Butterfly Conservation

Butterfly Conservation is a national charity based in the United Kingdom which works to safeguard the future of our butterflies and moths by:

creating and managing reserves

• advising landowners on butterfly and moth conservation
• learning more about our butterflies and moths and their requirements by monitoring and research
• carrying out conservation work to maintain and restore habitats on land where the owners are sympathetic
• lobbying National and Local Government, the European Commission and other institutions
• re-establishing species in areas where they have been lost
• promoting butterfly-friendly gardening

The West Country branch was founded in 1981 by Graham Swift of Bath. Ten years later he relinquished leadership because of other commitments. It was revived by Nick Wynn of Wiltshire who formed a committee. Initially it catered for all of South West England but one by one the counties broke away becoming highly successful branches in their own right until 1995 when it was just Somerset and Bristol but elected to keep the name West Country branch.This name lasted until 2008 when it was decided to rename the branch Somerset & Bristol Branch. 

Since 1995 it has had 4 futher chairmen and the present one, Dudley Cheesman has risen to become national chairman as well

It has 5 reserves, three of them fully owned. (Haddon Moor, Little Breach, Mount Fancy, Thurlbear Quarrylands and Stoke Camp). It was 1995 when the largest owned reserve was purchased, being Stoke Camp near Cheddar. This 26 acre limestone hill fort was partly paid for by two members in memory of lost relatives

No less than 40 sites are recorded weekly during the summer, mostly by members and the branch publishes the tabulated results. In 2005 the branch published the first book on Somerset butterflies (a butterfly walks handbook) since 1955. The public are encouraged to attend field events and the current membership is over 400

A brief history.

 The alarming decline of many butterflies after the Second World War led a small group of dedicated naturalists in 1968, headed by Sir Peter Scott, to form the British Butterfly Conservation Society. The aim of the new Society was to try to halt the decline of these lovely insects and at the same time help safeguard the environment itself. Specifically they aimed to conserve both butterflies and moths, as well as the habitats on which they depend. Since that time Butterfly Conservation, as it later became known, has grown steadily to become the largest insect conservation organisation in Europe and possibly even the world. We now have over 30 regional branches covering the whole of the UK which carry out the vital local conservation tasks. The branches are backed by a central organisation responsible for co-ordination, fund-raising, research and national policy matters. We have offices in England, Scotland and Wales from which staff operate to help stimulate and guide local and national action. We have achieved a lot in a short space of time, but there is still much left to do as the pressures on our countryside are as great as ever, and we have inherited a long legacy of destruction that will take many decades to remedy.

The Somerset & Bristol Branch of Butterfly Conservation

 Our branch covers the whole of historic county of Somerset and Bristol. We manage three nature reserves at Haddon Moor, Stoke Camp and Thurlbear Quarrylands

What we do

Our activities all centre on the need to conserve wild butterflies and moths and their habitats by:

• creating and managing the above mentioned reserves
• learning more about our native butterflies by monitoring sites and collecting records
• holding regular social activities: including talks, slide shows & open days
• carrying out educational activities, including displays and talks
• organising field trips to sites of butterfly interest in Somerset and neighbouring counties
• conducting mothing evenings with moth traps
• promoting butterfly friendly gardening.
• advising various public bodies, conservation groups and landowners on butterfly conservation in Somerset