The release of beavers into English waterways is to be allowed for the first time in centuries, the Guardian can reveal. The environment secretary, Steve Reed, is to announce that nature groups will be able to get a licence for the release. The first releases could happen this autumn. Until about 20 years ago, the […]
Tag: wetlands
Adventure tourism under threat and environmentalists up in arms after government lifts coal mining ban in Canada’s Eastern Rockies
A ban on coal mining in the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, which has been in place for nearly 50 years has been lifted by the Alberta government. The Eastern Rockies are popular with hikers, climbers, skiers, kayakers and more, and home to a wide variety of wildlife. Now they are under threat […]
Birdwatch: an unlikely encounter with the least sandpiper in Somerset
If you’d asked me which rare bird I might see in Somerset in early January, the least sandpiper would have been very low on my list. Yet on a fine, bright, chilly morning here it was: running along the edge of the water like a clockwork toy, probing the mud for food with its stubby […]
Ghosts of the landscape: how folklore and songs are key to rewilding Finland’s reindeer
The Finnish folk musician Liisa Matveinen lives in a mustard-coloured house in Ilomantsi, 12 miles (20km) from the Russian border. Large books of folk songs line her walls. Sitting in her kitchen, Matveinen sings about a humble hunter going into the woods to find reindeer. The song tells us how they were “honoured” providers of […]
Indigenous guardians embark on a sacred pact to protect the lowland tapir in Colombia
In the forest’s fecund gloom, José Muchavisoy leads the guardians of the territory as they scan the undergrowth for trails left by their target. Strangely splayed paw prints, dung among the leaf litter and mud wallows where the creature cooled off during the hottest hours of the day are hints it was recently here. If […]
Could a million freshwater turtles help clean up some of Australia’s polluted rivers? A team of scientists believes, they could!
For well over a century, freshwater fish from Europe – the carp (originally from China), have been released, either deliberately or accidentally from fish farms, into Australian waterways. The fish, now widely regarded as pests, are thriving. Their habitat includes rivers flowing through the Murray-Darling Basin of New South Wales. Those vast waterways support, through […]