Saving Tamar Valley’s Heath Fritillaries

This project will restore & create new breeding habitat for the Heath Fritillary butterfly across 10 ecologically linked sites in the Tamar Valley landscape. An s41 NERC Act (2006), & UK BAP Priority Species, it is restricted to just four landscapes, making the Tamar Valley critical to its survival in the UK. To secure the Heath Fritillary’s future, we will manage woodland areas through coppicing, coppice restoration, thinning, scalloping & ride management. New open space habitat will ensure a plentiful supply of the larval foodplants, on which the Heath Fritillary depends. Creating optimum conditions across this landscape will reduce the chance of the existing colony becoming extinct, & will encourage the butterfly to naturally colonise new & former sites to re-establish a viable metapopulation. Management will be focused on increasing the number of coppice coupes cut annually & increasing landscape connectivity through ride management, as well as encouraging landowners to manage sites sympathetically.