Saving our Chalkhill Blues

Yesterday we had a meeting with representatives of Butterfly Conservation and Reigate & Banstead Borough Council to discuss action to improve the area favoured by the Chalkhill Blue butterfly on Stagbury. This small rectangular site, a short way from Holly Lane car park, is the only place where this butterfly is found in our Local Nature Reserve. Our Chalkhill Blues rely on Horseshoe Vetch plants, which are slowly being overcome by a coarse grass species in this spot.

To reduce the threat to the butterflies, it was decided that the WoodChips would rake and strim the coarse grass from parts of the patch to help maintain and possibly increase the coverage of  Horseshoe Vetch. We'll be announcing details of this task shortly.

Historical note:  the soil type of this piece of ground is due to it being used to spread some of the chalky spoil resulting from the digging of a large tunnel into the hillside during WW2. A little while back, the WoodChips had to fence off an adjacent section of the tunnel area where subsidence had taken place.