Coastal landscape’s rare flowers and butterflies to get helping hand
RARE coastal lichens, wildflowers and butterflies are being given a helping hand through the conservation and creation of “micro-habitats” across a landscape in Cornwall, the National Trust said.
The project aims to help wildlife recover across the entire 2,400 hectare (5,900 acre) Lizard National Nature Reserve, with many “Lizard specialities” found nowhere else in the UK.
The £350,000 project, funded by government agency Natural England, is focusing on conservation of micro-habitats on cliffs, bare rocks, in ditches, pools and tracks, where tiny lichens, liverworts and plants can be found.
Work in the reserve, where unique wildlife is found on semi- natural heathlands and grass- lands and along the coastline, is targeting the recovery of 15 key species including rare, crusty lichens, wild asparagus, twinheaded clover and grayling butterflies.
Conservationists warn that although the Lizard is one of the most wildlife-rich places in the country, many species seem to be in decline or even facing extinction.
Species face the impacts of climate change, invasive species such as Hottentot fig which crowds out wild asparagus, and pollution, the National Trust said.
The charity is undertaking work including hand-clearing ivy from the serpentine rock of the Lizard – which is an important habitat for lichens – scrub clearance, digging ponds and creating scrapes for plants that need bare disturbed ground to germinate.
Controlled heathland burning and the cutting of firebreaks aims to boost plants such as bristle bent and sheep’s fescue that grayling butterfly caterpillars feed on.
The firebreaks will also protect isolated species from the effects of wildfires, which are on the rise as the climate warms, the National Trust said.
Pony and cattle grazing will also help create a mosaic of different heathland habitats for wildlife.
Seth Jackson, National Trust project manager, said a 2020 review suggested 40 per cent of the most important plant species appeared to be in decline, and many such as twin-headed clover and dwarf rush had become fragmented and lost from up to 50 surveyed sites in just 40 years.