With the Met Office confirming last week that 2025 was the hottest year on record in the UK, the National Trust says the effects of the climate crisis are being seen on plants and wildlife across its Peak District estates.

The end-of-year Weather and Wildlife Review, published on December 29, describes how drought conditions saw up to 40 per cent of newly planted trees die at National Trust properties in and around the national park over the year – far above the expected failure rate of 10-15 per cent.

Ongoing breakdown of traditional climate patterns also caused a dramatic crash in vole populations on parched grassland – creating food scarcity for owls, hawks and other predators – the disappearance of dragonflies from dried out ponds, and unseasonal patterns such as the reporting of frogspawn in October that would usually be seen in January or February, and the arrival of snowdrops a month earlier than usual at Kedleston Hall.