Posts Tagged ‘butterflies’
Mosaic Habitat Management at Common Wood
Our summer workday at Common Wood had a focus on clearing bracken encroachment for the benefit of Marsh Fritillary butterflies. These threatened butterflies require areas of flower rich wet grassland, called rhos pastures, with a plentiful supply of devil’s-bit scabious, which is the food plant of their caterpillar. One of six fritillary species found on…
Read MoreMarsh Fritillary Butterflies: A Vulnerable Species with a Stronghold on Dartmoor
The marsh fritillary butterfly is distributed across Europe, but listed as ‘vulnerable’ throughout it’s range. In the UK, there are only six regional strongholds for this butterfly, Devon and Cornwall being one of them, which makes our Dartmoor populations so precious. The marsh fritillary makes its home in a range of damp grassland habitats, and…
Read MoreCommon Wood Butterfly Workday
DPA Conservation Volunteers don’t just work on our own land holdings. Twice a year, they visit Common Wood, clearing gorse and scrub to make sure light can get in to the sunny slope which provides a breeding ground for rare Pearl Bordered and Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary butterflies. The Fritillary family of butterflies are specialists,…
Read MoreButterfly Conservation at Roborough Common
Winter workdays are in full swing and our fantastic team of DPA Conservation Volunteers have been busy on various sites, undertaking seasonal tasks including gorse clearance and sapling removal. On Wednesday the 14th of January the team made their yearly winter visit to Roborough Common, accompanied by members of Butterfly Conservation. Jenny Plackett, South West…
Read MoreRoborough Down Butterfly Workday
Our conservation volunteers returned to Roborough down for their early January workday, working in partnership with Butterfly Conservation. This is a well established collaboration, with 2025 being the 10th year the Dartmoor Preservation Association has been involved with the project. Butterfly Conservation believe strongly in collaborations, as part of nature’s recovery at a larger scale,…
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