Your guide to Yellowstone National Park
Brighton Conservation Volunteers
What do your volunteers do?
Our group was formed in 2002. Our volunteers come from all walks of life but we have one thing in common – we are committed to protecting and enhancing our local environment. We meet every Tuesday and work on local nature reserves in and around the Brighton area, as well as further afield in East and West Sussex. We get involved in projects such as coppicing, chalk grassland management, woodland conservation, pondwork, footpath building and maintenance, fencing and meadow management.
How have you helped wildlife?
We carried out extensive vegetation clearance at Rowland Wood, a Butterfly Conservation site near Uckfield, to encourage small pearlbordered fritillaries. The aim was to create open, sunny spaces where their favoured plant – the violet – can thrive. This species is very rare in the south-east and was wiped out at this particular site after a succession of cold, wet winters. However, it was reintroduced thanks to the skills of the manager of Rowland Wood and our work encouraging the right habitat conditions should help it to survive.
What sort of wildlife work have you done in the city?
We recently planted 10,000 wildflower plugs on various green areas across Brighton and Hove with the aim of encouraging butterflies and other insects. We’re also helping to maintain numbers of Adonis blue butterflies on Whitehawk Hill, an ancient chalk grassland and one of the steepest gradients in Brighton, through scrub clearance work.
What’s a recent achievement?
Last April, our volunteers spent three days installing 130 oak steps up Whitehawk Hill. This important green space now has a direct pedestrian link to the rest of the city.
MIKE FEARN
www.brightonconservationvolunteers.org