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Phil Metcalfe

@philipimetcalfe.bsky.social
863 followers 337 following 64 posts

Nature Based Solutions advisor at the Environment Agency working on a range of Natural Flood Management projects across Devon and Cornwall. Views are most certainly my own.

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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Amazing habitat and birdlife at the Calstock managed realignment freshwater marsh. Superb effort by colleagues and the landowner to make this a reality 👏
Intertidal freshwater marsh with reedbed and open water habitats on the River Tamar with steep wooded hillside and the village of Calstock in the distance
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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Two-thirds of global energy is wasted, mostly as combustion heat. Electrification gets rid of most of that waste rather than replacing it. From my keynote at the Eurelectric PowerSummit.
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
www.gov.uk/government/n... Fantastic news 👏 👏👏
gov.uk
Smarter use of government land to support nature and climate
Half a million hectares to help deliver for nature recovery and climate adaptation, strengthening climate resilience
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
British summer time 🫠 Well at least the swallows are having a good time. Makes me wonder how they forage across areas where the hedges are cut back to the knuckle every year. They've spent all day circling the trees catching insects. We need more trees across our landscapes!
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Marco Petagna @petagna.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
#Metoffice warnings updating for the next few days Heavy rain towards the SW Snow towards the NE of the UK #weatheraware www.metoffice.gov.uk
metoffice.gov.uk
Weather and climate change
Met Office weather forecasts for the UK. World leading weather services for the public.
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Met Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 08/12/2025
We have various severe weather warnings in place for strong winds and heavy rain associated with #StormBram. Follow these top tips from our partners to help stay safe and be #WeatherReady: 🍃 Wind: bit.ly/3VZqfqU 🌧️ Rain: bit.ly/3iEb7kd
bit.ly
5 tips for staying safe in heavy rain
When there is a rain warning in place, here are 5 tips for staying safe in heavy rain.
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
www.nebriefing.org/open-letter-... please do add your signature to this 🙏
nebriefing.org
National Emergency Briefing
An unfiltered assessment of the latest threats to UK food supply, health and national security from eight leading experts to an invitation-only audience - also covering positive solutions. Westminster...
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... When I visit beaver territories in the UK it's so abundantly obvious that they will support rare an common species alike. The extraordinary levels of biomass and habitat heterogeneity are seldom seen in other environments. Great to see it measured!
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Habitat heterogeneity and food availability in beaver‐engineered streams foster bat richness, activity and feeding
Beavers reshape ecosystems in ways that benefit bat richness, activity and feeding activity. We linked increased habitat structures (standing deadwood and canopy heterogeneity) and prey abundance to ...
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Martin Lewis @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com · 02/09/2025
Expect your mobile to go off 3pm Sunday! Be prepared for a test of the Govt's emergency alert system. Full info... www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2025/09... LIVING WITH DOMESTIC ABUSE? If you've a hidden mobile, you the link above has details of how to opt out of the alert. Pls share
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Yet more land managers recognising the need to tackle climate change and consider change and uncertainty to restore floodplain functionality and improve community flood resilience. A long journey ahead but very exciting!
A large area of floodplain grassland with riparian trees lining the river banks and wooded farmland on rising land in the background
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Alan Puttock @alanputtock.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
New PhD funding opportunity: Quantifying natural flood management through peatland restoration in the upland moorland environment (Physical Geography @exeter.ac.uk ) @dpanici.bsky.social @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social @uoe-creww.bsky.social www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
exeter.ac.uk
Quantifying NFM through peatland re | University of Exeter
The University’s Department of Geography invites applications for a PhD studentship funded by the Environment Agency and South West Water and the University of Exeter to commence as soon as possible t...
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
"Through the death of a million ash trees, a more resistant population of ash is appearing." Spectacular news!! www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘New hope’: ash trees rapidly evolving resistance to dieback, study reveals
Subtle DNA changes in trees demonstrate Charles Darwin’s natural selection – although human help may be needed
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Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
I will be delivering a seminar on #OurFragileMoments at the @exeter.ac.uk, UK on Thursday, May 8th from 4-5PM local time: www.exeter.ac.uk/events/detai...
exeter.ac.uk
Details | University of Exeter
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
The reality of sex and gender is complicated. It calls for nuanced examination and thought. The public sphere is terribly bad at this. Add in the close ties between gender and people's self-image, and the issue is ripe for demagoguery. Or you could just be kind to people different from you.
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 15/03/2025
I’m am adaptation scientist and here’s what I had to say about this—many years ago already.
theguardian.com
We cannot adapt our way out of climate crisis, warns leading scientist
Katharine Hayhoe says the world is heading for dangers people have not seen in 10,000 years of civilisation
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Elliot Swartz @elliotswartz.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
People are afraid of lab-grown meat because everyone keeps calling it lab-grown meat People will stop being afraid of it when they try it and realize it tastes good But politicians can't keep interfering with the freedom to try it in the first place www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/s...
nytimes.com
Who’s Afraid of Lab-Grown Meat?
Mississippi became the third state to ban cell-derived meat, a product not for sale in the United States. But not all livestock producers are opposed to cultivated protein.
