Beavers are to be legally protected in England from being captured, killed, injured or disturbed without a licence, the government has announced.

From October, it will also be illegal to damage where they breed.

Earlier this week, the Wildlife Trusts had said a delay to the expected announcement put the reintroduction of beavers to the wild “in jeopardy”.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said a clear management plan was needed to protect farmland before any law change.

Eurasian beavers, which were once widespread but hunted to extinction 400 years ago, have been reintroduced at sites across Britain.

The first wild beavers were released in Scotland in 2009, where the species was granted legal protection 10 years later.

In England, the government has now taken the first legislative step towards securing an amendment to the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 that would protect beavers from October.

That comes as the wider release of beavers into the wild is currently being considered.

Tony Juniper, who chairs Natural England, said: “This is an significant moment for beaver recovery, as we see a return of this species to its natural places in England.

“We are working closely with landowners, environmentalists and other stakeholders to develop practical guidance to ensure these wonderful animals are able to thrive in suitable habitats alongside people across England.”

Early on Monday morning, three gentle giants wandered out of a corral in the Kent countryside to become the first wild bison to roam in Britain for thousands of years.

The aim is for the animals’ natural behaviour to transform a dense commercial pine forest into a vibrant natural woodland. Their taste for bark will kill some trees and their bulk will open up trails, letting light spill on to the forest floor, while their love of rolling around in dust baths will create more open ground. All this should allow new plants, insects, lizards, birds and bats to thrive.

The Wilder Blean project, near Canterbury, is an experiment to see how well the bison can act as natural “ecosystem engineers” and restore wildlife. The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

A more natural woodland should also absorb more carbon, helping to tackle the climate crisis. Global heating was evident as the bison were released, with England in the grip of a heatwave, and the early timing was to allow the bison to reach the shade of the woods before temperatures started to climb.

Research has found the sounds of nature could help people’s mental health.

Data was collected from more than 7,500 people as part of the BBC series Forest 404 – a podcast that depicts a world without nature.

Participants reported sounds of birdsong provided relief from stress and mental fatigue, the study found.

The University of Exeter’s leading researcher, Alex Smalley, said lockdown helped people rediscover “the natural sounds around them”.

“Our findings suggest that protecting these experiences could be beneficial for both mental health and conservation behaviour, but they also provide a stark warning that, when it comes to nature, memories matter.

“If we hope to harness nature’s health benefits in the future, we need to ensure everyone has opportunities to foster positive experiences with the natural world today,” he said.

Participants listened to a range of environments, from English coasts and woodlands to the tropical rainforests in Papa New Guinea.

Therapeutic effects were reported from listening to landscape sounds such as breaking waves or falling rain.

When no wildlife sounds were played, the positive psychological benefits reduced, with participants showing motivation to protect the world’s ecosystems.

The study was a collaboration between the BBC Natural History Unit, BBC Radio 4, Exeter University, Bristol University and the Open University.

A badger cull intended to control bovine tuberculosis (bTB) outbreaks has not worked and should be ended, a study has suggested.

The decade-long plan that started in Gloucestershire and Somerset, has killed 140,000 badgers.

A paper released today by the Veterinary Record journal and scientists who oppose the cull, claims it “cost a fortune and saved nothing”.

The government has criticised the study and said it fits a “campaign agenda”.

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesperson said: “This paper has been produced to fit a clear campaign agenda and manipulates data in a way that makes it impossible to see the actual effects of badger culling on reducing TB rates.

“It is disappointing to see it published in a scientific journal.”

Badgers also carry bovine TB and farmers believe they help spread it to cattle.

According to the government, independent and past “published scientifically rigorous analysis of the disease shows that licensed badger culling is helping to drive down bTB in cull areas.”

The government has U-turned on guidance to shooters that reclassified pheasants as livestock, meaning that wild birds such as crows could be shot to protect them in certain circumstances, after a furious reaction from the public.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs changed the definition of livestock in its general shooting licences earlier this year. Under the new definition, game birds such as pheasants were considered livestock if given food, water or shelter by a keeper for their survival.

That meant that wild birds including carrion crows, jackdaws, rooks and magpies could be shot to protect them. General licences give broad permissions to shoot certain species of wild birds to protect livestock, help conservation and preserve public health and safety.

Plans to safeguard England’s national parks for future generations have been unveiled by the government.

The proposals also aim to improve access to nature and ensure landscapes are key to tackling climate change.

It follows a review of protections for national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).

Environment Secretary George Eustice said the plans – including a public consultation – were “a new chapter in the story of our protected landscapes”.

The consultation runs to 9 April and will ask for views on the proposals to drive nature recovery and support communities that live and work in those areas.

