From drought to deluge, 2025 tested the UK’s wildlife and landscapes. Discover how plants and animals fared in 2025, and find out more about our vital work to address the nature and climate crises.
Britain has just endured a year of weather extremes that has pushed nature to its limits, putting wildlife and landscapes under severe pressure.
The year has been the worst on record for fires in the UK and has also seen periods of drought.
The findings form part of our annual Weather and Wildlife Review which looks back on how the weather has impacted wildlife at the places we look after. The report aims to gives nature a voice and sounds the alarm for wildlife affected by our changing climate.
The year began with a mild, wet winter punctuated by severe storms but soon swung into the warmest and sunniest spring on record. This became a summer of heat and drought, ending with bursts of autumn and winter rain, storms and flooding. These extremes left many habitats vulnerable. Smaller streams ran dry, and rivers and reservoirs fell to perilously low levels while baked landscapes contributed to the UK’s worst fire season.
Tinderbox conditions saw more than 47,000 hectares burn – including major blazes at our sites, including Marsden Moor in Yorkshire, Holt Heath in Dorset and Abergwesyn Common in Wales.
The drought of 2025 ranks among the most severe since 1976. Hosepipe bans and drought orders were widespread, wildlife struggled and farmers saw crop yields fall and poor grass growth. In some places, streams dried up and ponds dropped so low that fish died.
Flames during the Abergwesyn Common fire stretched along a five-mile front at times, destroying habitats for small mammals, reptiles and birds. This included the last known breeding grounds of rare golden plovers in the area.
Other species affected included meadow pipit, skylark, raven, red kite, common lizard, common frog, field vole and rare dragonflies, such as the black darter. Rangers warned the ecological damage will be felt for decades.
Peatlands that had been restored to lock in carbon and water were scorched, reversing years of conservation work and destroying around 20 years of peat accumulation.
Elsewhere, low rainfall left streams and ponds perilously low or dry at several of our places. At Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, water levels dropped and suffocating pond weed flourished, while at Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire, breeding ponds for great crested newts dried up. Studland’s Little Sea inland lake in Purbeck hit its lowest level since monitoring began, with many shallow pools disappearing entirely.
However, there was also some encouraging news thanks to our programme of river restoration work. A lush wetland oasis created along the River Aller on the Holnicote Estate on Exmoor held good amounts of water during the drought. Species that thrived included water voles and many bird species. There was evidence of harvest mice in the longer grassy areas too.
Beaver wetlands also proved their worth, with otters and kingfishers doing well at Holnicote, and the pools created by beavers at Wallington in Northumberland retained water with fish and amphibians finding refuge. Four beaver kits were also born.
Extreme weather continued to place unprecedented strain on trees. Newly planted saplings at the places we care for suffered losses of up to 40 per cent – far above the expected 10–15 per cent factored in each year – while mature trees showed stress through early leaf loss, limb drop and reduced canopy colour.
Oaks, already threatened by acute oak decline, are less able to withstand repeated dry years, particularly in the Midlands and East where rainfall is lowest.
To improve survival, we are trialling earlier winter planting, mulches and natural regeneration and colonisation.
The hot and dry spring and summer proved challenging for farmers across the country. Many arable farmers reported smaller yields and a reduction in quality, with analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit estimating a loss to farmers of £800m and describing it as the second-worst harvest since 1984.
For some livestock farmers, it became a struggle to feed their animals. With limited grass growth many had to fall back on using silage/haylage stores earlier than normal resulting in many having to buy in winter feed at additional expense.
Despite this year’s extreme weather, some species thrived – or partially bounced back after 2024’s very wet conditions. Generalist species, such as seals, carrion crows and speckled wood butterflies, did well thanks to their ability to adapt to warmer temperatures and survive on a varied diet.
While adaptable species are coping, those with specialist needs are in steep decline. Protected sites can no longer act as a safety net; they’re too small and fragmented to form an effective ecological network. Without urgent, joined-up effective action, nature will continue to decline and government will miss its legal targets.
Other UK wildlife experienced mixed fortunes. Butterflies seem to have rebounded from 2024’s wet spring and summer, with species in flight earlier than normal due to the warm and settled spring.
Raptors, like barn owls and kestrels, suffered where vole numbers crashed in parched grasslands at Mottisfont in Hampshire and Sherborne in Gloucestershire. Marsh harriers bred successfully however at Orford Ness and Pembrokeshire. There was also good news for other birds such as the pied flycatchers at Chirk Castle in Wales and Longshaw in the Peak District, with good numbers fledging.
Seabirds also faced a tough season: Arctic tern nests fell 30 per cent at Long Nanny and puffin numbers fell by a quarter (23 per cent) on the Farne Islands, even as the numbers of fulmars and razorbills rose, an encouraging sign after the devastation caused to some species by bird flu.
In some areas, plants and animals appeared to be out-of-sync with the seasons in 2025. The mild, wet autumn triggered a second flush for a range of plants. Bats and brimstone butterflies, meanwhile, were still on the wing in November in Suffolk, while jackdaws, hooded crows and rooks were flocking and rebuilding their rookeries at Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland many months early.
Blooming apple trees and brimstone butterflies in November are snapshots of the topsy-turvy seasons we're now experiencing. Climate change is driving milder, wetter autumns, which throw wildlife out of sync. Our generalist species may be able to adapt to an extent, but the specialists will not.
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