Conservation charity Buglife is launching an exciting new project to restore precious chalk grassland in the Surrey Hills – and they want local people to get involved.
A stunning but threatened landscape is getting a lifeline. With almost £300,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Buglife’s new Chalk Lines project will restore more than 30 hectares of chalk grassland in the Surrey Hills – an area roughly the size of 42 football pitches – creating a haven for some of the UK’s rarest insects.
Why chalk grassland matters
Chalk grassland is a unique, specialised and fragile habitat, found on the rolling downland escarpment that sweeps across Surrey; it supports an extraordinary variety of wildflowers, butterflies, moths and beetles that simply cannot survive anywhere else. Centuries of traditional grazing kept this habitat in good health, but modern land-use changes have seen much of it lost or degraded. What remains is fragmented, leaving wildlife populations isolated and vulnerable.
The Chalk Lines project will restore and reconnect these vital patches, linking them into Buglife’s national B-Lines network – a series of ‘insect motorways’ that help wildlife move safely across the countryside.
Meet the wildlife this project will help
Among the species that stand to benefit are some genuinely extraordinary creatures:
- The Straw Belle Moth (Aspitates gilvaria) is a pale, beautifully camouflaged moth whose caterpillars feed exclusively on the fine grasses of chalk downland. It now survives at only one or two sites in the whole of Surrey – making every patch of restored grassland genuinely count.
- The Hazel Pot-beetle (Cryptocephalus coryli) is a jewel-bright, vivid orange leaf beetle and one of the UK’s rarest. Despite its striking looks, most people have never seen one – a reminder of how much remarkable wildlife is quietly disappearing from our countryside.
Communities at the heart of conservation
Chalk Lines isn’t just about the landscape – it’s about people too. The project will engage communities in Guildford, Dorking, Leatherhead and Reigate, with a particular focus on groups who don’t often get the chance to connect with nature. This includes residents of local elderly care homes and women at HM Prison Send, near Guildford.
Buglife Conservation Officers Alice Parfitt and Peter Hewetson are leading the project. Alice shared: “It will be great to see local communities getting hands-on through wildflower seeding and planting, practical habitat management and creative workshops.”
Peter added: “Volunteers will be able to attend insect identification workshops to learn more and feel more connected to the rare invertebrates living right on their doorstep.”
Stuart McLeod, Director of England – London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Thanks to National Lottery players, we’re proud to support Buglife with the restoration of Surrey’s rare chalk grasslands. This project will help protect the remarkable wildlife while giving more people the chance to connect with the nature on their doorstep.”
Building on success
Chalk Lines follows on from Buglife’s Space4Nature project, which successfully restored over 60 hectares of nature-friendly habitat across Surrey alongside project partners Surrey Wildlife Trust, Painshill Park and Surrey University. Additional funding for the two-and-a-half-year Chalk Lines project has been provided by Surrey Wildlife Trust.
To find out about events and how to get involved, visit our Chalk Lines project page.