WORK to make a Blackburn nature reserve more friendly for threatened butterflies, plants, birds and trees has started.

An ambitious project of improvements to protect wildlife and ease access for visitors at the River Darwen Parkway Local Nature Reserve in Bolton Road is now under way.

The £21,000 project, led by The Lancashire Wildlife Trust, will restore priority habitats in the reserve including wetland, heathland and plantation woodland.

The improvements will increase the number of species on the site, owned by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.

They will create coppice rotations on woodland edges to increase light and scrubby edges for the birds such as the Yellowhammer and butterflies such as the Dingy Skipper.

The work focuses on providing new or better habitats for UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species.

They are those identified as the most threatened and requiring conservation and include:

• Plants – Heather, Common Spotted Orchid, Harebell, Bluebell;

• Trees – Lots of regenerating young oak trees, both types of native oak, Pedunculate and Sessile Oak, Hazel, Blackthorn;

• Birds – Common Whitethroat; Sand Martin; Yellowhammer; and

• Butterflies – the Common Blue which depends on the Birds-foot-trefoil and the Orange Tip which depends on the Cuckoo flower.

The dense planted-woodland will be thinned, coppiced and diversified so it becomes an extension of the long-established Highercroft woods next door.

The willow and alder that has overshadowed the wetland will also be cut back and removed and the heathland regenerated.

This will make the woodland more attractive and accessible for visitors, while enhancing the area’s biodiversity.

Kim Coverdale, of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, said: “We are delighted that work is getting underway. The work will help us protect and conserve some of the most threatened species in the area, and encourage more people to enjoy the reserve.”

The trust found the planted woodland lacked diversity in age and structure and the habitats would benefit from thinning and coppicing.

Local young volunteers, including from local high schools who will be able to gain extra qualifications, will be involved with the work.