Chris Grayling, MP for Epsom and Ewell and Secretary of State for Transport, has recently taken over as Parliamentary hedgehog champion. He was presented with a poster by the team behind “Hedgehog Street”, a nationwide campaign to help halt the ongoing decline in hedgehog numbers.
Damien Moore, the recently elected MP for Southport in Lancashire is to champion the Natterjack toad. Important populations of this toad can be found on the sand dunes along the Merseyside coast, including in his constituency.
James Cartlidge, MP for South Suffolk, has agreed to lend his support to the fast declining turtle dove. His constituency is in one of the few areas in England where this migratory bird can still be found.
Mark Garnier visited Wyre Forest to raise the profile of the rare Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and was presented with his Species Champion poster.
Caroline Spelman, the Willow tit champion, visited Millison’s Wood Nature Reserve in her Meriden constituency to learn about the species and the threats it faces.
Species Champion Huw Merriman MP visited Great Dixter with Buglife. He had a discussion about wild pollinators and how to help them, and also talked about some of the links with horticulture.
Ludlow MP Philip Dunne visited Butterfly Conservation’s South Shropshire Woods project to learn more about the work being carried out to increase the population of the Wood White butterfly through targeted management.
Thangam Debbonaire, the Labour MP for Bristol West, has agreed to stand up for the bee with a high pitched buzz! The steep decline of the Shrill carder bee means it is now found in only a few places in England and south Wales. Read more about it here.
We welcome Chris Grayling, the Secretary of State for Transport and Conservative MP for Epsom and Ewell, as hedgehog champion. He will be supported by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.
We welcome a champion for the largest and rarest of our blue butterflies, the Large blue, in the form of David Drew, Labour MP for Stroud. The butterfly became extinct in 1979 and has since been reintroduced, but remains vulnerable.
