Gove stymies lynx rewilding project

An application to reintroduce the Eurasian lynx in a forest in Northumberland has been rejected by environment secretary Michael Gove, who said that the backers of the project had failed to provide an assessment of its impact on ecology.

Natural England had advised against approving the Lynx UK Trust’s application for a licence to release six Eurasian Lynx into Kielder Forest.  Gove decided the application himself, saying he had “taken great interest in this project and in reintroductions of formerly native species in England as a whole”.