Contract for Butterfly Project within the Foresters' Forest Heritage Lottery Funded Programme

Tender description

The Forestry Commission will be awarding a contract for a project which is looking to create conditions favourable to the reintroduction of Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary and surveying and monitoring butterfly numbers using trained volunteers. This project forms part of the 'Stronghold for Nature' theme of the Foresters' Forest programme. The Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary butterfly (Boloria selene) is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) species experiencing continuing national declines. Once found throughout Gloucestershire, now only found in the Forest of Dean, this butterfly has suffered catastrophic declines due to the loss of suitable breeding habitat, and the population in Gloucestershire is under threat of extinction. Undertaking monitoring and habitat management for this species is critically needed to address the threat of extinction and reverse the continuing decline in population numbers. The elements of this project that are being tendered under this contract are 1. Undertaking annual detailed surveys of Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary habitats gathering data on the quality of remaining and potential habitat at 4 four locations through the Forest of Dean. These surveys will run in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. 2. Analysing this data and drawing up habitat management plans. Using these plans to guide Forestry Commission in providing more suitable existing and potential habitat for the butterflies. Management plans will be for sub optimal areas near to existing habitats supporting the fritillaries 3. Training volunteers in butterfly surveys in year 1 of the contract 4. Undertaking a site reintroduction of Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries where local extinction has recently occurred if appropriate and providing that sufficient suitable high quality habitat has been restored and providing there are no negative impacts on the donor populations Please express your interest in this tender to Anne-Clare Landolt (anne-clare.landolt@forestry.gsi.gov) by email by 12:00pm Monday 12th February 2018 to allow us to notify you of any questions and answers we may receive.