The story
- The UK government has approved £1 million in additional funding to explore reintroducing golden eagles to England, more than 150 years after Victorian-era persecution wiped them out. Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds approved the funding on April 12, 2026.
- A new feasibility study from Forestry England identified eight "recovery zones" in northern England with the ecological capacity to support a golden eagle population: the Cheviots, North Pennines, Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Bowland, South Pennines, North York Moors, and the South West.
- The last known wild golden eagle in England died in the Lake District in 2016. Once widespread across English skies — Shakespeare mentioned them more than 40 times — they were hunted to extinction in England by the 1870s.
- The charity Restoring Upland Nature will lead the project in partnership with Forestry England, building on the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project. Satellite tracking shows some translocated Scottish birds are already flying across the border into northern England.
- If the programme proceeds, juveniles aged six to eight weeks could be released as early as next year — but Forestry England cautions it could take more than a decade for breeding populations to actually establish.
- Not everyone is on board. Farming groups have raised concerns about livestock predation, and a community-engagement programme spanning farming, game management, recreation, tourism, and education will run alongside the feasibility work.
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This presents a truly exciting, and potentially game-changing moment for the return of golden eagles to Northern England. With the backing of Defra and Forestry England, we now have the opportunity to replicate and build on this approach in Northern England.
— Dr Cat Barlow, Chief Executive, Restoring Upland Nature
Sources