THE butterfly population should soon be booming, thanks to some hard graft from conservation volunteers.

The Action Earth team used saws, loppers and sickles to clear an overgrown area of land at Monkwood Nature Reserve, near Sinton Green. The clearance work allows sunlight to get into the glade, providing ideal conditions for butterflies such as the wood white, dingy skipper, purple hairstreak, silver-washed fritillary and white admiral for which the reserve is well known. The scheme, supported by Morrisons supermarket, is run by the joint owners and managers of the reserve, Worcestershire Wildlife Trust and Butterfly Conservation. A total of 11 volunteers took part, two of them new. Paddy Harrison, aged 76, from Sinton Green, the reserve manager, said: "It's good physical work and we managed to clear all the land we wanted to clear." Pictured above are some of the volunteers.