Up and down the country, volunteers are coming together to plant more of these nature-rich reserves
The 30-metre ridge runs across the moor near Yar Tor on Dartmoor, one of several faint lines that crisscross the land like aeroplane contrails. Although the open moorland looks wild, we are standing on some of the UK’s oldest farmland. These ridges, called reaves, are the ghosts of farming’s most wildlife-rich legacy: hedges.
“These reaves sadly have no function today other than to delight us. Or some of us,” says ecologist Rob Wolton. But Dartmoor’s reaves are the skeletons upon which more recent hedges were built: hundreds of thousands of miles of them. After Ireland, the UK is believed to be the most hedge-dense country in the world, and Wolton says the majority of them are more than 280 years old. Recent laser scanning shows England has enough hedges to wrap around the world almost 10 times. They are, by far, the country’s biggest nature reserve, which is why community groups, farmers and charities are rallying together to plant hedges of the future that will offer the same support to wildlife as the ancient hedges of the past.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
04/17/2025 - 00:00
04/16/2025 - 23:03
No breach, self-regulatory Australian Press Council rules; plus BBC embarks on big bureau expansion
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When is an undisclosed advertorial, paid for by the fossil fuel industry and splashed across the front pages of all the Murdoch tabloids, not a breach of press standards?
When the Australian Press Council rules there is nothing to see and finds no breach.
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04/16/2025 - 19:33
When asked if he accepts we are already seeing the impacts of climate change, the opposition leader responded 'there's an impact', but said the real question is what Australia can do about it. Pressed further, Dutton said 'I don't know' and 'I'm not a scientist' when asked if he was willing to say 'this is climate change happening right now'
Dutton looks shaky as he fights Albanese to a draw at best – and he’s fast running out of chances to get ahead
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04/16/2025 - 15:22
Residents of California city’s high-risk areas will be required to remove plants within 5ft of homes under fire safety rules
The city of Berkeley has a new message for residents of its most fire-prone neighborhoods: it’s time to cut back your gardens.
People living in the most high-fire-risk areas of the California city will be required to remove plants and other flammable materials close to their homes as part of strict new wildfire safety rules the city moved to adopt this week.
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04/16/2025 - 15:22
Residents of California city’s high-risk areas will be required to remove plants within 5ft of homes under fire safety rules
The city of Berkeley has a new message for residents of its most fire-prone neighborhoods: it’s time to cut back your gardens.
People living in the most high-fire-risk areas of the California city will be required to remove plants and other flammable materials close to their homes as part of strict new wildfire safety rules the city moved to adopt this week.
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04/16/2025 - 12:53
The pedunculate oaks typical of Leipzig's floodplain forest and other German oak forests are struggling to regenerate in the understorey due to a lack of light. One reason for this is the absence of flooding in floodplain forests. In a two-year oak experiment in Leipzig's floodplain forest, researchers found that the current tree dieback -- caused by drought and pest outbreaks -- combined with the thinning of certain understorey species, can actually support oak regeneration.
04/16/2025 - 12:13
The colossal squid, the heaviest invertebrate in the world, has been filmed alive in the wild for the first time since it was identified a century ago. The individual – captured on film near the South Sandwich Islands in the south Atlantic Ocean – is a baby, at just 11.8in (30cm) in length
Live colossal squid captured on video in wild for first time ever
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04/16/2025 - 11:07
A young Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, the heaviest invertebrate on earth, was filmed in the Atlantic Ocean
The colossal squid, the heaviest invertebrate in the world, has been filmed alive in the wild for the first time since it was identified a century ago.
Growing up to 23ft (seven metres) long and weighing up to half a tonne, the squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, is the heaviest invertebrate on the planet. The individual captured on film near the South Sandwich Islands, in the south Atlantic Ocean, is a baby, at just 11.8in (30cm) in length.
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04/16/2025 - 10:36
Enfield council disputes restaurant chain’s claim 500-year-old tree in Whitewebbs Park was ‘mostly dead’
Toby Carvery has been threatened with legal action by a council over the felling of an ancient oak in a park in north London.
The restaurant chain is facing national outrage after its decision to fell the up to 500-year-old tree without warning on 3 April.
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04/16/2025 - 10:00
Conservation groups call for immediate action to protect wildlife as two-year wait for Labor’s promised creation of park continues
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Government surveys have found tens of thousands of endangered greater gliders could be living within the proposed area for a great koala national park in New South Wales, prompting new calls for the area to be quickly protected from logging.
Data from aerial drone and ground-based surveys at 169 sites within the proposed park were used to model the likely presence of Australia’s largest gliding possum across the entire 176,000 hectares the NSW government is considering for protection.
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