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IUCN UK Peatland Programme @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
📣 New publication! Our latest #Briefing document, covering the issue of tracks and roads on peatlands, is now available on our website. Read Networks of change: Tracks and roads on peatlands bit.ly/3Fx9xMq #Policy #Science #Peatlands 📷 Richard Lindsay
Tracks on a peatland
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Labour MP Richard Burgon raises looming welfare cuts during PMQs, criticising the “easy option” of cutting benefits for the poor and vulnerable: “So instead of cutting benefits for disabled people wouldn’t the moral thing to do…introduce a wealth tax on the very wealthiest people in our society”
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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
🌞 Solar just keeps getting better! The latest NREL PV efficiency charts highlight record-breaking solar tech: ⚡ 33.9% – Longi’s perovskite-silicon tandem ⚡ 27.09% – Longi’s heterojunction back-contact ⚡ 23.64% – First Solar’s thin-film CIGS ⚡ 47.6% – Fraunhofer ISE’s four-junction cell
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Martin Lewis @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com · 03/03/2025
Pls help me spread word tomorrow (Tue) 8pm on ITV I'll be talking you through how to check if you can boost your State Pension by possibly £10,000s. There is an urgent deadline coming after which many lose the opportunity. This is a must watch for anyone age 40 to 73.
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
The magic thing about a few sunny days in a row, is knowing that the night sky will be wondrous ✨
Trees in flower with a blue and partially white cloud sky in the background Crescent moon and Venus in the late evening sky with silhouetted trees in the foreground
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Huge news!! 🥰🥳 naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2025/02/28/b...
naturalengland.blog.gov.uk
Beaver wild release: a milestone for nature recovery in England
By Stuart Otway, Principal Officer in Natural England’s Complex Cases Unit and Delphine Pouget, Principal Officer in Natural England’s Species Recovery & Reintroductions Team  After centuries of absen...
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Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 26/02/2025
NEW: Official advisers CCC say UK shld cut emissions 87% by 2040 ⚖️Net cost of net-zero 73% less than thought 💷Total cost to 2050 = £108bn (~£4bn/yr, 0.2% GDP) 🏡🚗H’hold energy/fuel bills to fall £1,400 🔌Electrification is key THREAD + charts www.carbonbrief.org/... 1/10
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Alan Puttock @alanputtock.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
#beaver droning with Devon Wildlife Trust today. Amazing seeing the dams and wetland spread all the way across the valley bottom now at this site #NatureBasedSolutions @exeter.ac.uk @uoe-creww.bsky.social
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Facinating new tool to investigate the environmental, social and economic benefits of agroforestry from the University of Illinois 🌳🐄🌳🌾 I'll be diving into the platform to see how it works. Interested to see if we should pilot a similar platform here in the UK? #agroforesty phys.org/news/2025-02...
phys.org
New agroforestry maps plot environmental, social and economic benefits of trees
There's a longstanding attitude in many farming communities that trees and agriculture don't mix. But agroforestry—the intentional integration of trees and shrubs in agricultural systems, such as plan...
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Hey, folks, do you want to follow real, science-based solutions to climate change? Especially in these dark times? Then please follow @projectdrawdown.bsky.social and sign up for our newsletter! We will be your fearless, fact-based source of climate solutions! Let’s go!
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
A vision of what the UK could become 🤞... If the agroforestry grant scheme and farm advisory network support farms to move in a more resilient and sustainable direction.
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
72 species of saproxylic beetles!! 🤯 👏👏 Dead wood is surely one of the most undervalued biodiversity treasure troves of habitats! 😍
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
UK food security 2024 (links to full report). Climate shocks continue to threaten domestic food supply as well as global imports. Drought and water stress on Spanish produce particularly worrying 🙈 The race is firmly on to improve domestic resilience and sustainability. www.gov.uk/government/n...
gov.uk
UK Food Security Report 2024 published
UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has published the UK Food Security Report 2024
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Rémi Cardinael @remicardinael.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
#JustOut Modeling carbon sequestration in soils and biomass in heterogeneous #agroforestry systems? See our new study using the DayCent model on 5 temperate silvoarable and 1 silvopastoral systems @usyseth.bsky.social @johansix.bsky.social @cirad.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
Logged forests might not be the end of the road for biodiversity in tropical forest ecosystems! Wonderful study highlighting high levels of biodiversity when left to regrow. Its hard not to get a little bit Jeff Goldblumy when you read such things 😪 theconversation.com/nature-benef...
theconversation.com
Nature benefits when logged tropical forests are left to recover – here’s how
While tropical forests are home to rare species, logged forests still feel and sound like forests, while oil palm plantations are agricultural landscapes.
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 05/01/2025
In a world where the climate and seasonal weather patterns become less predictable, and where food security along with biodiversity, water quality and flood risk are impacted by extreme weather events, controlled environment agriculture seems to make more sense than ever news.sky.com/story/could-...
news.sky.com
Could this be the future of farming? Inside Europe's biggest vertical farm
The whole point of a vertical farm is to create an environment where you can grow plants, stacked on top of each other in high density. The idea being that you can grow your salads or peas somewhere c...
