Breaking Waves: Ocean News

A groundbreaking tree-planting programme is uniting farmers and rewilders, as portions of common ground in the Yorkshire Dales national park are being restored to their ancient glory Photographs by Rebecca Cole The Howgill Fells are a smooth, treeless cluster of hills in the Yorkshire Dales national park, so bald and lumpy that they are sometimes described as a herd of sleeping elephants. Their bare appearance – stark even by UK standards – has been shaped by centuries of sheep grazing. Yet beneath the soil lie ancient tree roots: the silent traces of long-lost “ghost woodlands”. Over the past 12 years, 300,000 native trees have been planted by the project Continue reading...

Stark warnings about threatened coastal areas should prompt fresh efforts to protect those most at risk In his classic study of the 17th-century Dutch golden age, The Embarrassment of Riches, the art historian Simon Schama showed how the biblical story of Noah’s ark resonated in a culture where catastrophic floods were an ever-present threat. The history of the Netherlands includes multiple instances of storms breaching dikes, leading to disastrous losses of life and land. These traumatic episodes were reflected in the country’s art and literature, as well as its engineering. In countries where floods are less of a danger, memories tend to be more localised: a mark on a wall showing how high waters rose when a town’s river flooded; a seaside garden such as the one in Felixstowe, Suffolk, to commemorate the night in 1953 when 41 people lost their lives there. Continue reading...

Ten years after the reintroduction of western quolls and brushtail possums into the Ikara-Flinders Ranges national park, rangers say populations of the once-locally extinct mammals are flourishing. In a joint effort between Foundation for Australia’s Most Endangered Species and the South Australian government, the animals live in 'safer havens' in the park where predator numbers have been reduced Continue reading...

The TV naturalist’s comments come after a Guardian investigation into the complex supply chain behind the fish on sale on Britain’s high streets Read more: The hidden cost of your supermarket sea bass Naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham has condemned British supermarkets for a “dereliction of duty” over food labelling and sourcing, as a joint investigation by the Guardian and environmental website DeSmog reveals that the retailers are selling fish from farms that import large quantities of fishmeal from Africa. Factories in Senegal grind down small, edible fish into meal that is then sold on to fish farms in Turkey, fuelling unemployment and food insecurity in the African country. Continue reading...