Helping to clear the invading bramble thickets on the Spittles Fields at Lyme Regis October 2026

The Wood White – another threatened butterfly species in Dorset, at risk from the encroaching scrub.

The EuCAN team have been working with the National Trust rangers on the fields east of Lyme Regis to reduce the thickets of bramble that are threatening to suffocate the species-rich grassland there. The NT rangers had already cleared a huge area with a cut-and-collect mower; the EuCAN contractors and four volunteers cleared a large area of bramble, some of it up to 2m tall!

Pretty good views! Photos: Sarah Warren

Fred Franklin used his drone to take aerial shots of the site – the first in the summer when the grass was parched but the bramble patches very healthy looking!, The second was taken after we had finished cutting last week, with the areas cleared by the cut-and-collect machine looking very brown.