Under threat: the Labour government is looking to remove habitat protections to make it easier for developers to build on Green Belt and other open spaces
The London Wildlife Trust is celebrating the successful reintroduction of a species to a site in Croydon – while also calling on all residents to lobby their MPs over the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which is due for a crucial final debate in the Commons next week.
Last month, the Trust’s insect specialists and volunteers released around 120 glow-worm larvae at Hutchinson’s Bank, near New Addington.
“This is the next step in our efforts to strengthen the population of the species across other sites in London,” the Trust says.
There won’t be anything to see for a few months yet. But the hope is that come a brief period in June and July, mature glow-worms will light up the hedges and bushes of the local nature reserve and Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation.
Hutchinson’s Bank is owned by Croydon Council but has been managed by the London Wildlife Trust since 1987.
Illuminating: a female glow-worm
The glow-worm is not actually a worm, but a beetle. According to the LWT: “Males look like typical beetles, but the nightly glow of a female is unmistakeable – lighting up to attract a mate in the darkness of their grassland habitats.”
And they explain: “Glow-worms are most often found as larvae, living under rocks on chalk or limestone grassland, and feeding on slugs and snails…
“Females are famous for emitting a greeny-orange light from their bottoms at night.
“They climb up plant stems and glow in order to attract males, who have large, photosensitive eyes – perfect for scanning vegetation at night. The larvae can also emit light, and so can the eggs.”
Hutchinson’s Bank’s new population of glow-worm larvae were placed into specially built log piles made from deadwood and leaves, prepared by local volunteers. “These piles offer the sheltered, humid conditions glow-worm larvae need to thrive,” the Trust says.
Ready for release: around 120 glow-worm larvae were reintroduced to Hutchnson’s Bank last month
“Over the coming months, the larvae will feed on snails before entering torpor, a temporary state of inactivity, through winter, becoming active again in spring.”
Meanwhile, the London Wildlife Trust is seeking the help of the public over the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which is due for the final stages of parliamentary debate in the next week.
Conservation groups across the country, including the London Wildlife Trust, have welcomed the introduction to the Bill by the House of Lords of Amendment 130.
“Amendment 130 provides extra safeguards to stop development destroying wildlife and wild places where you live,” the London Wildlife Trust says.
The Lords also agreed another amendment, Amendment 94, that gives added protection to chalk streams, such as Croydon’s River Wandle.
“But this won’t happen if MPs don’t vote to keep it in the Bill,” according to Richard Barnes, the head of planning and external affairs at the London Wildlife Trust.
The Bill is expected to be debated for a final time in the Commons next week.
“This is the last chance for any of us to influence the Planning Bill before it passes into law. Our supporters have been instrumental in speaking up against the worst elements of this Bill. Please ask your MP to back these Amendments while they have the chance,” Barnes says.
Wildlife Trusts and other ecological organisations and environmentalists have said the Bill in its original form “could be disastrous for wildlife and wild places”.
For more details about the Bill, click here.
“Please tell your MP to vote in favour of Amendments 130 and 94,” Barnes says.
The campaigners even provide a clever tool which will draft a lobbying email and dispatch it to your MP. You can find that tool by clicking here.
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