Dom Spracklen

The tour continues...what a busy & chatty morning we had at West Cumbria Volunteering Fair. Jack's addition of a microscope to examine lichens was a winner. We nearly ran out of leaflets! @reachvolunteering.org.uk @cumbriacvs.bsky.social @leedsleaf.bsky.social @forestryengland.bsky.social

A group of 24 people standing in a line in a woodland smiling at the camera. All are wearing outdoor clothing. Credit TGTF

Last week we celebrated 10 Years of #TheGreatTrossachsForest National Nature Reserve with partners at #GlenFinglas. It's 20 years since the partnership began. We've achieved ✅Over 3,000 hectares of new woodland created ✅432 hectares of peatland restored ✅70% increase in black grouse lekking 1/4...

An exotic location. Did you explore the Dark Arches?

It was an honour to be at the launch of the Ingleborough NNR into the King's Series of NNRs earlier this month - check out the blog below for more on what the #WildIngleborough partnership has achieved since forming in 2021 🌳🦋🐦

More deforestation leads to a drier dry season, Amazon study finds In Brazil’s southern Amazonian region, where the notorious “arc of deforestation” has been expanding since the 1970s, forest loss is reshaping the region’s atmospheric water cycle. As the Amazon Rainf...

The Amazon forest plays a critical role in the water cycle. A new study shows recent deforestation has caused reduced dry season rainfall across the southern Amazon. New story from @mongabay.com

news.mongabay.com/2025/09/more...

Restoring Hardknott Forest Volunteer Day: 21st October, 2025 Join us on a volunteer day to help maintain & remove tree tubes, remove non-native conifers, plant trees and wildflowers and allow the natural...

As usual all our volunteer days filled up quickly, but a space has just opened up for this one. We can make another space available if anyone wants to bring a friend along. Please share.
@envleeds.bsky.social @leedsleaf.bsky.social @cumbriacvs.bsky.social

www.trybooking.com/uk/FDWV

Find us, and loads of other groups advertising volunteering opportunities in Whitehaven on Thursday. @cumbriawildlife.bsky.social #whitehaven @cumbriacvs.bsky.social

Our volunteering restarts on Sunday. As well as the essential job of removing non-native trees, we've loads of wildflowers & native trees to plant. Top vol Ade has been growing aspen, birch & oak for us & we have 1000's of wildflowers from
@wildhaweswater.bsky.social @cumbriawildlife.bsky.social

A Golden Plover stands alert among the reddish-brown heather and grasses of upland peatland. Its mottled gold and black plumage blends with the landscape, a reminder that these precious habitats are home to rare and remarkable wildlife.

GOOD NEWS: the peat burning ban is being extended in the English uplands. 👏

Peatlands lock up carbon, protect water & support rare wildlife.

We hope today's announcement signals a move to end this damaging practice for good, and thank our supporters for helping make it happen.

Ingleborough National Nature Reserve to be extended The extension will offer greater protection to the rare species found in the Dales upland landscape.

Ingleborough National Nature Reserve expanded - great news for the UK's best limestone habitats and wildlife. Research and monitoring by
@universityofleeds.bsky.social

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Deforestation in a SE Asian tropical forest. Photo credit: Carly Reddington

🌍 Our new study in @natclimate.nature.com shows tropical #deforestation may cause ~28,000 heat-related deaths/year.
🌳🌡️💻🛰️ Using satellite data & mortality models we quantified the impact of deforestation-driven local warming on human health in the tropics.

🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s415...
🔗 rdcu.be/eEUbI

Tropical deforestation is associated with considerable heat-related mortality - Nature Climate Change The authors assess the impacts of tropical deforestation and its subsequent local warming on human heat-related mortality. They estimate that deforestation-related warming (+0.27 °C) is associated wit...

New study led by @drcarlyreddington.bsky.social tracks climate heating and human health impacts of tropical deforestation @universityofleeds.bsky.social @leedsleaf.bsky.social @universityofleeds.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Deforestation has killed half a million people in past 20 years, study finds Localised rises in temperature caused by land clearance cause 28,330 heat-related deaths a year, researchers find

Tropical deforestation is a major public health issue. New study led by @drcarlyreddington.bsky.social, story by @jonathan-watts.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Deforestation has killed half a million people in past 20 years, study finds Localised rises in temperature caused by land clearance cause 28,330 heat-related deaths a year, researchers find

Deforestation has killed half a million people in past 20 years, study finds

#climatecrisis
Story by @jonathan-watts.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Brazil authorities suspend key Amazon rainforest protection measure Suspension of Soy moratorium could open up area of rainforest the size of Portugal to destruction

Brazil authorities suspend key Amazon rainforest protection measure

- Suspension of soy moratorium could open up area of rainforest the size of Portugal to destruction

Story by @jonathan-watts.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

As seen at Gosforth Show last weekend, come & find our very educational & slightly interactive stall at the #krankenhaus festival this weekend. Difficult questions welcome! @showcasecumbria.bsky.social @forestryengland.bsky.social @leedsleaf.bsky.social @nationaltrust.org.uk

Great to host the #CSSPBrazil meeting at the @universityofleeds.bsky.social Celebrating 10 years of Brazil - UK collaboration on climate science. #WCSSP #ISPF @metoffice.gov.uk @richardabetts.bsky.social

Rainfall triggers extreme humid heat in tropics and subtropics Scientists believe they have found a way to improve warning systems for vulnerable communities threatened by humid heatwaves, which are on the rise due to climate change and can damage human health.

