Environment news

• Can we recreate a lost world? In Tasmania, anything could happen

  30-03-2025 21:00
  
  The thylacine might walk again. Or Lake Pedder might rise again. The possibility of ecological restoration in the island state plays into the appeal of going back in timeThere is something about Tasmania that makes it a place where people want to restore the past, and not just because Tasmanians still regularly report seeing thylacines bounding off into the forest.Certainly, it’s a retro kind of place. The landed gentry are still a thing, the powerful families of modern Tasmania tracing th
  
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• The Guardian view on new forests: a vision born in the Midlands is worth imitating | Editorial

  30-03-2025 18:25
  If a tree-planting scheme in western England can match the first national forest, people as well as wildlife will benefit
  The benefits for bats were presumably not at the top of the government’s list of reasons for announcing the creation of the new western forest. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, regards rules that protect these nocturnal mammals as a nuisance. Nevertheless, the rare Bechstein’s bat, as well as the pine marten and various fungi, are expected to be among species that b
  
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• Bloom or bust? Superbloom spectacle eludes California after dry winter

  30-03-2025 17:00
  
  Riot of native wildflowers that enthralled visitors in the past several years have failed to sprout due to too little rainIt’s one of the best known rites of spring in California: extraordinary displays known as “superblooms” that coat the hillsides in an abundance of color. Some years the blooms are massive enough to draw tourists from around the world to revel in the fields, such as in 2023 when more than 100,000 people showed up on a weekend to gawk at the poppies in Lake El
  
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• Australia’s best photos of the month – March 2025

  30-03-2025 16:00
  Cyclone Alfred drives wild seas, a seagull eclipses the moon, and our Kylie performs on a trapeze: Guardian Australia looks at some of the month’s best images Continue reading...
  
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• Vote for the beast that may be as ruthlessly predatory as us – the fen raft spider

  30-03-2025 15:00
  
  With a leg-span the size of your hand, the UK’s biggest spider, ultra-rare and known for its extraordinary hunting skills, has many admirersMore amazing nominations here!Meet an Olympian among Britain’s 660 spider species: a palm-of-the-hand-sized arachnid that hunts in three dimensions and can even devour fish.The fen raft spider (Dolomedes plantarius) is a magnificent ambush predator: harmless to humans but lethal if you’re a pond skater, tadpole or even adult dragonfly.Arane
  
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• How hurricanes Otis and John exposed Acapulco’s big divide and left residents ‘scared for our lives’

  30-03-2025 15:00
  
  The last two big storms to hit Mexico have left the city vulnerable to organised crime and in fear of the next climate shockFlora Montejo always dreamed of buying her own home. After almost three decades working as a nurse, the 68-year-old invested her retirement savings in a two-storey house in San Agustín, a working-class suburb of the Mexican resort town of Acapulco.Montejo’s retirement dream was shortlived. Not long after moving into her newly remodelled home, Hurricane John dum
  
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• Hitching a lift: the cool life cycle of the bee-riding black oil beetle

  30-03-2025 10:33
  
  These interesting insects are increasingly vulnerable and completely rely on the bee populationWhen rangers at Kinver Edge in Staffordshire discovered rare black oil beetles on a stretch of restored heathland, they knew there was only one way they could have arrived there: by hitching a ride on a solitary bee.“Their life cycle is really cool, probably the most interesting of any British insect,” said Ewan Chapman, the countryside manager for Kinver Edge, as he sets out into the heath
  
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