A programme has been launched in a bid to save one of Wales' most endangered butterflies. The charity Butterfly Conservation is training dozens of people, leading survey expeditions and working with landowners to help improve habitat for the Marsh Fritillary. It has been awarded £174,000 from the Welsh Government's Nature Networks Fund to create a Wales Marsh Fritillary Recovery Partnership, and has employed John Hitchens as its Wales Marsh Fritillary Recovery project officer.
Mr Hitchens said: "The Marsh Fritillary is a beautiful butterfly that we are lucky to have in Wales and is worth saving in its own right – but it’s more than that: butterflies are also invaluable indicators of the health of the whole ecosystem, so if we can create an environment where Marsh Fritillaries are doing well, it will also be a healthy environment for lots of other species.” The Marsh Fritillary, which has orange, yellow and brown chequered wings reminiscent of a stained-glass window, was once widespread throughout much of Wales. Between 1981 and 2019, the distribution of Marsh Fritillaries in the UK dropped 43 per cent.
In September Butterfly Conservation declared a UK-wide Butterfly Emergency to draw attention to decades of declines in many species, and called on the Government to ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides. It is now hoping to stabilise and secure the remaining Welsh populations of Marsh Fritillary and in due course help it spread its wings across Wales once again..