A team of volunteers are supporting the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and Stoke-on-Trent City Council to restore a rare butterfly's home in Stoke-on-Trent. 

Volunteers from the local community, including students from local schools, helped to clear overgrown woody vegetation at Chatterley Whitfield Heritage Country Park yesterday (Tuesday 20 January) as part of the dingy skipper project, funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The dingy skipper is a small butterfly that thrives in open habitats, including chalk grassland, heathland, woodland clearings, and the old spoil heaps of Chatterley Whitfield Heritage Country Park. 

Shaun Rimmer, with the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, explained that the butterfly's primary food source, bird's-foot-trefoil, can thrive on the site.  

He said "It can have big open slopes that are south facing so they warm up really nice, and the soil type is what trefoil really likes. 

"At the end of the projects, in March, we will hopefully be scattering some seed as well to encourage it even more." 

Volunteer, Holly, helping to clear overgrown woody vegetation (image via Nub News)

The volunteers are helping to cut down self-set birch and scrub to create open slopes on the site. 

Helen Meharg, Countryside Team Leader at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said: "We've had quite a healthy population but the area over time starts to scrub up which is encroaching on some of the areas that the dingy skipper butterfly likes." 

Helen, whose team looks after 24 reserves in the city, added: "The nature reserve here, and the neighbouring reserve of Whitfield Valley, are really valuable for the people that live in all the different communities surrounding the sites." 

Local residents were invited to sign up to help with the project alongside students from Abbey Hill Academy and College in Meir and Bluebell School in Kidsgrove. 

Holly Bowyer, a local volunteer who is hoping to study entomology, said: "It's nice to be able to come out and just group together with people that have the same warmth for nature."  

Callum, a student at Abbey Hill volunteering for as part of his Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, said: "Volunteering is good fun, and if you're doing this sort of job it keeps you fit." 

A student at Bluebell School, Connor, explained that he enjoyed helping on the dingy skipper project. He said: "It was amazing, I had to chop down the trees."  

The dingy skipper project is led by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, and delivered by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.

Additional volunteer days will be held on February 17 and March 17 2026 from 9.30am – 3.30pm. 

For more information about the project and to sign up to volunteer, visit the website here. 

There are also opportunities to volunteer on other wildlife projects in the city through Stoke-on-Trent City Council. 

Helen Meharg added: "If you like getting out in the fresh air, rain or shine, and you don't mind getting a bit muddy, we have places for people to come and volunteer." 

Opportunities can be found on the Stoke-on-Trent City Council website here.  

The student volunteers helping out at the dingy skipper project on 20 January:

Students from Abbey Hill Academy and College in Meir (image via Nub News)

Students from Bluebell School in Kidsgrove (image via Nub News)