A team of BC and EuCAN volunteers are working alongside contractors with powertools to clear the former chalkpit on the north side of the Butterfly Conservation Butterfly Reserve at Lankham Bottom. The task involved cutting and burning the mass of bramble and thorn scrub that has grown there over recent decades, and the clearance also revealed a large cache of old iron and other farm scrap needing to be removed, including a water tank and a car door!
This work has been made possible by a generous donation to the Dorset branch from Wessex Water, the landowners of our reserve. Wessex Water have also removed a large part of the farm scrap and will be lending a digger to excavate the rest of the metal and to scrape the southfacing slopes of the chalkpit to remove the accumulated biomass and most of the soil. This should encourage plants like Birdsfoot Trefoil and other vetches to grow which we hope will make the area more attractive for butterflies, bees and other insects.
The chalkpit is marked on the first edition of the six inch OS map: which dates back to 1887.
Surprisingly the volunteers found two Common Toads under the metal sheets – there is no water anywhere nearby, so how they got there is a mystery!
If you would like to join us in our conservation efforts, see our Events page for details of when and where we are working.