What Do Butterflies Do In A Drought in Portugal When Their Food-plants Are Dead?

How do Small Coppers and Meadow Browns survive a drought?

Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) Photo in Public Domain/Pixabay

As I walk the burning sandy path through local scrub and woodland here in Portugal I often wonder where do the remaining butterfly females lay their eggs? The once lush vegetation has been shrivelled in the heat of the ongoing drought and what is left is tinder-dry and brown. The Meadow Brown and Small Copper are two butterflies confronted with this problem. Earlier in the year the same location was covered in masses of wildflowers, clumps of Rockrose were in bloom, green grass was plentiful, as were other forms of greenery. There were lots of butterfly species to be seen, including, the Swallowtail, Clouded Yellow, Speckled Wood, Red Admiral, Green Hairstreak, Spanish Festoon, Small White, Bath White, and Small Copper.

Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) Photo: Public Domain/Pixabay

Meadow Browns become common in early summer here in the same location. It looks like a paradise for butterflies, and for other forms of wildlife, but as the long days of sun and heat take their toll, all short vegetation dies back to the ground, shrivels up or becomes dead and brown. The butterflies seen flying become less and less as the drought intensifies its hold with no rain at all, or if there are a few scattered showers, the water evaporates as soon as it falls. This year has been particularly bad. Even plants like Echium creticum (Cretan Viper’s Bugloss) failed to bloom successfully and shrivelled in the heat.

Echium creticum in the drought (Photo: Steve Andrews)

One of the only plants that has stood up to the drought conditions is the Rush Skeletonweed, which is an invasive species suited to very arid and semi-desert conditions. On top of this, the local Portuguese authorities have employed teams of workers to clear the land of dry scrub and vegetation in many places. This is a new legal move aimed to be a precaution against wildfires, which have become a new ‘norm’ here.

Land clearance (Photo: Steve Andrews)
In earlier summer I have seen groups of the last of the first emergence of Meadow Browns sheltering under the shade of some old trees here. A few Scabious plants provide nectar and some grass is still alive right under the trees and under bushes. Most other butterflies, such as the Swallowtail and Small White are sustained by the gardens of the town where people water their plants, and some caterpillars can feed on Rue and and plants in the cabbage tribe respectively. But my question remains for the next brood of Meadow Browns and the Small Coppers. As for the Speckled Woods they seem to have vanished. The Meadow Brown female must find grass to lay her eggs on but there is none still green. I wonder, is it possible for the larvae to feed on dried up grass?

The Small Copper I think has an even more difficult, if not impossible task. It has to find any species of Sorrel (Rumex species) or Dock. From what I can tell from my studies in books and online there are no other food-plants. Of course, I do not have as keen a sense of sight and smell as a butterfly, but I am still very able to observe signs of life in any location. As far as I can tell, all Sorrel species have shrivelled away to the ground. I cannot find any. Meanwhile, every time I walk the woodland path here I witness several male Small Coppers in battles and chasing each other. There is an established colony and they don’t seem to mind the heat or intense sunshine. But where can the females find anywhere to lay their eggs? Had I known how bad it was going to get, maybe I could have grown some Sorrel in pots in the garden? If I had taken a pot to the Small Copper territory I am sure the females would have gladly used it for their eggs. There is no Sorrel there as as as I can see. Even flowers of any sort to provide nectar are in very short supply with just a few dried up and struggling Carline Thistles.
A mile or so from this location I was walking down the main road and came upon a single Meadow Brown female fluttering along a dried up and strimmed roadside. She did find a single Scabious in bloom that had missed the strimmer in the land clearance effort but there was no green grass anywhere to be seen. But she had her job to do, she must keep going in search of a few blades of grass on which to lay here eggs. Looking around didn't give a very optimistic outlook for her, and if she was blown or strayed into the traffic she would become another victim of roadkill. Living here in Portugal has shown me graphically one reason that butterfly species are declining: they are unable to find food-plants in good condition because the natural growing seasons have been disrupted and destroyed by the terrible effects of the Climate Crisis. I wonder how many other people here are wondering how the butterflies manage?

Watching the Desertification of Portugal

Climate Breakdown and Desertification

Dried up pond (Photo: Steve Andrews)
I have been living in Portugal since late 2014 and over the years have been watching the changes in the weather and to the countryside. Every year we have had very hot weather and wildfires and droughts are becoming the new ‘normal’ here due to Climate Breakdown. It is getting worse and I feel I am watching the early stages of the desertification of Portugal.

