The Severn Vale is quite intensively farmed. Some of the woods in the Vale have good populations of the woodland butterfly species. Unimproved grassland is scarce, and some butterflies found quite commonly in the Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean are uncommon or absent in most of the area. In the north-west, the Malvern Hills just reach southwards into the county. From the south-east corner at Lechlade westwards along the course of the river Thames towards its source at Kemble, there are many lakes resulting from gravel extraction.
Several organisations encourage butterfly recording in Gloucestershire.
Most of the records used to produce the species distribution maps were made by members of Butterfly Conservation , the British charity dedicated to saving wild butterflies, moths and their habitats. Butterfly Conservation has run a Millennium Atlas project, taking records from the 1995 to 1999 seasons to show distribution of butterflies throughout Britain and Ireland. The Atlas will be published before the end of 2000. I keep the butterfly records for the Gloucestershire branch of Butterfly Conservation. I have been Butterfly Recorder for the GNS since 1981.