Research led by Dr Lawrence Jackson and Professor Cathryn Birch in collaboration with @ukceh.bsky.social reveals potential for improved humid heat early warning systems to help vulnerable people prepare for dangerous humid heatwaves.

environment.leeds.ac.uk/news/article...

As annoying as it was to find an abandoned camp site & litter at Hardknott, it's worth contrasting it with how quickly our dedicated volunteers & staff got rid of it. We're now back to finding only vintage litter, such as this rusting beer can & stubby beer bottle. @keepbritaintidy.bsky.social

Our spring appeal is here!

We urgently need your help to save one of the world’s most threatened cloud forests.

www.worldlandtrust.org/news/2025/03... 🔗

Save The Cloud Forests of Honduras WLT need your help to raise £443,540 - Donations will help our partner AESMO save 225 acres of precious cloud forest before it is too late...

Support @worldlandtrust.org protect cloud forests in Honduras, crucial for amazing wildlife and clean water for surrounding communities:
www.worldlandtrust.org/appeals/save...

A round building with a sloped roof and narrow windows, clad with wood and painted sage green. Exterior signage reads, 'Glen Finglas Visitor Gateway'. Credit WTML

The curved wall of a toilet is covered in photo wallpaper depicting a birch woodland in summer, with a path leading into the distance. There is a door in the wall and a window; free sanitary products are available on the window ledge. Credit WTML.

Seven people dressed in rain jackets, inside a colourfully decorated building with mountains painted on the wall. There are images and photos of Glen Finglas lining the curved walls. Credit WTML

A reservoir (Glen Finglas) in the middle of a glen, with a small island in the centre covered in trees. Mountains in the distance, a track on the right-hand side and native woodland in the foreground. everything is very green. Credit WTML

Walking this weekend? Our recently revamped Visitor Gateway at #GlenFinglas in the #Trossachs is now open 10am to 4pm, every day. There's plenty of parking, 10 waymarked trails, friendly volunteers to give advice & a loo with a spectacular view 😆!
Visit Glen Finglas 👉 buff.ly/oX68lRm

Donate to Support our wildflower and tree nursery in the Duddon Valley, organised by Restoring Hardknott Forest Can you help us build a community nursery to grow rare wildfl… Restoring Hardknott Forest needs your support for Support our wildflower and tree nursery in the Duddon Valley

We're so close to our £1000 target to start funding the tools and equipment we need for our new #tree nursery. Donations and shares gratefully received. Many thanks.
@envleeds.bsky.social @leedsleaf.bsky.social @domspracklen.bsky.social

gofund.me/ddccc2ea

How much more carbon could be protected in mature and old-growth forests of the United States? Mature and old-growth (MOG) forests are superior to younger forests for mitigating the climate and biodiversity crises. MOG forests store far more car…

"Protecting mature & old-growth forests from commercial timber harvest, while allowing mature forests to grow into old-growth, could increase accumulated forest carbon stocks by 10.8B Mg this century, comparable to 8 yrs of fossil fuel emissions in the US." 🌏 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our friends at Nature Rich Miterdale need some help this Friday. If you fancy a healthy combo of practical conservation tasks, stunning views & occasional lounging in the sun, use the link below to book. Pls share.
@leedsleaf.bsky.social @envleeds.bsky.social

www.trybooking.com/uk/events/la...?

First ‘Wistman’s Wood’ trees planted as part of efforts to double size of ancient temperate rainforest

3 years ago, when I wrote The Lost Rainforests of Britain, I talked about the importance of expanding fragments of temperate rainforest like Wistman's Wood

Well now the Duchy of Cornwall is actually doing it. (And through natural regeneration, not just planting!)
duchyofcornwall.org/article/firs...

Peatland burning ban to protect wildlife and England's carbon stores

We’re thrilled to see the UK Government’s new proposal to ban heather burning on peatland, protecting our air, water and wildlife.

ISPF UK-Amazonia Workshop Future range of Amazonian Biodiversity - University of Birmingham Call for participants in a fully funded workshop on modelling Amazonian biodiversity

Call for applicants: fully-funded ISPF British Council Workshop on Future range of Amazonian Biodiversity, 27/7-2/8 in Manaus. We will train UK- and Brazil-based ecologists and conservationists on mechanistic range models and on Amazonian ecosystems. Details: shorturl.at/hIa7Z. Re-post, please!

Emerging hairy wood ants. A healthy, functioning woodland should have literally millions of these! They are a key part of many food chains. Their nests can be up to 2m high with 250,000 ants in the colony.

A Timber Wolf in a woodland

A new Leeds study has shown that reintroducing wolves to the Scottish Highlands could help address the climate emergency 🐺

This reintroduction could lead to an expansion of native woodland, which could take in and store one million tonnes of CO2 annually 🌳

Read the full story 👇
bit.ly/4hFeNvM