THE campaign to buy a Cotswold nature reserve and preserve Britain’s rarest butterfly has raised more than £25,000 in two weeks.
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT) needs to raise £50,000 in order to buy Daneway Banks, in the Sapperton Valley between Stroud and Cirencester, from the Dowager Countess Bathurst.
The response has so far been “overwhelming” with donations flying in from wildlife lovers across Gloucestershire.
Emma Bradshaw, head of communications for GWT, said: “Most of the donations have come from local people just giving what they can.
“It shows how much people care about nature in Gloucestershire; a lot of people remember Daneway as an idyllic place of flower rich meadows from their childhood.”
The Large Blue is Britain’s rarest native butterfly, and Daneway Banks is one of the few places that it thrives.
It had been declared extinct in Britain but was re-introduced to the nature reserve from Sweden in the 1970s.
Grundon Waste Management kicked off the donations, giving £5,000 to the cause.
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