Ponds Dry Up

Cracked mud (Photo: Steve Andrews)

I am sure that amphibians and other aquatic wildlife are having a hard time due to the lack of water. A river near where I live has run dry in the past and this year some roadside pools have already dried up and are just cracked mud. This is very unfortunate news for the small colony of Iberian Water Frogs that were breeding there. Only a month or so back there were thousands of tadpoles in these pools and Water Starwort was an aquatic plant that was growing.

Iberian Water Frog tadpoles (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Sadly the hot, dry weather has evaporated all the water before the tadpoles could complete their metamorphosis and they have all perished. I had moved some to the deeper pools but it was in vain because they dried up too.

Wildflowers

French lavender (Photo: Steve Andrews)

The wildflowers here are spectacular in spring with so many species bringing a splash of colour to the countryside. French Lavender, Candytuft, Campanula lusitanica, Silene colorata (a bright pink Catchfly), Common Poppies, Three-leafed Snowflake, Narrow-leafed Lupin, St John’s Wort, Crown Daisy, Asphodel, Toadflax, Tassel Hyacinth, Blue Hound’s Tongue, Scrambling Gromwell, and Sage-leafed Cistus are just some of the colourful plants that beautified my country walks back in April and May. It is hard to think that all these pretty flowers were growing well not long ago on ground which is now brown and tinder dry. Where even the grass has died down and the paths are dust.

Flowers in Spring (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Earlier in the year there were countless butterflies. I would expect to see Swallowtails, Red Admirals, Green Hairstreaks, Spanish Festoons, Clouded Yellows, Speckled Woods, Small Coppers, and Small Whites and would never fail to be disappointed.

Green Hairstreak (Photo: Steve Andrews)

A bit later the Meadow Browns became the most commonly seen butterfly but now there are hardly any about.  There are hardly any flowers left from which they could feed and the vegetation has died back or is conspicuously brown and shrivelled up. In the four years before this year I have never seen it so dry and so dead looking as it is now. I live in Quinta Do Conde, a town between Lisbon and Setubal, so am not in the hot south of the country. If it is like this here I dread to think what it must be like in the Algarve.

Skeleton Weed (Photo: Steve Andrews)

But not all plants are doing badly in the hot and dry conditions. Some are colonising new ground and others are adapting. The Skeleton Weed (Chondrilla juncea) is a species that is happy growing in arid places and I see more and more of the plant on waste ground where I live and even growing in cracks in paving. It is an invasive weed that has become a problem in many parts of the world and after wildfires it will rapidly colonise new ground where other vegetation has been killed.
Black Mustard, or a species of mustard that earlier in the season looks very like Black Mustard, is forming bushy clumps when it goes to seed here. They resemble tumbleweeds and can easily break off helping to distribute the plant.

Mustard clump (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Wildfires

As already mentioned, wildfires are becoming a new ‘norm’ for Portugal and can now occur all year round, due to Climate Breakdown and droughts which can now take place even in the winter. These fires, in addition to destroying farms and houses, are killing animals and people, as well as vast numbers of trees of native species. Pines and Cork Oak can regenerate if not too badly burned but when the trees are weakened and if drought continues they become very susceptible to disease. The Pine Wilt Nematode, spread by various wood-boring beetles is killing pines throughout the country. When the rains finally do arrive another problem the countryside faces is the erosion of the fertile top soil that is washed away.

The Portuguese authorities have implemented legal measures requiring landowners to take action by clearing undergrowth,  brushwood and scrub that could easily burn. Many areas where this has been done will have destroyed wildlife habitat and many dormant and active species sheltering in the vegetation. Efforts to provide safety for farmers and residents of Portugal, are surely taking a toll on the flora and fauna of the country.

Permaculture as the Solution

Desertification of Spain and Portugal

I have known about the predicted desertification of Mediterranean countries including Spain and Portugal before I came to live here. Sadly I am now watching the problem in action. I was searching online for information on desertification in Portugal and found this very detailed and excellent lecture by Doug Crouch, who describes how the system of modern farming is degrading the land further. He also proposes permaculture as the solution. He explains what has been going wrong and what can be done to reverse the ongoing growth of what he calls the “New Sahara.”

