Butterfly Conservation in the 21st century

By Ashley Whitlock August 2020 

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Rural Britain has completely altered since the end of World War two. In the last 70 odd years an area of unspoilt countryside the size of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire and Hampshire, has been built upon, and as I write these words, it looks like ‘Britain’s build, build policy since the ‘Lockdown’ will probably put another few more thousands of acres under concrete. Whilst the open countryside between these expanding towns and cities, has also been changed by man, the dangerous policy of the Green Belt, being gradually eaten away, by expanding small towns and villages. The lust for more housing and industrial and retail parks, hell bent on moving out of the dying city centres.

 

Lowland Fens have been drained, 50% of all ancient deciduous woods have been felled and over 60% of the unique lowland heaths have disappeared. Each year about 400 miles of hedgerow are grubbed out, to make fields larger to grow crops, where our ever increasing population shows no stopping or slowing down. 95% of flower rich meadows, as valuable as a source of nectar for butterflies and moths have been lost to the plough. Although over the last decade there have great efforts to redress this, with many areas of ploughed land being taken out of food production, and left to a natural process of ‘rewilding’ which is the watchword now for modern conservation.

 

Industrialization and Urbanization have triumphed as habitats have disappeared as does the local wildlife. Butterflies have particularly suffered because they require such a delicate balance in their environment. Their numbers fall once pollution or habitat disturbance begins, A fine example of this is the HS2 Railway link from London to the Midlands and then on up to the North of England. Once habitat disturbance begins, butterflies are viewed as a barometer, indicating the health of the countryside. Although Conservationists cannot entirely prevent Industrial, development they can campaign to protect and maintain areas of the countryside where butterfly colonies are significant.

 

Some of the dangers of butterfly species are not immediately obvious. When the Large Blue became extinct in 1979, it was partly because of some of the Thyme covered hillsides where it lived had been destroyed by ploughing, but a change in the nature of the habitat was also a major factor. The butterfly has always survived on areas of grassland which is constantly grazed by sheep, or rabbits, because the Large Blues caterpillar spent part of its life underground in ant’s nests, and the ants themselves only survive where the turf is short. As grazing became uneconomical, farmers removed their sheep from the hillsides. Also the Rabbits died in there thousands due to re-occurring Myxomatosis disease which struck Britain. So eventually the ant colonies have died out and with them the Large Blue disappeared from Britain.

 

In recent years butterfly experts have learnt about the conservation requirements of the Large Blue and its complex life-cycle, especially from Sweden and other sites in Europe where it’s far more common. The Large Blue was re-introduced from similar European stock to protected managed sites in the West Country in Somerset, and later into Gloucestershire, at Rodbourgh Common and Daneway Banks near Stroud and during the summers of 1986 and 1988 adult butterflies could be seen again on the wing egg-laying, at Green Hill near Glastonbury.  Some sites now have public access, and numbers have grown and counts have been in access of 10,000 at one site. Fortunately habitat management for Butterfly Conservation has become very popular within county naturalists trusts. Because we now know that butterflies remain fairly close to the area where they emerge all over the country the character of many sites are being maintained, so that habitat will maintain the butterflies so they can increase. No single habitat should look at in isolation, because the variety of butterflies survive in one area, an equal amount of conditions will be necessary.