Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales) - Wednesday, January 2, 2002
When a water meadow was controversially uprooted from a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) to make way for opencast mining six years ago the move raised major environmental concerns.
Eco-warriors built houses in the trees encircling theSelar Farm site in the Neath Valley in order to keep Celtic Energy at bay.
However, the trees were cut down, the environmentalists moved on and the grassy turves transferred to a new nature reserve, leaving Britain's rarest native European butterfly without a habitat.
Celtic Energy claimed the butterfly would follow in the wake of the relocation of the grassland. Butterfly Conservation's head of conservation Dr Martin Warren said at the time that research showed this was unlikely to be the case. Now the group claims he has been proved right.
The first five-year review of the progress achieved at the Blaengwrach nature reserve containing the translocated grasslands of the former SSSI reveals that there has been no record of the marsh fritillary there since 1998.
But the report suggests that this may not be all that unusual because the last three cold wet summers have not been conducive for the butterfly, as confirmed by the Countryside Council for Wales at other sites.
The marsh fritillary apart, however, there have been around 20-25 species of bird recorded as breeding in the nature reserve each year since 1995, including the woodwarbler, pied flycatcher and redstart.
Although the nature reserve has been acclaimed for its "significant wildlife value even if the SSSI and its naturalness cannot be replaced", this is not how Butterfly Conservation views it.
Neil Jones, South Wales branch organiser, said, "Basically, we always said the translocation would never work. It was nothing short of a disaster and we are saying we told you so - and we said this from the very beginning. He added, "There is a very poor chance of moving butterflies around and we do not fully understand the reasons why."