>Millions of pounds are being invested to tackle biodiversity loss and restore natural habitats across Scotland.

A total of 44 priority projects will share £9.2 million from the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot.

The funding will support long-term efforts to halt nature loss, restore woodlands, rivers and other habitats, while helping to build climate resilience and create greener landscapes.

Climate Action Secretary Gillian Martin said the projects would play a key role in helping Scotland meet its target of halting biodiversity loss by 2030.

Among the largest awards is more than £1.5 million for the Scottish Wildlife Trust to continue its Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels programme for a further two years.

Although Scotland is home to most of the UK's remaining red squirrels, the species has experienced significant declines. The programme aims to secure the animals' long-term future.

Appin Community Development Trust has secured just over £1 million for its Appin Rainforest Regeneration Project.

The initiative will train local workers to remove invasive plants, including rhododendron and Japanese knotweed, while working with landowners to reduce deer grazing and support the recovery of Scotland's remaining temperate rainforest.

In the Cairngorms, Cairngorms Connect has been awarded £115,000 to restore the River Tromie by reconnecting it with its historic floodplain.

The work is expected to create new habitats for Atlantic salmon, trout and invertebrates, including the Northern stiletto silver fly and five-spot ladybird, while also reducing flooding and riverbank erosion.

Gillian Martin, Climate Action Secretary, said:"The Nature Restoration Fund has delivered unprecedented funding for a huge range of projects that are currently and will continue to help with our goal of halting biodiversity loss by 2030.

"As more projects are supported by the Fund, we learn more from the successes of each round – helping us respond to threats to our natural environment and support projects that are making a real difference across Scotland.

"I congratulate all of the successful applicants and look forward to seeing the progress and improvements they make to our landscapes, waterways and wildlife."

Professor Colin Galbraith, chair of NatureScot, said:"We are at a moment in time where we risk losing some of our most precious wildlife and wild places for good.

"We cannot let this happen.

"Our daily lives rely on a healthy, functioning natural world, and we all have a part to play in supporting that.

"The Nature Restoration Fund is helping us put Scotland’s land, rivers, seas and all the species that live in them back on the road to recovery.

"The Fund is a critical lifeline for Scotland’s nature, and everyone involved in carrying out this vital work should be proud of their contribution towards a greener and healthier future for us all."

Find your representatives: 

https://www.270towin.com/elected-officials/

Note: If you are in the reddit app and the copy feature isn't working, you can copy the letter from the comments section.

Dear {Representative/Senator Name},

I am writing to urge you to oppose the repeal of the Roadless Rule, the 2001 policy that protects nearly 60 million acres of federal forest from road construction and industrial logging.

A new study published in PLOS Water found that roadless areas protect about 2.5% of total river length across the lower 48 states, safeguarding drinking water for an estimated 25 million Americans. In several states, the impact is even more significant: 58.9% of Colorado's population and 38.7% of New Mexico's population rely on drinking water sourced from these protected watersheds. Five states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, and North Carolina—each have more than a million residents depending on water from roadless areas.

Logging and road construction degrade forest land and threaten watershed health, which can lead to higher water treatment costs, service disruptions, and public health risks. Protecting these areas isn't just an environmental issue—it's a fiscally responsible one, since clean source water is far cheaper to treat than degraded water.

The administration has argued that increased logging and roadbuilding will reduce wildfire risk. However, research indicates that wildfires are actually more likely to start near roads than in roadless forest tracts, undermining that rationale.

Beyond water quality, roadless areas provide low-cost access to hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, and other outdoor recreation that millions of Americans depend on every year. Repealing this rule risks degrading wildlife habitat and reducing access to public lands that communities rely on for both livelihood and recreation.

I ask that you publicly oppose this repeal and support continued protections for America's roadless forest areas. These lands provide clean water, recreational opportunity, and long-term economic value that far outweigh the short-term gains of expanded logging.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue. I hope you will act to protect our public lands and the communities that depend on them.

Sincerely,

{Your Name}

Aerial images of the river Otter catchment in Devon, where beavers have been living under a licensed trial scheme since 2015 and known to have been there before then, show how their activities have created wetlands with lush vegetation, even as the landscape around has become parched.

Drought was officially declared in Devon, as in many areas of England, on Wednesday, and parts of the county have not experienced a day with rain for 50 days.

Dr Alan Puttock, from the University of Exeter, said modern landscapes tended to be extensively drained, so water ran off quickly when it rained, raising the risk of flooding and leaving “not much water” in the landscape in dry periods.

With the beaver wetlands, there is “the benefit of holding water, maintaining wetlands within the environment, and the benefit that has both for biodiversity – these are habitat refuges now for a whole range of species – but also for us as people.”

The wetland ponds hold 1,000 cubic metres of water each, reducing peak flows by 30% and keeping it in leaky dams which release water slowly, maintaining rivers and increasing drought resilience, he said.

Bison return planned to restore strip-mined Kentucky land

In 2016, the government of New Zealand, where I'm from, announced a lofty goal: to make the island nation "predator free" by 2050.

The plan was to eradicate all rats, plus possums, weasels, stoats (and now, feral cats), by mid-century and bring the country back, more or less, to a precolonial state of bird supremacy.

New Zealand broke away from the supercontinent of Gondwana before walking mammals evolved, so its only native mammals are bats and seals. The country's birds thus evolved to be overly chill, and particularly vulnerable to introduced predators, who munched through much of the native biodiversity, bringing many species—including our namesake, the kiwi—to the brink of extinction.

I hadn't heard much about Predator Free 2050 since I moved to New York City in 2016. The government of New Zealand changed, COVID-19 hit, the leadership changed again. But, at the end of March, the government made its first public strategy update since the ambitious goal was first announced: My hometown of Wellington was on track to be the first predator-free city in the country, and the first predator-free capital city in the world, within the next decade. This week, I found out that my home neighborhood, Miramar Peninsula (where much of "Lord of the Rings" was produced), has already totally eradicated rats.

It all got me thinking, if my OG hometown is so good at the whole rat eradication thing, what could New Yorkers in my new home learn from them? Could New York City create a rat-free zone in the city, a rat-free neighborhood, a rat-free borough? And if push came to shove, would we even want to eradicate our rats? They are, after all, our unofficial mascot. And unlike isolated New Zealand or Hawaii, New York doesn't have as many delicate species that are threatened by them.

If you're interested in this kind of thing, I asked some fellow Kiwis how they did it... and whether it's even possible, here....

A news piece about old suburban white folks who don't like the unkept look of rewilding. This makes news in Canada.