Lurch from drought to deluge sees another mixed year for UK wildlife as National Trust thanks supporters who’ve helped hundreds of projects
- Published:
- 27 December 2024
With 2024 declared the world’s hottest year on record earlier this month[2], ferocious storms bookended a very wet and mild year in the UK, prompting fresh fears for climate change’s impacts on wildlife.
With 2024 declared the world’s hottest year on record earlier this month[2], ferocious storms bookended a very wet and mild year in the UK, prompting fresh fears for climate change’s impacts on wildlife.
2024 got off to a wildly wet start with Storm Henk battering the nation, causing flooding, destruction and power cuts in early January. Two further storms, Isha and Jocelyn closed out the month, and a mild and wet February - the warmest on record for England and Wales[3] - resulted in England’s wettest 18 months on record; the fourth wettest overall for the whole of the UK[4].
The wet weather also resulted in Britons experiencing the highest number of flood alerts and warnings in the first four months of 2024, with up to 40 issued on average each day[5].
Charlecote Manor in Warwickshire suffered particularly badly this year due to the high levels of rainfall flooding eight[7] times in 2024 with the very first flood event beginning on New Year’s Eve[8].
A previously unseen Freeing Pond[9] also appeared at Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire due to on-going heavy rainfall, finally receding in early March.
And at Crom in Northern Ireland, rain and Lough levels plunged jetties under water for six weeks in the summer.
Spring was warm, unsettled, very wet and dull but despite a cool and wet April (with many rivers recording their highest flows for the time of year thanks to storm Kathleen), the warmest May on record meant it still managed to be recorded as the UK’s warmest spring[10].
Summer was cooler than average – the coolest for nearly a decade - with a more typical level of rain. Warmer temperatures closed out July, and some areas of the southeast tipped 30°Celsius with the highest temperature of the year recorded in Cambridge in mid-August of 34.8°Celsius.
Autumn was milder than average, and the unsettled conditions saw 10 English counties experience their wettest September on record, but Scotland and Northern Ireland were drier than average.
Storm Ashley, the first storm of the new season, brought heavy rain to some parts of the UK in October. November started very grey and drab with a cold snap resulting in snow and a sharp dip in temperatures on the 19th which combined with storm Bert – ‘a multi-hazard weather event’ - which resulted in heavy floods (particularly in south Wales) and snow in different pockets of the country.
Storm Darragh earlier this month resulted in hundreds of trees brought down by the strong winds across National Trust places including 250 at Killerton, 100 at Arlington Court in Devon and around 30 significant trees at Bodnant in north Wales and 30 in the wider estate at Cragside in Northumberland[11].
Reflecting on the year’s weather patterns and its impact on wildlife, Ben McCarthy, Head of Nature Conservation and Restoration Ecology at the National Trust said: “The wet start to the year finally kicked into touch any lingering symptoms of drought, a hangover from the exceptionally hot and dry summer of 2022 which persisted through to winter 2023[12] in some regions of the UK.
“The drought’s subsequent low groundwater levels had been causing various issues for wildlife including stress to trees, drying out peatlands and raising temperatures in waterways and seas, exacerbating issues already caused by pollution.
“The lurch from a very dry to a prolonged, wet period was particularly advantageous for establishing newly planted trees and helping wetlands recover to act as nature’s sponges; but had a particularly devastating impact on our insects, particularly butterflies and bees and some birds which struggled to get their breeding seasons underway subsequently impacting the number of fledglings.
Ben continued: “In Great Britain, one in six species[13] are currently threatened with extinction – and it’s both common and rare species which are being impacted by the nature and climate crisis.
“The unpredictability of the weather and blurring of the seasons is adding additional stresses to our struggling wildlife.
“Even in these past few weeks we have seen temperatures see-saw from freezing to balmy in a matter of days. But, as these ‘trends’ become the new norm both here in the UK[14] and further afield[15], it is even more vital to invest in restoring nature to provide additional support and to help build in resilience to deal with the impacts of our changing climate.”
Keith Jones, Climate Change Adviser at the National Trust said: “Climate change has exacerbated weather events around the world. As the world continues to get hotter, this trend hides a world of extremes - both deluge and drought and shifting patterns.
“This is not ‘new’ news in that these are patterns which we previously predicted – but the reality is now playing out in real time, impacting landscapes, nature and the places we look after.
“With global temperature rise, scientists have previously said that the UK is likely to see wetter weather, and this was certainly true this year.
“In a warm and wet year such as 2024, it’s the outliers – the unusual sightings that become the warning beacons for what’s happening to our wildlife and seasons.
“Due to the cool and wet start to the year, bluebells flowered later, and this was reflected in our gardens where spring displays were slow to get going, but then performed well with plenty of moisture to keep plants strong.
