Club rewarded for project to re-introduce UK’s smallest butterfly

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A Scottish golf club that won ‘Outstanding Environmental Project of the Year’ at BTME in January has said it hopes to inspire pollen-rich sites to connect with each other around the UK.

Dundonald Links in Ayrshire set up the ‘Nectar Network’, a project that aims to establish connected nectar and pollen-rich sites along the Ayrshire coast, so they can share conservation ideas, implementation and policies. Initially the aim was to re-introduce the small blue butterfly, the UK’s smallest butterfly, which was last seen in Ayrshire in 1982. It has since become the flagship species for the project, after habitat fragmentation and loss of its primary food source led to its extinction in the area.

The Nectar Network is now a working partnership steered by the golf club and the Scottish Wildlife Trust, featuring 40 other local golf courses and businesses. Its overall aim is to link Ayrshire’s most important local wildlife sites, often by improving the quality of degraded land, in order to help pollinating insects colonise new areas. The project has provided opportunities for all involved to learn new skills that help them take ownership of protecting and enhancing the local environment.

Frank Clarkson, golf course superintendent for Darwin Escapes Group, which owns Dundonald Links, said: “The award will raise the profile of the project and hopefully inspire additional networks to establish around the country. We are delighted to be recognised on behalf of the Nectar Network.”

Bob Taylor, head of Ecology & Environment at the STRI, added: “Golf clubs represent more than the sport, they provide places for nature and people, the management of our golf courses enables clubs to secure a place within our diminishing countryside.”

Dundonald Links manager, Ian Ferguson, said: “The team have worked exceptionally hard and have shown a great enthusiasm for working in collaboration with fellow golf clubs, wildlife groups and neighbouring businesses to create our Nectar Network.”