Welsh rivers. Further information on this […]
23 Mar 2022
It was World Water Day on 22nd March, with a special focus on Groundwater. Most of Europe’s drinking water and a significant proportion of water used in irrigation come from groundwater. A European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing, published on World Water Day, provides a European overview of this key resource that is under increasing pressure […]
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