The success of Taking Action for Insects

By Samantha Stork, Head of Conservation

In 2021, we were awarded a large grant by the government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund to take action across our nature reserves for invertebrates It is now time to catch our breath and reflect on what we’ve achieved; the result is astounding.

We had a clear vision from the start. In 2019, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust took part in commissioning a report Insect Declines and Why They Matter. Read the report at www.wildlifetrusts.org/action-for-insects. We wanted to demonstrate how it can lead to action and offer opportunities for others to learn.

This was a complex project, pulling together different strands of our work. We aimed high, promised a lot, and our fantastic team of staff, volunteers, contractors, and consultants delivered.

The project was split into four distinct sections: Surveying and Monitoring, Woodlands, Grasslands and Freshwater.

Surveying and Monitoring

How do we know if we’re doing the right thing, in the right place, in the right way? We wanted to complete a rigorous assessment of the invertebrate communities on our nature reserves.

Our Ecological Project Officer, Michael New, developed a programme of training events and surveys with an overwhelming take-up from volunteers. We are extremely grateful for the number of experts and specialists who offered their time at no cost, providing an opportunity for both our volunteers and staff to improve their identification skills.

From beetles, bees and butterflies, to ants, spiders and earthworms, over 4,500 species records have been added to our database, with new and rare species discovered. To name only a few of the highlights, at our chalk grassland sites, we recorded rugged oil beetle, large scabious mining bee, hornet robberfly, Roman snail, and butterflies like the dark green fritillary and Adonis blue.

Our lowland grassland reserves also produced some super finds, including the marsh fritillary butterfly, devils-bit jewel beetle, glow worm, lesser emperor dragonfly and moths like the spectacular Clifden nonpareil, as well as the nationally rare downland villa fly. At freshwater sites, we found the tawny longhorn beetle, Desmoulin’s whorl snail, and the nationally scarce bog bush cricket.

Carabid beetle training

Michael has left a legacy of a programme for future years, ensuring the work continues and this project acts as a baseline to identify trends and monitor the impact of our work.

Woodlands

We worked across four of our woodland nature reserves, focusing on opening up the canopy to let light into the woodland floor through thinning, coppicing and ride widening.

This will encourage plants essential to the lifecycle of invertebrates such as pearl-bordered fritillary butterflies at Blackmoor Copse. At Sandpool, we left high birch stumps to attract the large belted clearwing moth.

Black-and-yellow longhorn

Grasslands

The project’s conservation workers have worked extremely hard to create a scrub matrix across our grassland and meadow sites for many species such as solitary bees and the rugged oil beetle. Seed from Trust meadows was harvested and sown to enhance the grass sward at Echo Lodge and Upper Minety Meadows, and a new invertebrate strip was created at Blakehill nature reserve.

Wasp spider

Freshwater

It was our water team who got the chance to deliver two of the most visually striking projects for freshwater invertebrates. On the Western Arm of the Hampshire Avon we regraded the steep-sided banks to create a more gradual slope for marginal vegetation to develop. We also reconnected the river to the floodplain, creating a wonderful matrix of wet habitats to support invertebrates such as mayflies through all lifecycle stages.

At Southwick Country Park in Trowbridge, we worked with Wiltshire Council to create three scrapes that will be seasonally wet, transforming a uniform field into a diverse habitat for invertebrates.

The project’s success has been acclaimed widely and won this year’s Conservation Project of the Year award from the Wiltshire Life Awards, sponsored by Ramsbury Brewery.