The National Trust is celebrating a “bumper year” for butterflies as the number of species at Essex’s Hatfield Forest reaches a 17-year high. Hatfield Forest Nature Reserve is now home to two dozen species of butterfly, and the early cumulative numbers are at “a level not seen for many years.”
The marbled-white and small heath butterflies are at particularly high numbers and sightings of the more elusive purple emperor have also risen.
Staff and volunteers for the National Trust surveyed throughout the summer. But early numbers show the insects at levels not seen for the last two decades. While the recent hot and dry spring is believed to have contributed to their higher numbers, it is believed that the change in how landscape is managed has had the biggest impact.
Habitat loss is the number one reason for a fall in the numbers of butterflies in the UK. Some species have very specific needs in order to breed and thrive.
“As a National Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest,” James Rowland, National Trust Operations Manager at Hatfield Forest said, the forest is “home to a vast array of wildlife including rare species of wildflowers, invertebrates, small mammals, reptiles, lichen and fungi, which thrive in the ancient forest and wood pasture habitats.”
“Grassland management is an important part of how we manage the landscape. Two years ago, we decided to make a small change to managing this habitat and since then we’ve seen numbers soar.”
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