Project takes flight to save rare butterflies

A leading Devon-based conservation charity is hoping to turn around the fortunes of four of the county's rarest butterflies.

The Devon Fritillary Recovery Project is the work of Devon Wildlife Trust. Its aim is to help struggling populations of high brown, pearl-bordered, small pearl-bordered and marsh fritillary butterflies.

All have seen their populations shrink dramatically in recent decades due to changes in farming, loss of habitat and climate change. The high brown fritillary, for example, has seen its numbers crash by 96% and is now one of the UK's 'most threatened species'. 

The new project, which is set to run for 2 years, is receiving support from Natural England's Species Recovery Programme Capital Grant Scheme. The Species Recovery Programme (SRP), which Natural England has been operating for more than thirty years, focusses on reducing the risk of extinction and promoting the recovery of our most threatened species, through bespoke targeted action for these species. The Programme has been enhanced through the new Species Recovery Programme Capital Grants Scheme (SRPCGS) launched in April 2023, driving nature's recovery through collaboration with partner organisations.

A winter of butterfly restoration work will now begin on land managed by Devon Wildlife Trust. Staff and volunteers will be working on 122 hectares – about the same size as 160 football pitches – across 12 of the charity's nature reserves. These include:

• Blackadon nature reserve, Dart Valley nature reserve, Emsworthy Mire and Dunsford nature reserve (Dartmoor)
• Teigngrace Meadow nature reserve (near Bovey Tracey)
• Marsland nature reserve (near Hartland)
• Dunsdon nature reserve, Meshaw Moor nature reserve, Vealand Farm nature reserve, Veilstone nature reserve and Volehouse Moor nature reserve (all near Holsworthy)
• Rackenford Moor nature reserve (near Tiverton)

Jenny Cawson is Devon Fritillary Recovery Project Officer. Jenny said:

"Devon Wildlife Trust's nature reserves offer some of the last homes to our struggling butterflies, so it's vital that we work hard to keep them in good condition. The launch of our Devon Fritillary Recovery Project signals the start of a huge effort to not only stabilise the populations of these rare species but to restore their numbers. Our goal is for their numbers to grow, and populations spread across the wider Devon countryside. The work we'll be able to do during this project will leave a positive legacy which will last for years to come."

Key among the tasks for the charity will be to manage the levels of scrub and gorse across the 12 nature reserves. Helping staff and volunteers will be a new 'robo-flail' – a remote controlled machine which is able to venture into steep and difficult to get to corners of the Trust's wildlife havens.

Jenny Cawson said:

"The robo-flail will prove an enormous help. It can go where it's unsafe or impossible for staff to go, especially on very steep slopes. Our aim is not to remove all bracken and gorse from our reserves, but to ensure that there's a better balance between scrubby and open areas. This is just what butterflies need to thrive."

Other parts of the project will see areas of wildflower-rich Culm grassland meadows restored, plus an extensive monitoring effort counting the numbers of butterflies from the four key fritillary species. These measurements will act as a check on the success of the project, monitoring their numbers over a series of summers.

High brown fritillary: one of the rare butterflies the project is helping. Photo credit Chris Root

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Devon Wildlife Trust is the county's leading environmental charity, with more than 36,000 members. The charity manages 60 nature reserves across Devon, including a range of beautiful landscapes such as woodlands, meadows, wetlands and heaths. Devon Wildlife Trust relies on charitable donations, grants and the generous support of its members and the general public to raise more than £5million every year. Money raised is spent maintaining our work for wildlife conservation and education in Devon, for present and future generations. More at www.devonwildlifetrust.org

ARTIST ROOMS Louise Bourgeois opens at the Burton at Bideford Art Gallery and Museum this November

A new exhibition opening at the Burton includes sculptures, prints and drawings by the acclaimed French-American artist Louise Bourgeois. Eight decades of intense creativity firmly established Louise Bourgeois as a giant of 20th century art. Through this exhibition, the Burton at Bideford makes her ground-breaking work freely available to the people of North Devon for the first time.

ARTIST ROOMS Louise Bourgeois opens at the Burton at Bideford Art Gallery and Museum on Friday 17 November, 6-8pm, and runs until 11 February 2024. Admission is free.

Born in Paris in 1911, Bourgeois settled in New York in 1938, where she remained for the rest of her life, continuing to make art until her death at the age of 98. Her endlessly inventive work, inspired by her memories and experiences, spanned monumental installations, figurative sculptures, fabric collages, and drawings. She is perhaps best known for the large-scale spider sculptures that she produced in the last decades of her life, including one she created for the opening of Tate Modern in 2000.

Bourgeois’s art was closely bound up with her life, and she used artmaking as a way to make sense of her experiences. Her sculpture, drawing, and writing are characterised by emotional honesty, and she reworked her ideas in different forms and materials including marble, bronze, latex, and fabric, compelled by the need to make and re-make.

This exhibition focuses on works produced during the last 20 years of her life, a period of extraordinary creativity, during which Bourgeois re-examined many of her lifelong concerns to create a body of powerful new work exploring identity, gender, childhood, family and motherhood. Personal, provocative and raw, Bourgeois’s work reaches us with a powerful immediacy more than a decade after her death.

