The Bedfordshire & Northamptonshire Branch of BC are keeping up the hard work at Twywell Hills and Dales Nature Reserve by donating money to help keep it tidy.
Northamptonshire Butterfly Recorder, Douglas Goddard has this update:
The Whitestones area of Twywell Hills and Dales Nature Reserve is a very important site for butterflies. With 26 species recorded regularly plus 3 others in the past six years, it is one of the richest in Northamptonshire.
Three of the species are priority ones within the UK Biodiversity Action Plan - the Grizzled Skipper, Dingy Skipper and Small Heath are all declining nationally and are found in only a small number of sites within the county.
Another species, the Green Hairstreak is also localised in its county distribution. Numbers of more common butterflies are higher at Twywell than at most sites in the county.
The Beds and Northants branch of Butterfly Conservation has worked closely with the Northants Wildlife Trust in the management and monitoring of the site. A transect count has been done by volunteers over the past six summers and a winter work party group has cleared scrub annually on the site to enhance the butterfly habitat.
Grazing has had to be temporarily abandoned in the Whitestones area owing to continued worrying of livestock by dogs walked by the public.
Beds and Northants Butterfly Conservation supports the Wildlife Trust in its intention to fence the site to protect the livestock and resume grazing in order to control the growth of vegetation which chokes out larval food plants of the butterflies. 
Much of Whitestones has been encroached upon by scrub growth which is too large to be tackled by grazing and volunteers.
Beds and Northants Butterfly Conservation has pleasure in donating £1000 to be spent on the use of contractors to clear scrub in this area for the continued benefit of the butterfly population.