Today, The Wildlife Trusts publish their new assessment of the effects of climate change on nature across the UK. The report, Resilient Nature, shows how much-loved species and habitats are faring across The Wildlife Trusts’ 2,600 nature reserves in response to the changing climate and extreme weather over the past year.

Whilst summer’s headlines were dominated by heatwaves and drought, the report reveals that over the past 12 months, it has been extreme changes in weather patterns that have been the most damaging overall, with the natural world bearing much of the brunt. 

Key findings include:

• Drought and heat extremes have caused important wildlife habitats, such as Somerset’s lowland peat bogs, to dry out on several Wildlife Trust nature reserves on the Somerset Levels. Low water levels in ditches, ponds, streams and rivers have also affected fish, swifts, dragonflies and amphibians.
• Unpredictable weather has led to disruptive storm events, with natural habitats unable to absorb sudden, vast amounts of rainfall. Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve and the surrounding landscape suffered from flooding in the winter of 2024/25, for example.
• High wildfire risk has been putting precious habitats and wildlife at risk.

Somerset Wildlife Trust has been hard at work safeguarding the natural world from the worst of climate extremes. One example of this is a recent peatland restoration project, where the Trust carried out ‘deep cell trench bunding’ to protect the peat at its Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve, safeguarding rare plants and invertebrates such as the round-leaved sundew, cotton grass, and the bog bush cricket.

Simon Clarke, Head of Nature Recovery at Somerset Wildlife Trust, explains:
“Wildlife in Somerset has really struggled over the recent dry period. Our lowland peatlands in particular have been impacted by very low rainfall. Fish and invertebrate populations in ditches have been adversely affected by low water levels and lack of oxygen. Even on sites where we have carried out important restoration work, we’ve seen water tables well below what’s needed to stop the valuable peat drying out and oxidising. However, it is due to our hard restoration work on sites like Westhay that the negative impacts have been mitigated to a degree.”    

​Kathryn Brown OBE, director of climate change and evidence at The Wildlife Trusts, says:
“Our new report reveals that climate change is accelerating at a frightening pace, with worrying impacts on wildlife and nature reserves – as well as on human health and our future resilience as an economy. Yet while Wildlife Trust staff and volunteers across the UK race to adapt the way that we care for our land, Government action to address climate change is fast falling behind. 

“The events in southern Europe – where wildfires and floods have imperilled both people and wildlife – should sound the alarm loudly: we are shockingly underprepared for such extremes here in the UK. The UK Government must rapidly undertake a major overhaul of adaptation policy, with increased funding and coordination, in order to tackle this accelerating threat head on.”

Read the report