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A team of conservationists has spent the last decade on a mission to spot butterflies and found there's fewer fluttering about the Island than there were.
The 52 volunteers have covered a distance longer than London to New York, notching up 3,668 miles between them to get a clearer picture of the state of our countryside.
Over that time they have counted 122,279 butterflies - it might sound like a lot but numbers are actually down 14% since the start of the Environment department’s ten-year survey.
Natural Environment Officer Dr Paul Chambers said: “It’s a warning sign. They are very sensitive to changes in local habitat and climate. If our butterflies are showing signs of stress there may well be other problems within the local ecology.”
From April to September the volunteers walk the same route each week on the hunt for butterflies in a whole range of different places – natural sites like the sand dunes and St Catherine’s woods as well as parks, cemeteries and agricultural land.
Dr Chambers said: “In our managed sites they are doing quite well but they are struggling in our agricultural areas and parklands and gardens.”
The full results of the ten-year survey will be revealed at the end of next week at Durrell at the Jersey Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (JBMS) conference and training event when the head of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme David Roy will be talking about the success of butterfly recording in the UK.
Dr Chambers will also be speaking at the event along with visiting butterfly expert Susan Clark who is flying in to show Islanders how they can encourage, catch and monitor butterflies in their back garden.
Dr Chambers said: “The best way is to set aside a tiny area of our garden for butterfly friendly plants – budlea and lavender. They will attract butterflies, beas and other insects. It's amazing the results you can get."
But he said reversing the decline in other areas around the Island will take proper management plans to make sure sites down become too overgrown and less appealing to butterflies.
You can also get trained up next weekend if you want to become a butterfly spotting volunteer.
The conference is running next Saturday 14 March from 10 am until 3.15 pm at Durrell. If you’d like to reserve a place at the free event call Dr Chambers on 441630 or email him at p.chambers@gov.je
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