How A Council Estate Like Ely Can Be A Haven For Wildlife

Gardens in Ely

Small Tortoiseshells on Butterfly Bush (Photo: Pixabay)

The Ely council estate in Cardiff can be a great place for wildlife as I found out when I lived there for 24 years. The gardens attract a lot of birds, butterflies, moths, amphibians, and at least one reptile, which is the Slow-worm. "Slowgies" the local kids used to call them. This legless lizard was very common in gardens and you even saw them in the streets at times. They are no longer so commonly found in Britain.

Slow-worm (Photo: Pixabay)

Many of the species that can be found in Ely are now recognised as being in an alarming decline in the UK, so anywhere they are still thriving is important as a conservation area. Anyone who is actively helping these creatures is doing a great job in helping preserve the world of nature. Gardens can easily become mini nature reserves! You just need to grow some wildflowers, leave some parts untended, and a garden pond always works wonders! A Buddleia Butterfly Bush will help attract these pretty insects and other pollinators as well.

Choice TV showing of my house and garden back in 1998

When I lived in Ely, I had a makeshift pond I created from an old bath that had been thrown out. I sunk it in the ground in the back garden and within a couple of years it supported a colony of Common Frogs as well as Palmate Newts.

A pair of Common Frogs in my hand (Photo: Steve Andrews)
I know Common Toads could be found fairly near where I lived too because a man I knew called Graham used to complain about male toads strangling his goldfish, which can happen. The unattached male toads will grab onto anything they think might be a female of their species.

A mated pair of Common Toads (Photo: Pixabay)
The Common Toad is one amphibian that is known to be experiencing a decline in Britain and elsewhere. All amphibians are under threat worldwide though, due to loss of habitat, pesticides and herbicides, pollution, invasive species that predate on them, and Climate Change. I am proud to be a member of SAVE THE FROGS! Charity set up to help these creatures.

Steve Andrews with SAVE THE FROGS! banner (Photo: Kerry Kriger CEO of SAVE THE FROGS!)

One of the last times I was in Ely I went to visit Parker Place the street I used to live in and was saddened to see that what used to be my front and back garden had been ruined by the Council workers, who had removed the hedge, tree, lawns and flower borders in the front, as well as the Virginia Creepers I had growing on the wall. In the back my pond had gone, as had trees I had been growing for the many years I was there, as well as a grape vine that used to attract flocks of starlings, as well as blackbirds that used to eat the fruit each year. My nettle patch for butterflies had, perhaps not surprisingly, also been removed. It was very sad to see how all my work in helping wildlife had been wrecked but I was heartened to find that Jess, who had been my neighbour, was still there and she told me she now had a pool in her back garden. It was good to know I had helped inspire this!

Moths and Butterflies

Garden Tiger Moth (Photo: Pixabay)

It is a well-known fact that many species of British butterfly and moth have been doing very badly in recent years. Once common species, such as the pretty Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly and the large and gaudy Garden Tiger Moth are no longer commonly seen.

Small Tortoiseshell (Photo: Pixabay)

They need all the help they can get. I used to have Small Tortoiseshell and Red Admiral caterpillars on a patch of Stinging Nettles I had growing at the bottom of my garden. I also had Painted Lady larvae feeding on Hollyhocks I had growing in the back and front. Garden Tiger Moths needed no help then and I often saw the large furry “Wooly Bear” caterpillars and the striking orange, creamy-white and chocolate-brown moths with dark blue-black spots on their hind-wings.

Cinnabar Moth (Photo: Pixabay)

The attractive day-flying Cinnabar Moth with red and black wings and orange caterpillars striped with rings of black were a common sight. They feed on Ragwort and Groundsel, both of which were common weeds. The Cinnabar has been declining as well over the past decade. I also remember having Comma Butterfly caterpillars one year on my gooseberry bushes, and Common Blue butterflies used to frequent the front lawn of one of my neighbours, who had Bird’s-foot Trefoil growing in the grass. Now I live in Portugal I often see the same species doing well on lawns between housing blocks in built-up areas. The reason being they find trefoils, clovers and Sorrel (Oxalis species) growing amongst the grass. Butterflies need food-plants for their caterpillars and nectar from flowers for their adult stage. If we supply both we will probably attract butterflies to our gardens.

