Luke Steele

Five volunteers proud of their work (after another ten finished earlier) surrounded by piled up dead Rhododendron Ponticum.

A huge bush of rhododendron being tackled with various hand tools.

A surprisingly tall tree of rhododendron being bow sawed to the ground by an extremely determined volunteer.

The amazing people of Ilkley, Otley, Harrogate, and slightly further afield all rocked up to smash the destructive invasive Rhododendron out of West Wood. Tomorrow’s crew are gonna have light work because this lot exceeded expectations drastically and left us with one or two out of 80!!

More beavers released but critics say it’s too dam slow to rewild England Environmentalists criticise Labour’s slow and expensive rewilding project as a ‘bumbling bugger-up’

Thank you to @adamvaughan.bsky.social of the Times for covering the work of the Knepp beavers.

They're busy rewilding the land, holding back flood water, cleaning streams. We urgently need more beavers in the UK. We urge the government to speed up wild releases.

www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Thanks for sharing, this was a really interesting read.

Encouraging to see early signs of success from curlew headstarting, even if it’s still too soon to know whether it’s a conservation approach that should be scaled up.

Pennines delight as drone survey offers hope for one of UK’s rarest birds Conservationists find dunlin chicks thriving in boggy habitat created in collaboration with landowners

A real success story showing how re-wetting upland peatlands by landowners and conservationists is helping one of the UK’s rarest birds, the dunlin, recover.

With peatland restoration gaining momentum in recent years, it’s vital to keep that progress going.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Kingsdale Head is restoring peatland, boosting biodiversity & repairing heritage features with £101k+ #FiPL funding🌱

Find out more about the project and other FiPL case studies on our website👉 https://ow.ly/XsZp50Y5iBL

#YorkshireDales #Defra #FarmingInProtectedLandscapes

Pool of standing water on North Pennines peatland with patches of green sphagnum

North Pennines peatland with large pool of water and peat bunds in gully. Bright blue sky with minimal cloud.

North Pennines peatland with large pools of standing water. Fells in the background. Cloudy sky.

🔵Today is #WorldWetlandsDay
Peatlands are wetland ecosystems and we have them across the uplands of the North Pennines National Landscape. #northpenninespeatlands #celebratingwetlands #peatlands #wetlands #peatlandsmatter

Iran report says 16,500 dead in ‘genocide under digital darkness’

Witnesses tell of the brutality inflicted on those taking part in anti-regime protests

Iranians deserve our voice.
FREE IRAN

Grazing Ecology - Knepp At the heart of the Knepp rewilding experiment is the influence of ecologist Dr Frans Vera, and his book, Grazing Ecology and Forest History.

A good example is what Knepp Estate is doing - they use cattle, pigs and ponies to create disturbance and regenerate the landscape.

Even in wilder systems like that, it’s not a case of “just leave it and see what happens", but actively engaging with the land.
knepp.co.uk/rewilding/gr...

Monks Wood is an interesting experiment, but it looked at arable land, not ancient grasslands - which are very different habitats.

In any event, biodiversity depends on a mosaic of habitats. Not just broadleaf woodland, but also glades and other open areas, which comes with having grazing.

Nonsense. Grassland has been a core part of Britain's ecosystems for millennia.

Long before livestock, it was grazed by aurochs (now extinct) and red deer, which helped maintain areas of open pasture.

Conservation grazing simply replicates these natural processes using cattle, ponies and sheep.

If you're restoring bog cattle makes more sense, especially where there's molinia.

But the uplands aren't, as you know, just bog. Sheep can be useful, too, particularly on slopes with waxcap grasslands.

It’s about the right animal, at the right density, for the right time, in the right place.

Dame Barbara Hepworth was born #OTD 10 January 1903. Three of her nine 'The Family of Man' sculptures form a memorial to Benjamin Britten at Snape Maltings, Suffolk, the marshes beyond. They were installed here in 1976, the year after her death. That's the tower of Iken church in the target sights.

I’m tired of this “just leave the land alone” nonsense.

If you abandon a damaged habitat and let it “do its own thing,” it doesn’t heal, it keeps getting worse.

Landscapes don’t fix themselves. You need active restoration: re-wet the peat, replant the woods, put grazing back on ancient grasslands.

