In reply to the recent article regarding the decline of the Lulworth Skipper, Maddy Pfaff, Lulworth Estate Head Ranger has provided the below response: The Lulworth Estate instigated the ‘Lulworth Grassland Project’ in 1998 to ensure the health of habitats along with species presence and abundance on their land.

Sites were elected on a landscape scale, to benefit a range of both rare and common species. Being such a rare and iconic species of Lulworth, the Lulworth Skipper’s needs came high in the list of priorities.

Most insects thrive on short turf, so this became the target for most of the wildflower- rich, unimproved grassland sites across the Estate. However, an inevitable result of grazing the sites to the benefit of short turf loving species means that there is a decline in the long turf loving Lulworth Skippers.

Fortunately, due to careful control of the grazing, longer patches of turf still exist, which retain small, thriving populations of Lulworth Skippers.

There are also a number of places specifically designed to accommodate Lulworth Skipp-ers by allowing the turf to grow tall, before grazing it back on rotation to avoid scrub encroachment. On top of this, none of the coastal cliffs are grazed, allowing the Skippers to colonise the edges where the grass is long.

In a study comparing 10 years of Lulworth’s butterfly data to that of Butterfly Conservatio-n’s national UK Butterfly Mon-itoring Sch-eme, it is shown that the management at Lulworth is bucking the trend of national declines by maintaining butterfly species and numbers, and in some cases vastly increasing them.

James Weld, Lulworth Estate General Manager said “I am delighted that Lulworth is able to help in arresting the decline of our native butterfly species, particularly the Lulworth Skipper, and have been able to collect our own records since 1998.”

So, if you pop out to Durdle Door this summer, you will find plenty of Lulworth Skippers on the wing. They abound in a habitat especially designed and maintained for them by the Lulworth Estate, with a view to ensuring their future on the Jurassic Coast.