The proposals include creating management plans for those in charge of the national parks and AONBs, and encouraging local leaders across England to organise campaigns, events and volunteering projects to bring the public closer to nature.

The Landscapes Review looked at whether the existing protections were still fit for purpose.

The review’s author, Julian Glover, said: “It won’t be enough just to try to conserve what we have inherited – we can change the story from decline to recovery, to make them greener, more welcoming and full of hope.”

The pandemic has seen more people spending time outside but it has also highlighted inequalities surrounding access to green spaces – with people on low incomes being disadvantaged, according to the advisory body Natural England.

Increased access to nature is among the aims set out in the new plans.

Using landscapes in the fight against climate change are also central to the aims, along with protecting biodiversity and supporting people’s health and wellbeing for the next 70 years and beyond.

Mr Eustice said: “These reforms will play a pivotal role in meeting our international commitment to protect 30% of land for biodiversity by 2030.”

The government has also pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 as part of its 25-Year Environment Plan.

Walks taken by people in UK woodlands save £185m a year in mental health costs, according to a report.

Spending time in nature is known to boost mental health, but the report by Forest Research is the first to estimate the amount that woodlands save the NHS through fewer GP visits and prescriptions, reduced hospital and social service care, and the costs of lost days of work. The research also calculated that street trees in towns and cities cut an additional £16m a year from antidepressant costs.

The researchers believe the true savings are likely to be significantly higher. The report shows the importance of woodlands, they said, which the government is already aiming to expand to tackle the climate and wildlife crises.

The coronavirus pandemic has increased the prevalence of mental illness, and the NHS was already increasing its spending on treatments. This includes green social prescribing, where activities including nature visits are used to help sufferers. In polling by Forest Research, more than 90% of respondents said woodlands were important to them in reducing stress.

There is already good evidence of nature’s efficacy, such as a 2019 study showing that a two-hour “dose” ofnature a week significantly improved health and wellbeing. The missing link has been connecting health services and nature activities.

“These activities have being going for years, it’s just that they often have not had that connection into the health systems to enable them to receive the people who need the benefits the most, and to deliver precisely what they need,” says Dave Solly, at the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP), which was launched in 2019 with funding from the Department of Health.

But things are changing. Seven NHS care groups from the Humber to Surrey received a combined £5m in government funding in December for projects harnessing nature to improve mental health, including tree planting and growing food. There are also now more than 1,000 social prescribing link workers working in GP surgeries and health clinics, helping doctors link patients to nature activities, as well as arts, heritage and exercise groups. A million people could be referred to social prescribing in the next few years.

Among the projects championed by NASP are Wild Being in Reading, an open-water swimming group in Portsmouth, Dorset Nature Buddies, the Green Happy cafe in Northampton, and a Moving in Nature project in Chingford, Essex.

Action is needed to stop pollution of English rivers by road run-off, an environmental campaigner warned.

The call came as more people have started swimming in rivers during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Jo Bradley, who worked at the Environment Agency for 20 years, said more funding was needed for measures to prevent contamination of waterways.

A government spokeswoman said it was working on a “range of interventions to tackle the sources of pollution”.

In 2016, when Environment Agency figures were last published, only 16% of rivers, lakes and streams were classed as good.

Ms Bradley, of the Stormwater Shepherds group, said tiny bits of tyre rubber, metals from brake pads and a group of hydrocarbons from emissions wash off the tarmac and into rivers.

She added that as well as hitting wildlife some hydrocarbons, such as benzo[a]pyrene, may cause cancer, and she said more needed to be done, such as introducing roadside filter drains, grit separators and storm-water filters.

“We need a funding mechanism to allow local authorities and highways authorities to introduce treatment systems,” she said.

“There are a number of recognised and proven treatment devices to capture a proportion of the pollution in road run-off.

“So government should set meaningful targets for Highways England to install these devices at polluting outfalls more quickly.”

She said the money could be raised by putting a levy on tyre sales or an extra charge on council tax.

The Welsh government on Thursday unveiled its wildlife and rural crime coordinator, the first role of its kind in the UK.

Rob Taylor’s job will involve working with the four police forces in Wales, the UK government, other emergency services and wildlife and farming representatives to tackle countryside crime from fly-tipping to heating oil theft.

But the most headline-grabbing investigation he is involved in is the attack on the nest of a pair of ospreys at the Llyn Brenig reservoir in north Wales in May. Just hours after the female osprey laid an egg, an attacker arrived under the cover of darkness and chopped the nesting platform down with a chainsaw. The egg was lost and the ospreys are still at the site without a nest to protect or chicks to nurture.