EFFORTS are being made to bring a rare butterfly back to the Dursley area.

The pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly was once a common sight in the countryside across the area but became extinct by the early 1990s. 

Now efforts are underway to bring it back – by planting hundreds of violets, their favourite food plant.

An enthusiastic working party of volunteers have been out planting 350 violet plugs on Long Down next to Cam Peak. 

The plan is to plant many more in March to improve the habitat.

The project has been led by Julian Jones, director of the community interest company Wild Dursley.

“We hope to see this spectacular species return some day,” he said. 

“Over the past four decades bracken management and cattle grazing on Cam Peak and Long Down have made it a much better site for butterflies like the pearl-bordered fritillary. 

“With the support of local farmers, landowners, conservation organisations and volunteers, we may one day see the return of a butterfly once so iconic of the Cotswold Hills.”

The small pearl-bordered fritillary is an orange-and-brown butterfly usually found in damp grassland, moorland, and open woodland. 

It gets its name from the row of 'pearls' on the underside of its hindwings.

The butterfly was once very widespread but has declined rapidly in recent decades, and is now highly threatened in England and Wales.

The Cam, Dursley & Uley Woodland Management Committee, which looks after Cam Peak and Long Down is also working on the project. 

Christina Carter from the committee said: “We are delighted to be working with Wild Dursley on this conservation project.

“It's heartening to see so many volunteers coming forward to help, many from the Uley Trees and Meadows Group.”

The project has been funded by the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme, created by Defra and delivered locally by the Cotswolds National Landscapes team.

The scheme aims to plant at least 2,000 violets across sites in Cam, Coaley and Uley and to further study the feasibility of reintroducing the pearl-bordered fritillary.