Field Notes – Rosy future for rare butterfly

Glenlude Conservation Officer Ellie Oakley reports on how our conservation volunteers are helping to create sunny but sheltered areas stocked with butterfly friendly plants to help a rare species survive.

Butterfly Conservation’s Saving the Northern Brown Argus project aims to secure a better future for one of Scotland’s most threatened butterflies across the Scottish Borders region. The charity has picked the John Muir Trust's site at Glenlude as a case study to show how practical land management can improve Northern Brown Argus numbers.

This rare small chocolate brown butterfly inhabits species-rich grassland habitats where its sole larval foodplant common rock-rose Helianthemum nummularium grows. The charity says that while the Scottish range of the species is largely eastern, with colonies found along some coasts, small colonies can be found further inland where they inhabit lightly grazed unimproved grasslands.

We already have some Northern Brown Argus on site at Glenlude, but we need to remove and reduce the spread of bracken. We have grown rock-rose plug plants from seed, so we can increase the feed plant of the Northern Brown Argus.

Butterfly Conservation paid for two of our regular Glenlude volunteers to get brushcutter training in mid-February. They will use their new skills to regularly cut down bracken and remove the cuttings to create a wild flower meadow in the glade (an opening in forest) you pass though as you head down the woodland track towards the campsite.

• Find out more about the Saving the Northern Brown Argus project.