A KITTY of £20,000 has been created to reverse the decline of four butterfly species on the Blackdown Hills.

Somerset Wildlife Trust and the Blackdown Hills Trust have received the cash from Viridor Credits’ Landfill Communities Fund.

The two organisations, which form part of the Blackdown Hills Priority Butterflies Project, will ensure the very specific habitats the butterflies enjoy for feeding and breeding can be restored and enriched.

They will then be joined up to enable populations to grow and expand through the ability to move more freely between sites.

The work has also been given additional financial support from the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

David Leach, grants and trust manager for Somerset Wildlife Trust, said: “Seventy-six per cent of the UK’s butterfly species have declined over the past four decades.

“We need to carry out urgent work in strongholds like our Blackdown Hills nature reserves to make sure they can play their part in conserving butterfly populations nationally.

“The grants we’ve received will enable us to lay a considerable foundation upon which we can build over the next few years so we can secure the longer term future for these vulnerable species.”

The habitat preferred by the marsh fritillary, small pearl-bordered fritillary, brown hairstreak and narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth needs to be carefully managed as their survival depends on having particular plants and flowers to lay their eggs and to feed.

The will go on protecting and restoring wetland, grassland and open woodland on the Blackdowns, which will promote the growth of the plants the butterflies depend on and make the landscape easier for the butterflies to move through.

Somerset Wildlife Trust will be carrying out habitat management at their reserves at Bishopswood Meadows, Jan Hobbs and Yarty Moor, including scrub clearance and coppicing to restore species rich grassland and will also lay hedges to create a varied hedge structure.

The Blackdown Hills Trust, which leases over 200 hectares of open land within the Forestry Commission’s Neroche forest estate, is carrying out mulching of old conifer stumps to improve habitats for rare butterflies.

Gavin Saunders, who co-ordinates management work for the Blackdown Hills Trust, said: “Thanks to support from Viridor Credits we can continue work which relies on long-term commitment from funders, local community groups and national agencies alike.”