Butterfly Conservation Northern Ireland teamed up with Ulster Wildlife to deliver our first work party of the season this Saturday.
We gathered at Ulster Wildlife’s Milford Cutting Nature Reserve in County Armagh, a site well known for its rare plants. The site boasts populations of Marsh Helleborine and Irish Whitebeam as well as Common and Fragrant orchids, and is also home to the Cryptic Wood White butterfly. 
Milford Cutting was part of the old railway network and is a sheltered, steep sided linear site which can be hard to graze. Some areas have become quite scrubby in recent years, leading to a decline in the plant and invertebrate communities. Volunteers from the branch, including representation from both the BTO and RSPB, set to with loppers and bow-saws to remove an area of Ash and Hawthorn scrub from one side of the embankment. No Irish Whitebeam were harmed!
We were lucky enough to have bright sunshine for the whole event which greatly enhanced the atmosphere of good cheer and comradeship. It almost felt as if the trains were running along the cutting again as we made countless trips along the boardwalk, dragging our ‘freight’ of cut brash to where it will be chipped by Ulster Wildlife later in the week.
Thanks to all who came out and joined us. The next BCNI work party will be at Bowara in Fermanagh on Sunday 18th January. Please contact Senior Regional Officer, Catherine Bertrand, for more information by email @email or telephone: 07584 597 690.