Volunteers encourage new wildlife at Derby’s parks

Published: 12 January 2024

Volunteers have been encouraging new residents, and an old favourite, to set up home in Derby’s parks.

Members of the Derby Parks team were joined by volunteers from Friends of Allestree Park, Friends of Littleover Park, and Trees for Derby to plant Sallow whips (young Willow trees) at Allestree Park and Sunnydale Park, to help encourage Purple Emperor butterflies into the city.

This is part of an ongoing campaign by the East Midlands Butterfly Conservation to encourage this striking species to establish itself in the region. It was the idea of Ken Orpe, Derbyshire’s Butterfly Recorder, who approached organisations that owned or operated land in the locations most likely to attract this species, which is slowly but surely expanding its range northwards and already occupies sites in Leicestershire. 

Using 50/50 split funding from East Midlands Butterfly Conservation and South Derbyshire District Council, EMBC bought 600 Sallow whips which were sent to the identified sites.

A total of 56 Sallow whips were planted across both parks, with the enthusiastic volunteers undeterred by the cold, damp weather. All the young trees will be cared for as they grow in maturity, and are expected to be ready for egg-laying in five years’ time.

These trees were chosen because the Purple Emperor, which is found mainly in woodlands, prefers to lay its eggs on its broad leaves. The male gravitates to high points in woods, so the whips have been planted in sheltered areas near to existing Sallow trees to create the best possible habitat to attract them.

Ken Orpe said:

The iconic Purple Emperor is a truly magnificent insect which many residents in the Derby area have probably never had the opportunity to see, so fingers crossed that it will arrive in the county very soon.

Allestree Park is also home to a community rewilding project involving Derby City Council, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and the University of Derby. As the largest urban rewilding project in Britain, it has national significance as well as being important to the city.

An earlier activity at Allestree Park in November drew inspiration from nature for ‘Be a Jay Day.’ Over the winter, the Jay buries and hides thousands of acorns and can even remember where they’ve planted 10,000! Visitors to the park were encouraged to bury their own acorns to kickstart the rewilding process and encourage new oak trees to flourish.

Katherine Clarke, Strategic Lead Urban Rewilding at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, said:

It is fantastic to see volunteers come together to give nature a helping hand and find out more about the community rewilding project at Allestree Park. ‘Be a Jay Day’ was a lot of fun, and we hope will encourage more of our native oak trees to grow.

Councillor Hardyal Dhindsa, Cabinet Member for Communities and Streetpride, said:

As the saying goes, great oaks grow from small acorns. This shows how small activities play a significant part in encouraging biodiversity in our parks. I’d like to say thank you to all the volunteers who took part in this – the smiles on their faces show it was worth the effort. If you’d like to be involved in volunteering in our parks, we’d love to hear from you.

Community, Environment