Battle to save butterflies in South Lakeland (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Battle to save butterflies in South Lakeland

9:18am Friday 12th March 2010 in

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THREE species of butterfly could become extinct if Britain’s recent run of wet summers continues.

But organisations in South Lakeland and north Lancashire are putting up a fight to save the Duke of Burgundy, the High Brown Fritillary and the Pearl-bordered Fritillary from dying out.

Holgates Holiday Park in Silverdale is working with the Butterfly Conservation charity to help protect the Duke of Burgundy.

Contractors and advisors from the charity are setting up areas of open woodland and scrub for the Burgundy, whose colonies have halved since the start of the century.

Mike Turner, General Manager of Holgates Holiday Park, said: “We are really pleased that our park is not only a haven for our visitors but also for rare wildlife, and we are very happy to be pioneering a last stand for this lovely little rare butterfly.”

“We are hoping that all this work that we are doing for the Duke, and in our woodland for other butterfly species, will mean that we have a brilliant butterfly summer ahead.”

Meanwhile, Cumbria Wildlife Trust has coppicing and cattle-grazing sites set up in areas like Howe Ridding Wood and Whitbarrow Scar which are both near Witherslack.

These sites will allow violet and cowslip flowers to grow and heat up. The Fritillary lays its eggs on violets, which provide a food source for caterpillars when they are hatched, while the Burgundy uses cowslips.

It is hoped that butterfly numbers will increase as more of these flowers grow.

David Harpley, conservation manager for Cumbria Wildlife Trust, said: “All the species of butterfly have declined both in terms of the number of sites they occupy and in terms of how many individual butterflies there are.

“One of the troubles is that they get down to small populations at a limited number of sites, which basically leads to in-breeding.

“Each of them also have a very specific flight time. Bad weather can result in their numbers going down, so they will all do better in perfect conditions.

”We need a little run of decent summers to build the populations up a bit more.”