Supporting the Silver-studded Blue
In 2005, GrantScape awarded a grant of just over £570,000 to help Butterfly Conservation acquire 60 hectares of land at Prees Heath in Shropshire. This was a once rich and open heathland common that had been subject to years of neglect and agricultural use. Fortunately though, where small heathland pockets remained, the rare Silver-studded Blue butterfly had fought to survive in its last refuge in the Midlands.
As well as helping Butterfly Conservation to purchase the land at Prees Heath, our grant is also supporting four years of vital heathland habitat restoration on this land. This is now well underway and the results of volunteer work parties and soil inversion ploughing are clearly visible.
The opening celebration of the new Prees Heath Reserve in July 2007 marked what we all therefore hope will be a turning point for the Silver-studded Blue butterfly’s population in the Midlands
For further information on the Silver-studded Blue, please see the Factsheet, provided courtesy of Butterfly Conservation: www.butterfly-conservation.org and funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Details of Defra's schemes, including Higher Level Stewardship, which supports management for targeted butterflies, moths and other biodiversity can be found at: www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/schemes/es/default.htm.
Details of the Silver-studded Blue Species Action Plan under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan can be found at: http://www.ukbap.org.uk/UKPlans.aspx?ID=522