Are all the species I have mentioned still to be found in Ely? I don’t know because I no longer live there but if they are, then residents of the estate can help them survive and can have something to be proud of. I am sure there must be lots of people in this vast estate who are interested in nature. Perhaps a local group could be set up? Ely is also surrounded by some excellent countryside for wildlife, with Plymouth Woods being a deciduous forest that used to have a pond and marshy area. I know frogs and newts used to live there and many birds are attracted to the wooded parts and undergrowth. Ely is an example of a council housing estate that I know, and that I also know could make a great contribution towards nature conservation. The same conceivably goes for all the other estates in the UK.

Young people need to learn about the wonders of the natural world. It gives them something to take a real interest in, and interest that can stay with them for life. All the famous naturalists, like Sir David Attenborough and Chris Packham, began learning about nature when they were children. I started when I was four! I hope this article encourages more people to learn about plants and animals living on their doorsteps, so to speak, and most importantly to help conserve the natural world by making their gardens wildlife friendly.

Everybody’s Talking About American Monarch Butterflies

American Monarchs are in the news

Male Monarch Butterfly, Female Monarch (Photos: Steve Andrews)

Every time the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) makes the news it is the latest on the iconic insect’s struggles in America, where it has migrated in billions from Canada and the northern states down to California and Mexico each autumn. Over the past decade there have been reports of the butterfly’s alarming decline, due to habitat loss, pesticides, herbicides, disease and climate change. Modern farming using the herbicide Roundup (Glyphosate) on maize and soya-bean crops, is eliminating the once common milkweed species that grew in farmlands throughout the United States.  Legal and illegal felling of trees in Mexico in areas where the monarch overwintered is another big problem.

A disease known as “OE,” which is the abbreviation for Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, a protozoan parasite, takes its toll on the butterflies causing severe weakness, and cripples with deformed wings that do not live long. Some butterflies are so weak they fail to be able to emerge from their chrysalises, others that do die shortly after. It appears that OE is widely distributed among all Monarch populations. The microscopic spores are spread from infected adult butterflies onto the leaves of milkweed plants. Caterpillars that eat them become infected. OE is not a threat to other types of butterfly apart from other species in the Danaus genus.

It is very distressing to see how badly Monarch butterflies have been doing in recent years, and there is even talk of the butterfly being threatened with extinction.

Saving the Monarch

Conservationists and concerned citizens of America have been doing all they can to halt the decline in Monarchs and to help the butterfly survive in great numbers again. One of the main methods being used is the cultivation of milkweed (Asclepias) species. Many people have taken to growing these plants and rearing the butterflies in captivity by keeping, eggs, caterpillars and chrysalises indoors or in protective enclosures. The idea is to keep them safe from predators, such as wasps.

Tropical Milkweed (Photo: Steve Andrews)

The problem with these methods is that one of the most commonly grown milkweeds known as Tropical Milkweed (A. curassavica) is a non-native species that is suited to tropical and subtropical areas. With warmer weather due to climate change it is being grown in many places where once it would not have survived. It can cause a very real problem because it can build up large numbers of OE spores and become a source of infection. This happens in places like Florida where it is warm enough for the plant to grow all year around. This also means that Monarchs can continue to breed in such areas and will not have any need to fly elsewhere. Many scientists and Monarch conservation and research groups, such as the Xerces Society, are recommending that only native milkweeds should be grown. This is good advice. There are many species of Asclepias that grow in all zones of North America and right up into Canada. These plants die down for the winter and resume growth again the following year. These native species do not allow the build-up of OE on them. These endemic milkweeds encourage the Monarchs to migrate because it means that late in the year there are no food-plants available for the females to lay their eggs on. It was all working really well until humans interfered by destroying milkweeds with herbicide and then, in an effort to help, by growing a plant not native to the north American states. The Tropical Milkweed is getting a bad name but the reason is due to the very real problems it can cause in America. However, in some places there is no other choice!

Elsewhere in the World

Female Monarch on Balloonplant (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Monarchs live in non-migratory populations in many other parts of the world, including the Canary Islands, Portugal, Spain, New Zealand and Australia. In these countries there are no native milkweeds, and indeed, the butterflies have only been able to colonise large areas due to the prevalence of the introduced Tropical Milkweed and two other plants that were formerly in the Asclepias genus. The Balloonplant (Gomphocarpus physocarpus) and the Swan Milkweed (G. fruticosus) are naturalised in all the places named above and are both used as Monarch caterpillar food-plants.

