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Morecambe Bay Project to Save Endangered Butterfly

14th July 2009

A project to save one of Britain’s rarest butterflies from possible extinction is being officially launched today (Tuesday 14 July).
It focuses on the Morecambe Bay Limestones, an area on the Lancashire and Cumbria border that is the last remaining stronghold of the High Brown Fritillary. Its numbers are down by 80 per cent compared with the early 1980s and its rate of decline appears to be accelerating. It has suffered the biggest drop in numbers of all UK butterflies over recent years.

Credit: Jim Asher

Butterfly Conservation Chairman Maurice Avent, who is conducting the official launch, will point out that the area is rich in other butterflies including the endangered Duke of Burgundy. These too will benefit from the project, which is being run by the charity Butterfly Conservation.
The Morecambe Bay Limestones area includes limestone pavements, scrub, coppice woodland and herb-rich grasslands. The emphasis will be on opening up larger tracts of the area to make them sunnier and more welcoming for butterflies.

Work has already started at 13 locations. Contractors have widened hundreds of metres of tracks, cut back dense vegetation and cleared stunted trees and bramble.

Butterfly Conservation will be investing £430,000 in the project, with nearly £250,000 of this coming from Landfill Tax via GrantScape. Butterfly Conservation is working closely with the Forestry Commission, which has allocated an additional £80,000 in woodland grant packages.

Volunteers are also playing a major role, including members of the Lancashire and Cumbria branches of Butterfly Conservation. Wildlife Trust members, local colleges, Arnside and Silverdale AONB and Age Concern have also contributed significant volunteer input.
David Wainwright, Morecambe Bay Limestones Project Officer, said: “Without all this effort there is a great danger of losing the High Brown Fritillary. However, the project is going well and I’m sure we’ll turn things round. We are expecting to see a large increase in numbers next year.”

Butterfly Conservation is the largest insect conservation charity in Europe with nearly 14,000 members in the UK. Its aim is the conservation of butterflies, moths and their habitats. It runs conservation programmes for over 60 threatened species of butterfly and moth, organises national butterfly recording and monitoring schemes, and manages over 30 nature reserves. Further information can be found at www.butterfly-conservation.org