Macclesfield: Volunteers aim to coax beautiful but rare butterfly back to glory
A local bunch of dedicated nature lovers are aiming to tempt a gorgeous but rare butterfly back to Macclesfield.
Volunteers from a wide range of organisations are working with the Cheshire East Ranger Service to provide suitable habitat that will link existing colonies of the elusive White-letter hairstreak butterfly along Middlewood Way, Macclesfield.
It is hoped that the link-up will strengthen the population of the 36mm butterfly across Macclesfield.
Led by experts from the Cheshire Branch of Butterfly Conservation and supported by Macc Wild Network Trust, Kerridge Ridge and Ingersley Vale Volunteers, Poynton Footpath Group and the RSPB Wildlife Explorers, vegetation will be cleared and Elm tree and hedge planting will be undertaken, initially between Jackson's Brickworks and Poynton Coppice.
Elm is the sole food plant for the caterpillar of the elusive and scarce White-letter hairstreak butterfly. Although once common in Cheshire Elm trees have suffered a catastrophic decline in the last 40 years due to the ravages of Dutch Elm disease and this proposal seeks to replace lost trees and in so doing provide suitable habitat for the butterfly.
The Middlewood Way is an 11-mile (16 km) "linear park" between Macclesfield and Rose Hill, Marple following the route of the former Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway. Much of the land is now owned by Cheshire East Council and managed by their Ranger Service supported by volunteers. Importantly sections of the park are maintained through traditional coppicing techniques.
Tim Ward, from Butterfly Conservation (Cheshire) who is working closely with Macc Wild Network on a number of projects said: "This initiative, that is being funded by Butterfly Conservation forms part of Cheshire's contribution to the national target of creating 100,000 wild spaces for butterflies and moths by 2026.
"It provides the opportunity to increase the area of habitat suitable for White-letter hairstreak by linking together the isolated colonies that exist along Middlewood Way." He goes on to say, "It builds upon the success of Elm planting in Northwich that has been underway for over 15 years and seen the butterfly recover and expand its range across Mid Cheshire."
The first planting of Elms is expected to take place before April 2023 starting at Jackson's Brickworks, along Middlewood Way towards and within Poynton Coppice using native Wych Elm supplemented with a small number of British grown disease resistant trees.
The White-letter hairstreak is a small tree-top dwelling butterfly that rarely descends to ground level.
The adults feed on the sugary secretions of aphids and only rarely visit flowers for nectar. Like many butterflies it has suffered from habitat fragmentation but also from the loss of its sole caterpillar food plant, the Elm. The species is particularly elusive and is often overlooked and under recorded.
The group plans to undertake guided walks during the butterfly flight period June/July at Jackson's brickworks and Poynton Coppice to look for White-Letter Hairstreaks and to talk about the project which illustrates well the problems of fragmentation of habitat, the need for landscape-scale conservation and the threat of tree diseases.
Macclesfield: Read more about the White-letter hairstreak HERE.
See Also: Macclesfield man plants 72 tree varieties in a year as he seeks volunteers
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