Female Monarch returns to my garden to lay eggs on Tropical Milkweed

I lived in Tenerife in the Canary islands for nine years, and it was there that I started successfully rearing Monarchs. I fed the caterpillars on Tropical Milkweed, which is the only milkweed found on the island, apart from very occasional specimens of the Gomphocarpus species. It is because the Tropical Milkweed was brought to the island as an ornamental garden flower that Monarchs were able to colonise Tenerife, where it is said they were first seen back in 1887. How they reached the islands is uncertain. Now that Monarchs are on Tenerife, they have no need for migration because, although it gets plenty of snow and ice up on Mt Teide, around the coasts and in the south, the temperatures remain warm enough for Tropical Milkweed to keep growing and the butterflies to keep breeding. The situation is similar in parts of mainland Spain and Portugal where this non-native milkweed has been grown in gardens and where the Gomphocarpus species have become naturalised.

Monarch Butterflies in Portugal

Recently eclosed Monarchs (Photo: Steve Andrews)

I have lived in Portugal for the past four years, and this year I was successful in rearing four generations of Monarchs with the caterpillars feeding on plants of Tropical Milkweed and Balloonplant I managed to grow enough of in the garden here. I had at least 30 butterflies each time. The last lot of adult butterflies emerged in late November but where they went I have no way of knowing. I have cut what was left of the milkweeds down to short stalks so if any females came back they would have found nowhere to lay their eggs. I originally obtained eggs from someone I know who has a butterfly farm up in Aveiro further north. He tells me there are no Monarchs there in winter and he gets his eggs sent up each year from the Algarve. According to As Borboletas De Portugal, a Portuguese butterfly book I have, along with the Algarve, the northern coastal city of Aveiro, is one of the only places that Monarchs can be found in the country. Is this because of the butterfly farmer I know there, or are there naturally occurring wild ones, and how did they get there? I have been told that the butterflies can sometimes be seen in the Lisbon area too. Where did they come from? Did they migrate from the south? I often wonder what happens in winter. Do any Monarchs go south here to the Algarve where there are non-migratory populations or do all the butterflies in central and northern parts, such as the ones I released, simply live short lives and fail to breed due to the cold weather and lack of food-plants. There is very little information available online or in books about the behaviour of Monarchs in Portugal and Spain, and indeed in Europe. Is anyone else studying these butterflies here apart from me? Google for information on Monarchs and most of the results are about those in America.

I have had the idea that the non-migratory resident Monarch populations, wherever they are worldwide, are forming a genetic reservoir of the species. If its migratory populations ever do become extinct, the species could be reintroduced by moving some from the resident colonies elsewhere.

The Wanderer

I have wondered whether as climate change causes milder winters would the butterflies colonise other more northerly countries if the non-native food-plants grew in sufficient numbers there? Would any Monarchs eventually evolve into a migratory form like their American cousins? A very small number of Monarchs reach the UK some years but are unable to breed due to lack of any type of milkweed growing there and are unable to survive the cold winters. But the fact that they got there at all reveals their wandering nature, which is why an alternative name for the Monarch Butterfly is the Wanderer.

Walking in the Wentloog Levels Where Wetlands Meet the Sea

Wentloog Levels aka the Gwent Levels are a Wildlife Haven

Marshfield (Photo: Steve Andrews)

I recently went on an epic 7-hour walk in the Wentloog Levels, starting off in the aptly named Marshfield I went to St. Brides where I followed a road to a Welsh Coastal path along the sea wall. I was revisiting an area of important wetlands that lie to the east of Cardiff and extend to the outskirts of Newport. Also known as the Gwent Levels the area bears a resemblance to the Netherlands because it is flat land reclaimed from the sea and traversed by drainage dykes, which are locally called “reens.”

A Reen (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Rare Species

The Wentloog Levels are of great importance because of the amazing variety of species of flora and fauna that live here, some of which including the Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), the Musk Beetle (Aromia moschata), the Water Vole (Arvicola terrestris) and the Flowering Rush (Butomus umbellatus) are nowadays regarded as rare and declining species. They depend on wetlands such as these for their continued survival. The Great Silver Water Beetle (Hydrophilus piceus) is a very rare but magnificent aquatic insect that is known to occur in reens, ditches, ponds and lakes in this area.