The challenge, though, is that existing agri-environment schemes under CS and the SFI, particularly UPL2 (low livestock grazing on moorland) and UPL4 (keeping cattle and ponies on moorland), don't, on the whole, provide sufficient financial support to incentivise upland cattle grazing.

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See, for example, what Hill Top Farm are doing in the Yorkshire Dales:
hilltopmalham.co.uk/farming-and-...

And similarly at Kingsdale Head, also in the Dales:
www.kingsdalehead.com

2/3

It’s not really an either/or.

There’s lots of room for more upland cattle grazing - something that would help regenerate heathlands on the tops, as well as ancient grasslands and hay meadows on in-bye land.

1/3

A little late to the party, but this is next on my reading list. 📖

Northumberland nature recovery project takes shape with biggest land sale in 30 years Wildlife trust is raising funds to buy largest piece of land in single ownership to come up for sale in England for a generation

One of the defining moments for nature in 2025 has been the momentum building behind the @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social bid to buy Rothbury.

Ambition and decisive action like this is crucial for securing the restoration of the country’s cherished landscapes.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Thanks for clarifying the article is inaccurate.

Habitat work in the South Pennines has been a real positive in recent years, but sadly it hasn’t stopped the decline of the existing population.

More research into the causes is evidently needed before reintroductions can be considered.

Close up photo of a small bonnet mushroom with a mossy background. Text on the image reads: 'Impact story: Kingsdale Head. Growing native mosses to restore and protect peatlands'. Photo credit: Andrew Wakefield

Kingsdale Head are restoring damaged peatland on their 607-hectare former sheep farm, supported by our Rewilding Innovation Fund 🌱

The Fund has helped Kingsdale to grow and transplant native sphagnum mosses which drive a lot of the processes on blanket bogs, including peat formations.

🧵1/2

Defra announces biggest animal welfare reforms in a generation Government launches new plans to protect and improve the lives of our pets, farmed and wild animals

Some good news today. The UK Government has announced a major overhaul of animal welfare as part of its new Animal Welfare Strategy.

Some really positive commitments in there, including banning snares, ending trail hunting and giving greater protection to hares.
www.gov.uk/government/n...

A wholesome weekend woodland walk at @nationaltrust.org.uk Alderley Edge. 🍂🥾

Leading the way: National Estate for Nature agrees shared objectives to accelerate nature recovery The National Estate for Nature group has taken an important step forward in its mission to drive nature recovery across England’s major estates. Read this post to find out more.

Great to see the National Estate for Nature group commit to publishing estate management plans by April 2026.

Together, the group members manage 10% of England’s land, including vital upland habitats like peatlands, woodlands and ancient grasslands.
defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/18/l...

Why is Diageo Investing US$6.5m into Scottish Peatland? Diageo is investing up to $6.5m to restore peatlands, boosting carbon storage, biodiversity and water resilience while rethinking peat use across Scotland

Business can be a powerful force for good in restoring nature.

This major investment in restoring degraded upland peatlands by Diageo will boost carbon storage, reduce flood risk for communities and support land-based jobs.
sustainabilitymag.com/news/why-is-...

Some beautiful shots of resident Lakeland Fell ponies Stan, Dan and Paddy. They have been really thriving on the rough hill pastures on Tarras Valley and doing a fantastic job helping to regenerate the grassland habitats!

📷 Faith Garvey

Red poppies in a field with the sun dipping behind a hill

To all the fallen, we will remember them.⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
📷 Emma Varley
📍 Lancing Ring

#LestWeForget #WeWillRememberThem #Remembrance

A quarter of Britain’s native plants now at risk of extinction The first update in two decades to a “red list” of plants found a substantial increase in the number of threatened species, but there are some reasons for hope

When we picture extinction, it evokes images of a toad whose swamp is drying up or birds of prey vanishing from the skies.

But beneath our feet a quieter crisis is unfolding. Plants, the foundation of life itself, are disappearing — and deserve far more attention.
www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Side view of a red squirrel holding a nut on the edge of a pond. The animal is reflected in the clear water.

Red squirrel in the Yorkshire Dales. #ThePhotoHour #squirrels #wildlife #nature #photography @yorkswildlife.bsky.social @yorkshiredales.org.uk @mammalsociety.bsky.social

Great that you're backing Community Right to Buy.

Will you make an amendment at report stage to add environmental criteria alongside social and economic ones?

Communities are vital to restoring degraded habitats and landscapes - it would be a missed opportunity to not reflect that in the bill.