Nature

A four year project to bring more butterflies to the Wyre Forest has begun.

The Back to Orange Project is being funded by an award of £74,000 from the SITA Trust to help conserve the distinctive fritillary butterflies, for which the Wyre Forest is so well known.

All fritillaries are predominantly orange, with a network of darker markings forming the chequered pattern from which the name 'fritillary' is derived.

The Wyre Forest is an important national and regional stronghold for the Pearl bordered Fritillary, Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary and the Silver washed Fritillary.

The Trust funding is to be used for essential habitat restoration work in six special areas, to maintain the strongholds of these three fritillary butterfly species in the Wyre Forest for future generations.

The Forestry Commission, Butterfly Conservation and Natural England are all closely involved with the Back to Orange Project.

Butterfly Conservation has been working with the Forestry Commission in the Wyre Forest since the late 1980's, with work focusing on the survey and monitoring work and management advice.

The organisation's Regional Officer for the West Midlands is Dr Jenny Joy, and she said:

"The Back to Orange Project is a great opportunity to focus work on one of most important forests in the region.

"We are delighted to have this opportunity to extend the work we are able to do here in collaboration with the Forestry Commission and Natural England, and to direct conservation work onto a much larger range of butterflies and moths, and their habitats than we have been able to do before."

Pearl Bordered Fritillary butterfly

Important butterfly and moth site

The Wyre Forest's 6,500 acres is all that survives of a wood that once stretched along the Severn Valley from Worcester to Bridgnorth, making it a unique area to spot rare plants and animals.

It has one the largest number of butterfly and moth species of any site in Britain.

About 2,500 species of butterfly and moth have been recorded across the whole country and nearly half this number have been found in the Wyre Forest alone.

Visits

Once work starts on the Back to Orange Project, local people and visitors will be encouraged to come along and look at the butterflies and the improvements to their strongholds.

The project will also collect valuable data about the interaction of rare butterflies within woodland.

The SITA Trust was set up in 1997 and runs three funding programmes.

The Back to Orange Project has received a grant from the Enriching Nature fund, which provides money for biodiversity projects within the vicinity of landfill sites in England.

For more information about the Back to Orange Project and the Wyre Forest Landscape Partnership Scheme, Grow With Wyre, contact Alison Coggon:  alison.coggon@forestry.gsi.gov.uk