John Hitchens & Alan Sumnall
The Marsh Fritillary is declining in Wales due to habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, often on isolated sites containing remnants of their preferred Rhôs pasture habitat. Mainly found across South, South-West and West Wales, with a few colonies remaining in North-West Wales, we need increased knowledge of how these colonies are faring as to take evidence-based decisions on where priority actions should be undertaken, and to aid landowners to manage sites where needed. This is an ambitious task covering a large geographical area, so we have begun to trial local ‘hubs’ with partners to give a local focus, which will feed into a Wales-wide partnership in the future, with everyone working towards a common goal.
The project aim is to create a ‘Wales Marsh Fritillary Recovery Partnership’ of key partners and landowners. There is a lot of fantastic work being undertaken to conserve the Marsh Fritillary across Wales, and we want to bring everyone together to share expertise, experience, passion, and data to inform future projects so we can avoid duplication and work together as to combine resources to have a greater impact. Read more