“Due to the mild temperatures in September and October, autumn arrived later too with some unusual sites including the reflowering of brambles and garden shrubs such as roses. These conditions stimulated grass growth resulting in our ranger and gardening teams mowing lawns later into the year than is typical.
“Some of our garden teams have also witnessed early flowering with camelias out in Cornwall, snowdrops out two weeks ahead of time in Dorset and last month blossom was even starting to peak through on the apple tree in my back garden.
Keith concluded: “Our unpredictable weather is resulting in confusion for our wildlife and the slow loss of what once were ‘predictable’ seasons.
“Our landscapes need to be in a fit or in a favourable condition to better withstand these changes. Countries across the world must do more to drastically cut carbon emissions, to ensure we can still avoid the very worst consequences of an overheating world.”
Nature based solutions helping nature recover
The UK is home to 12 per cent of Europe’s peatland habitats. Healthy peat is 90 per cent water and is a very effective carbon store, holding 20 times[16] more carbon than UK woodlands. However, 80 per cent of UK peatland is degraded in some way, emitting carbon, which contributes to climate change.
Nature-based solutions such as peatland restoration help ‘hold’ more rainfall in our landscapes, reducing flood risk, whilst the rising water table reduces wildfire risk and keeps carbon locked away in the peaty soils.
In 2024 the National Trust continued its work to restore blanket bogs, restoring over 3,700 hectares of the 25,000 hectares it cares for, of which over two thirds[17] is degraded in some way as a result of historic air pollution, drainage, over-grazing, climate change, and wildfires.
Restoration is largely focused on raising water levels by blocking gullies with peat bunds or leaky dams and planting Sphagnum mosses that flourish in these wetland habitats – holding 20 times their weight in water – therefore helping hold back water as well as locking in new carbon into the peatlands.
Wildlife spotted this year at sites where restoration is taking place included the UK’s smallest dragonfly - the black darter - one of the UK’s most rapidly declining species over the last 30 years, on Dartmoor in Devon[18]. These were seen mating and egg laying in the pools created this summer despite the wet and cool conditions.
And at Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, an area of lowland fen, the first ever Common crane chick fledged. The team also had a very good number of dragonflies this year coinciding with its designation as a Dragonfly Hotspot by the Dragonfly Society[19].
At Holcombe Moor in Lancashire restoration work with the Moors for the Future partnership ongoing since 2019, has resulted in attracting breeding Dunlin back to the moorland with eight of these red listed birds[20] recorded in 2024 along with other species including golden plover, lapwing, snipe and curlew.
Another nature-based solution which can have huge benefits for nature is through restoring rivers and creating wetlands.
Through its river restoration projects, the Trust has seen water quality improve, and nature return at rewiggling projects such as its award-winning[21] Goldrill Beck project in the Lake District, and more recently this year at its innovative ‘Stage 0’ river re-set project at Holnicote on Exmoor.
At Goldrill Beck, the river was rewiggled – reinstating the original river channel - as part of a much wider project after Storm Desmond hit in 2015 flooding nearly 7,500 homes and causing widespread disruption[22].
Since 2015, the collaboration between the Trust and the Ullswater Catchment Management Community Interest Company (UCMCIC), and in partnership with others, has delivered 282 projects in response to Storm Desmond, resulting in 843 hectares of habitat restoration.
The floodplain is now home to egrets, small pearl border fritillary butterflies, dippers, otters, foxes, plus swallows and sand martins due to the amount of insects. Salmon is also moving through the site[23].
At Holnicote on Exmoor, the National Trust team blocked up a 1.2km historically straightened section of the River Aller and let the river find a new route through the landscape.
Seven hectares of waterscapes resulted, holding water in the landscape to benefit both nature and people with flooding risk reduced for communities downstream.
Nature returned with a greater variety and increased number of wetland species including waterfowl, water voles and grass snakes as well as eels, river lamprey, and trout in the new river channels; and in the wider waterscape swallows, swifts and sand martins are benefiting from flower rich grasslands with ragged robin and meadowsweet attracting pollinators such as bumblebees and moths[24].
Ben concluded: “We are witnessing first-hand the increasing benefits of nature-based solutions and these are vital for building resilience into our landscapes.
“The Government’s target of ensuring 30 per cent of the UK is well managed land for nature by 2030 is the absolute minimum of what we need to be aiming for to ensure nature recovery.
“By working at scale we can have a much bigger impact, and by ensuring our peatlands, woodlands and rivers are restored to full health we can make great strides in helping our wildlife adapt to our changing climate.”
Winners, losers and mixed results for UK wildlife
To help the National Trust restore more habitats to help nature struggling to adapt to our changing climate and to make a donation, visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/donate.