Where Elvers would congregate (Photo: Steve Andrews)

I used to come to Marshfield and the Wentloog Levels as a boy. My father used to bring the family here in his car, and I well remember seeing millions of elvers, the young form of the now Critically Endangered European Eel (Anguilla anguilla) making their way up the reens and climbing and slithering in masses over obstructions caused by sluice gates regulating the water flow and depth. I also remember catching the Ten-Spined Stickleback (Pungitius pungitius) in the reens. They are still there today, I am pleased to report, as are the aquatic plants Frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae) and Arrowhead (Sagittaria sagittifolia), the first of which resembles a mini-water lily with rounded floating foliage, and the second plant gets its name from its arrow-shaped leaves. Both of these wildflowers have attractive white flowers, and it was good to see them again in the weedy drainage dykes.

Frogbit (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Arrowhead (Photo: Steve Andrews)

The Seawall and Coastal Path

Seawall and mudflats (Photo: Steve Andrews)

The coastal path has a strong seawall that divides the reclaimed wetlands from the mudflats and tidal waters of the Severn Estuary. Here you will find large patches of saltmarsh, and I stopped to have a look in some of the shallow brackish creeks and muddy pools.

Brackish water where many crustaceans live (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Here I saw plenty of small prawns, shrimps and the occasional crab. These crustaceans survive here waiting for the waters to be replenished by a high tide or rainfall. Interesting plants of the saltmarsh included Sea Lavender (Limonium vulgare) and Sea Arrowgrass (Triglochin maritimum).

Sea Lavender (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Butterflies

On the grassy bank with the seawall at the top and a very long reen at the bottom there were very many Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) butterflies, and I was pleased to see this species seems to be still holding its own, while many other British butterflies are known to be declining fast.

Small Tortoiseshell caterpillar web (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Earlier on, I was glad to see evidence of Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) caterpillars that had spun a web over some nettles. The adults of this pretty butterfly were once very common all over the UK, but this is no longer the case. Another once common but now declining species is the Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus), and I was happy to see one of these whilst walking the coastal path.

Birds of the Gwent Levels

The Wentloog Levels and the saltmarsh of the estuary are ideal habitats for many birds. Reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) and Common Reed Buntings (Emberiza schoeniclus) can often be heard singing and the abundant reed-beds of the wetlands are just what these little birds need. I heard and saw a pair of Skylarks (Alauda arvensis). This is yet another species that has been becoming a lot less in numbers throughout Britain, mainly due to habitat destruction and changes in farming.

Notice Board (Photo: Steve Andrews)

A notice board by the seawall called attention to some of the now rare bird species that make the saltmarsh their homes. The Curlew (Numenius arquata) and the Lapwing are two waders that can be found here.

Saltmarsh (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Both were once common but both now have the Near Threatened conservation status. The notice board calls for "Respect for the locals" and asks people to keep dogs under control, and to stay off the saltmarsh where these birds feed and breed.

Private Shooting sign (Photo: Steve Andrews)

I saw another sign that showed that wildfowl shooting was once practiced here, and it was a grim reminder of another way we have lost so many birds.

Coot (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Still common water-birds I encountered on my walk were Moorhens (Gallinula chloropus) and Coots (Fulica atra), swimming on the weedy waterways and ponds.

After many hours of enjoyable but tiring walking in the hot June sunshine, eventually, I found a pathway that led to a main road near the Lamby Way landfill tip on the outskirts of Cardiff. I thought it was interesting to see how nature was doing so well right next to this rubbish dump.

Save The Gwent Levels

Elsewhere, to the south of Newport, the Gwent Levels are threatened by a proposed motorway being built at fantastic cost, not just financially at an estimated £1.5 billion of taxpayers money, but to the very fragile ecosystem of the area it is intended to cut through. The road, if built, will go through five sites of special scientific interest or SSSIs. Welsh naturalist and TV personality Iolo Williams is one of many people trying to stop this madness. He describes the sites as “Jewels in the Welsh crown.” Find out more about the campaign to Save The Levels and help halt this before it is too late! Take action by supporting and spreading the word about CALM (Campaign Against the Levels Motorway).