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Here's to another year of river adventures and wild walks, and the continued restoration and enhancement of nature so these experiences can be shared by all both now, and in the future! So very hopeful when I see the amazing work being undertaken by many on this lovely site for climate and nature ❤️
Path through a sand dune system leading to a sandy beach and blue green seaStoney upland river surrounding by scrub and rough grasslandBridge over a deep gorge river in amongst Atlantic temperate rainforest Bridge over a lowland river under riparian woodland
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Really welcome news! 🌿 "Despite earlier predictions that up to 95% of UK’s ash trees would die, the latest Europe-wide data suggests average losses of 50% over the next 30 years...". And management practices to protect ash are improving at pace! 👏👏👏 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Ash dieback experts identify shoots of hope for Britain’s threatened trees
As the deadly fungal disease tightens its grip, scientific efforts to protect ash trees are advancing
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Wind blown sand built up on the southern end of Instow beach with a cliff cut by the high tide. Lovely beach dynamics following #StormDarragh!
Sandy beach under a blue sky with patchy cloud
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Fantastic detailed explanation of what to expect and when from Storm Darragh from the Met Office. A little bit nervous being a North Devon resident 😬 youtube.com/watch?v=J4Na...
youtube.com
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Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Great image illustrating why aquatic connectivity matters *laterally* as well as up/downriver: These Central Valley juvenile chinook are the same age, but the bottom "floodplain fatty" reared in hyper-productive off-channel wetlands. Screenshot from CalTrout webinar: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqMJ...
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
We need more woodlands to sequester carbon, slow flood flows, improve water quality and enhance biodiversity. And there's never been a better time to plant woodland! 👇🥳
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
BlueSky friends old and new, is there a Natural Flood Management starter pack that anyone can sign post me to? Thank you!
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Diego Panici @dpanici.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
I have the privilege of working with @austerroger.bsky.social who will lead this #PhD on identifying social barriers and enablers to the use of Large Wood as a Nature-based Solution. If you are interested or you know someone who would, please share it widely! www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
exeter.ac.uk
Award details | Funding and scholarships for students | University of Exeter
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Tony Juniper @tonyjuniper.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
As #COP29 draws to a close in Baku, perhaps it is a good moment to be reminded that despite the complex global politics, there are practical things we can do on the ground here in England. & in acting to build resilience to climate change impacts, we can restore Nature too.
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Nick Jones @drnickjones.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
#StormBert is the second named storm of the winter. Not a great weekend weather wise ahead. Some snow in northern areas, persistent rain and gale force winds. Also potential for #flooding - sign up for flood warnings here - www.gov.uk/sign-up-for-... latest info - check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk
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Dr Kerry S (She/Her) @drkerrys.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Want to learn about your local river & add to the evidence needed to improve & protect our environment? We’re working with partners & projects encouraging #CitizenScience to monitor water courses alongside EA monitoring💧 Find out how to get involved: environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2024/10/22/d...
environmentagency.blog.gov.uk
Discover your local river and contribute to citizen science!
September was a fantastic month for bringing communities and stakeholders together in celebration of our rivers. There were events across the country as part of World Rivers Day on 22 September, seaso...
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Fantastic upcoming Forestry Commission event alert! 📢 The earning potential of woodland creation: a webinar for land agents (and advisors 😉) www.eventbrite.com/e/the-earnin...
eventbrite.com
The earning potential of woodland creation: a webinar for land agents
Join the forestry experts for a deep dive into the economics of woodland creation, looking at real-life examples and case studies.
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Carbon Brief @carbonbrief.org · 18/11/2024
Mapped: How climate change affects extreme weather around the world | @rtmcswee.carbonbrief.org @ayeshatandon.carbonbrief.org 🎨 Kerry Cleaver, Tom Pearson @tomoprater.carbonbrief.org Read here: buff.ly/4eFnQus
Studies of almost 750 events and trends reveal the impact of climate change on extreme weather.
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Disconnected floodplain meadow in Cornwall waiting patiently to be restored ⏳. Beyond excited to see what becomes of this site once water steadily and continuously flows across it once again 🐛🦋🦎🦆🦇
Floodplain disconnected from the stream through historic channel modifications for agricultural improvement purposes. Floodplain disconnected from the stream through historic channel modifications for agricultural improvement purposes.
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Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Lots of new people joining Bluesky, and lots of great starter packs floating around, so here’s another idea: if you work at the intersection of food/agriculture, nature, and climate, introduce yourself and what you do below so folks can keep connecting. Who’s here now?
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Amazing managed realignment site on the Tamar Estuary overseen by a colleague in my team. A climate resilient flood risk management project bursting with bird life!! 🦆🦢🐦 #managedrealignment #floodriskmanagement
Former dry improved grassland site now frequently inundated by tidal and fluvial flows influencing esturine habitat processes. Breach point in the former flood defence embankment undergoing erosion processes.
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Phil Metcalfe @philipimetcalfe.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
Hugely impressive river restoration site in Cumbria. Space for otter, badgers and other wildlife galore. Amazing what a little wiggle can do! #riverrestoration
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