‘Please do all you can to save the butterfly’

NOW that the warmer days have arrived it is important that everyone looks inside their garden sheds, outhouses, garages, spare bedrooms and lofts in order to check that no butterflies are trapped inside.

If there are, then please open the windows and doors immediately and set them free.

The butterflies and moths that we have in this country urgently need help. Over the last century four species of butterfly and sixty species of moth have become extinct ~ numbers of some moths have fallen by up to 99 per cent.

This is because we have not taken care of the beautiful natural world around us.

Building on greenfield sites, destruction of woods and hedges, the use of pesticides, pollution, and so on, have taken their heavy toll on wild life.

If we do not want these beautiful, small, delicate creatures to disappear from our lives, then we must act urgently to restore all that man with his unthinking greed, has so easily destroyed.

How sad it would be if our children’s children never got to see a butterfly or moth because of our misuse of nature today.

Please do all you can to save the butterfly. Fill your garden with nectar rich flowers, plants and even trees.

It is a good idea to set aside a corner of your garden for such things as nettles, dandelions and what we today call weeds, but are in fact just wild flowers.

If you would like to know more about butterflies and moths and how we can help them to flourish in this now over crowded world then you can contact Butterfly Conservation at info@butterflyconservation.org or 01929 400209. Elizabeth Ann Biddulph

Leek