You should visit Severn Sisters Country Park in May, the authority’s chief executive Siôn McGeever insists, as the abundance and diversity of butterflies and other insects is overwhelming at this time of year.
It's not just the beautiful and rare Adonis blue butterfly that thrives in this area of the far east of the South Downs National Park, but other blues, peacock butterflies and numerous species of mining bee.
This is one of many success stories within the park, and now the authority has set out its five-year strategy for further restoring the area’s wildlife.
Key goals include creating 3,300 hectares – an area more than 20 times the size of London's Hyde Park – of wildlife-rich habitat by 2031 and increasing woodland cover by more than 2,500 hectares.
McGeever says they are taking advantage of new government policies such as Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), a law that was brought in two years ago, which requires housebuilders and other developers to make up for the impact they have on nature by restoring or creating habitats.
In many cases, a company may look to buy ‘biodiversity units’ from an external provider, and the South Downs is working with landowners in the park to help them prepare their land and sell these credits.
The authority is working with three large estates within its boundaries to enable them to enter the BNG market. “One of our largest nature restoration projects is Halnaker Hill Farm,” says McGeever. “Until two years ago, it was very poor arable land, but we are working with them to convert it back to chalk grassland and dew ponds.”
Another potential funding source to finance nature restoration is the Government’s Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS), which replaced subsidies previously distributed via the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Farmers are paid for the environmental benefits – such as restoring hedgerows, for example – they aim to achieve on their land.
The South Downs is the newest national park in the UK and was only designated in 2010. It is best known for its chalk grasslands, but also has extensive woodlands (nearly a quarter of the park is wooded) and lowland heaths in its northern areas.
And while the authority is already working to increase access to the park for schoolchildren, McGeever admits it needs to do more to make local people aware of its existence.
But with white-tailed eagles – first released on the Isle of Wight in 2019 – now breeding within the park, and species such as nightjars present in the heathlands in the north – there is plenty of charismatic wildlife for both residents and visitors to get excited about.
Top image: The Devils Dyke, Fulking, South Downs National Park (credit: Guy Edwardes)
