Butterfly Species: Objectives

• Encourage planting and maintenance of places with larval food-plants and flowering nectar-rich plants to support butterflies.
• Promote the collection of records of butterflies and the submission of butterfly records to the Barnsley Biological Record Centre.
• Identify the key locations and populations of priority and other butterfly species in Barnsley and continue to monitor them.
• Work with owners to establish positive conservation management at priority sites to bring them into favourable condition.
• Ensure designation as Local Wildlife Sites of sites with populations of butterfly priority species or assemblages of ten or more species.

Recording butterflies

What is being done

• Launch of Barnsley Butterfly Atlas recording programme. May 2017
• Wall Brown surveys
• Small Blue site surveys
• Littleworth Park surveys.

Proposed actions

• Publication of Barnsley Butterfly Atlas. Sorby NHS
• Identification of best butterfly sites and other potential good sites 2022-25 for
• Priority species
• Sites with > ten species
• Assessment for LWS designation of best butterfly sites. By 2025

Conserving butterflies

What is being done

• Habitat improvements at Littleworth Park. 2017- YWT, BMBC
• Small Blue sites identified for conservation against loss. 2018. NB Actions not yet implemented with owner(s)

Proposed actions

• Publicise measures for local priority butterfly species conservation.
• Conservation measures on Small Blue sites
• Annual monitoring of sites with butterfly species most at risk.
• Conservation measures on sites with priority species or good or potentially good butterfly assemblages

Legal Protection

Dingy Skipper, Small Heath, Wall Brown, White-letter Hairstreak and Small Blue are all species of principal importance, listed under Section 41 of the Natural Environment & Rural Communities Act.

As such the presence of these Section 41 butterflies needs to be taken into consideration for conservation by any public body when performing its functions.

This includes avoiding sites with a colony for development and promoting their conservation and enhancement.

In Barnsley a site with colony of species of principal importance is of sufficient priority to be designated a Local Wildlife Site.

Sites may also be designated LWS when they have an assemblage of 10 or more butterfly species (including species not considered to be under threat nationally).

LWS site boundaries should be determined by the extent of the habitat/plant assemblage with which the species is associated.

Local Wildlife Sites have a presumption against development but no protection against operations that do not require planning or change of use consent.

The Small Blue and White-lettered Hairstreak have legal protection under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) against sale.

For further information:

Butterfly Conservation:Link

UK Butterflies: Link

BugLife Link

Marking progress

• Populations of priority butterfly species maintained
• Sites under positive conservation management for butterfly species
• Sites designated LWS for butterfly populations

 Butterfly Actions