THE Church Commissioners and the non-profit organisation Butterfly Conservation have agreed on a fresh lease at Magdalen Hill Down, a nature reserve near Winchester, allowing them to continue to protect butterflies.

The agreement has brought two previous leases together, and enables the charity to maintain its 30 years of conservation work on the 46-hectare site.

Butterfly Conservation has preserved the steep chalk hillside, which is home to more than 30 butterfly species, including the largest population of Brown Argus butterflies in Hampshire.

Through scrub clearance and grazing management, Butterfly Conservation has also successfully reversed a decline in the area’s Adonis Blue butterflies.

“Thank goodness! There’s only so much change I can cope with”

The Commissioners’ asset manager, Cameron McKillop, said: “For more than three decades, the Church Commissioners for England has been proud to support Butterfly Conservation’s efforts to boost butterfly species in England’s newest national park. We are always looking for parts of our land that can be harnessed to promote nature recovery, and this agreement means this local success story will continue.”

Work at Magdalen Hill Down, in the South Downs National Park, is supported by a grant-funded Higher Level Countryside Stewardship Scheme and by Hampshire County Council.

“Restoration work on one area of the site has transformed it from intensive arable production to flower-rich grassland,” the senior land-use officer at Butterfly Conservation, Julian Bendle, said, “and it is now one of the top ten sites in the county for many butterfly species.”

The Commissioners say that they are seeking to use appropriate land in their farmland portfolio to promote nature and biodiversity improvements across England.