A beautiful wooded valley on the Devon coast is to be the focus of a project to save the UK’s most endangered butterfly – the high brown fritillary.
Conservationists believe changes to woodland management, such as the abandonment of coppicing, and climate change have contributed to the steep decline of the large, powerful, fast-flying butterfly over the last 50 years.
The National Trust has been given £100,000 by the People’s Postcode Lottery to improve 150 acres of lowland heath and wood pasture at Heddon Valley on the north Devon coast as a habitat for the butterfly.