The Countryside Stewardship Scheme has been making a positive contribution to conserving many of our chalk downland butterfly species including the silver spotted skipper, which occurs in Kent. This butterfly is a red data book species and by the early 1980’s had declined by 89% to fewer then 50 populations in the UK. It appears from recent research conducted by Butterfly Conservation on behalf of DEFRA (Department of Food and Rural Affairs) that the annual rate of increase of silver spotted skippers on Stewardship and Environmentally Sensitive Areas is more than double that at non-scheme sites.

Marbled white and burnet moth

One of the Countryside Stewardship payments is for light grazing over a minimum period of ten weeks to maintain a short cropped sward, this encourages the silver spotted skipper’s food plant sheep’s fescue. Stewardship also funds the restoration of grazing sites through the removal of scrub and fencing. The Kent downs are an important chalk grassland area and more than half of British butterflies occur in this habitat. Species such as the chalk hill blue and adonis blue, which feed on energy rich nectar sources such as horseshoe vetch, thrive on chalk grassland sites.

Options that also create valuable butterfly refuges include wildlife strips, conservation headlands and field margins. These are margins, approximately 6m wide, left to form longer grass around arable fields and watercourses. The longer sward provides shelter and hibernation sites for many invertebrates. Neither fertilisers nor pesticides are allowed on these options. A late cut, after July, encourages a greater diversity of plants and invertebrates.

Arable reversion to grassland is also supported through Stewardship with wild flower mixes from local seed sources, and pollen and nectar mixtures are encouraged. Species include crested dogs tail, fescues, birds foot trefoil and black knapweed which support an array of butterflies including dingy skippers, graylings, marbled whites and silver studded blues.

The Kentish Stour Countryside Project has helped over 30 farmers in the Project area to gain Countryside Stewardship agreements including recently Bilting Grange Farm, Ivy House (Stourmouth), Bank Farm (Aldington), and Brook Farm (Staple). These farms should all have improved habitat for a variety of butterfly species.

If you are interested in this research or getting involved in monitoring butterflies please contact Tom Brereton at Butterfly Conservation, 01929 40020 tbrereton@butterfly-conservation.

Hanna Etherington

Kentish Stour Countryside Project
Sidelands Farm, Wye, Ashford, Kent TN25 5DQ
01233 813307
kentishstour@kent.gov.uk