ARTIST ROOMS presents the work of international artists in solo exhibitions drawn from a national touring collection jointly owned by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland. This exhibition is drawn from the ARTIST ROOMS collection and includes works on loan from The Easton Foundation and Tate. This is the Burton at Bideford’s third collaboration with Tate and National Galleries of Scotland through the ARTIST ROOMS programme, and follows presentations of internationally renowned artists Richard Long (2014) and Diane Arbus (2018).

Warren Collum, Interim Co-Director of the Burton, said:

“Working in partnership with Tate and National Galleries of Scotland through the ARTIST ROOMS programme for the third time to present one of the twentieth century's most influential female sculptors, Louise Bourgeois, is a unique opportunity.

This show not only celebrates art but also emphasises the need to bring culture to rural areas, as well as putting a light on the strength and ingenuity of women in the creative world.”

The ARTIST ROOMS programme provides support for young people to get involved in creative projects, discover more about art and artists, and learn new skills. A Burton Youth Collective will be supported through ARTIST ROOMS by Art Fund and Henry Moore Foundation, providing local teenagers with the opportunity to explore a career in the arts, experience life behind the scenes of an arts organisation, and work alongside practising artists. Sessions are open to young people aged 13-19 years. Places are limited and anyone interested is advised to contact the gallery to check availability and register their interest.

Louise Bourgeois Spirals 2005
ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by Artist Rooms Foundation 2013
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2023. Photo © Tate

Louise Bourgeois 10am is When You Come to Me 2006
ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by Artist Rooms Foundation 2013
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2023. Photo © Tate

THE BURTON AT BIDEFORD

Kingsley Road, Bideford EX39 2QQ 

Email: info@theburton.org

Tel: 01237 471455
Website: www.burtonartgallery.co.uk

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New community award will help struggling wildlife

A leading Devon conservation charity has launched a new award to highlight the wonderful work local community groups are doing to encourage struggling nature.

The Wilder Communities Award is the idea of Devon Wildlife Trust. The inaugural award has been made recently to an East Devon community.

Awards are open to everyone in Devon – from groups of allotment holders and workplace employees to residents’ associations, schools and care home communities.

Staff at the conservation charity are keen to stress that the scheme is not a competition. Instead, applications will be reviewed by Devon Wildlife Trust’s Wilder Communities Team. The application process is open now and can be completed on-line via the Trust’s website. Applicants can find lots of guidance, examples and ideas about how to help local wildlife.

Applications to the Wilder Community application process is free.

 

The Trust’s Wilder Communities Team are especially keen to hear from Devon communities who are working for nature in several ways, including:

• Creating space for nature: providing more food, water and homes for wildlife.

• Protecting the local environment: working to protect rivers and streams, to improve soil health, and reduce waste and pollution.

• Connecting local people with nature: bringing local communities together so that they can discover, learn and connect with wildlife.

Each Wilder Communities Award will be made for 12 months, but communities can look to re-new year-on-year. The schemes organisers hope that this will encourage communities to develop their wildlife plans over time, making them more ambitious and increasing their positive impact.

Katie Wilkinson is Devon Wildlife Trust Wilder Communities Team Lead. Katie said:

‘’We have been inspired by the hundreds communities across Devon who are leading amazing projects to help wildlife where they live, learn, work, or socialise. So, we have launched a brand-new award to celebrate their efforts.

There is so much to be hopeful for when we see so many people dedicating their time to help nature’s recovery. From holding environmental festivals to running community science projects or managing a local greenspace for wildlife, and campaigning to get swift nesting boxes installed in a town centre. When communities work together on a common cause they can achieve great things.

Thinking globally and acting locally will help us build a sustainable future where nature and people can thrive’’.

 

The first group to be designated as a Wilder Community is the East Devon village of Chardstock. Gill Keam is leader of the Chardstock Wilder Community. Gill reacted to becoming a Wilder Community pioneer and said:

“I feel so incredibly fortunate to have lived in this beautiful location within the Blackdown Hills for over 23 years. Being surrounded by all the treasures that this rural location has to offer is wonderful.

Our local community already does so much in support of the nature on our doorstep and in relation to connecting to it. So, when the opportunity to recognise and celebrate these connections was presented by the Devon Wildlife Trust’s new Wilder Communities Award, it felt like the ideal opportunity to bring our community even closer to nature.

Using our application form as a springboard, we have been able to acknowledge so much of the fabulous work already being done locally, and to set ourselves some challenges to do even more over the coming months and years.”

 

The Wilder Communities application process is open now. People and communities who want to discover more about what it takes to be a Wilder Community should visit the Devon Wildlife Trust website https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/wilder-communities

Community members of Chardstock village celebrate receiving their Wilder Communities Award.

 Far left is Gill Keam (Chardstock community). Middle (crouching) Katie Wilkinson, Devon Wildlife Trust Wilder Communities Lead

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About Devon Wildlife Trust. Nature is in trouble and Devon Wildlife Trust’s mission stems from the need for urgent change and our belief that, if enough people care and act, we can bring nature back and do it on a grand scale. For 60 years, we have been at the forefront of protecting wildlife and the wild places that make Devon so special and believe, passionately, that a better world is one where nature and people thrive together. We are the only Devon focused charity that exists to protect all wildlife in Devon, on land and at sea. Homepage | Devon Wildlife Trust