Loss of habitat is sending many already threatened species in the region spiralling towards extinction. John Dean examines the crisis facing The Endangered North.

AS so often in Nature, it was the butterflies, those great barometers of the health of the environment, which sounded the alarm. Theoretically, recent temperature rises of between one and one-and-a-half degrees centigrade in the region, due to climate change, should have led to a widespread colonisation of butterflies heading north from southern England.

However, a study by the University of Durham's Environmental Research Department, working with counterparts in York and Leeds, reveals that 75 per cent of 46 British butterflies at their northermost limits have actually declined over the last 30 years in the region. The answer is simple: man has destroyed the habitats which the insects needed to succeed.

And the butterflies are not alone, as species after species fails, because habitats, from grasslands to woodlands, sand dunes to ponds, are threatened by development, disturbance and intensive agriculture.

Today, naturalists feel such alarm at what is happening that they are focusing like never before on habitats as they try to save the rich natural heritage of the region.

One of those who is concerned is Nick Brodin, a conservation officer in the region for English Nature, who compiled the recently-published Biodiversity Audit of the North-East. The report, backed by organisations such as the RSPB, listed nine animals and flowers now extinct in the region due to loss of habitat, ranging from great yellow bumble bee and pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly, to narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth, wild cornflower and red hemp-nettle.

Mr Brodin says: "Compiling the report, I was heartened by the big difference in habitats and species which we have in the region. However, there are a number of them which are suffering and some which are disappearing quickly."

He believes that the public is growing more concerned at the loss of important wildlife areas and that those who manage land need to take more notice of those anxieties.

"There is an increasing public awareness of what the word 'habitat' means when, ten years ago, there was not and you might have been met with a blank look.

"It is important that we work with the land managers, the landowners and developers, and those people who do not consider themselves land managers but can have an effect. Councils are a good example. Changes in their grass cutting regimes could make a difference, for instance," he says.

And it can work: several years ago one Wearside company changed its grass-cutting regime and discovered that its grounds were home to large numbers of a rare orchid.

According to naturalists, precious habitats under threat in the region include:

Magnesian limestone grasslands

Location: The North-East has two thirds of Britain's magnesian grasslands in a band stretching south through County Durham and North Yorkshire from the southern tip of Tyne and Wear, including a few remaining fragments of coastal grassland.

Reason for importance: Nationally scarce plants such as dark-red helleborine and blue moor grass. Insects such as the rare Durham Argus butterfly.

Threatened by: Intensive agriculture and disturbance by holidaymakers and trippers.

Meadows

Location: The North-East has 40 per cent of England's upland hay and wildflower meadows, including a number of excellent examples in the Yorkshire Dales.

Reason for importance: Wildflowers, including several species of orchid, butterflies and other insects.

Threatened by: Intensive agriculture which ploughs them up and kills off the plants with pesticide, loss to development.

Ancient woodland

Location: Widely distributed but dwindling: some types of upland woodland have declined by 40 per cent in the UK in the last 60 years.

Reason for importance: Variety of wildlife from owls to red squirrels (pictured). However the increasingly fragmented nature of woodland has played a major part in the decline of the red, which is now restricted to north Durham and Northumberland.

Threatened by: Development and intensive agriculture.

Ponds and lakes

Location: Throughout the region but, nationally, between 1945 and 1990, the number dropped from 470,000 to 330,000.

Reason for importance: Five species of amphibians - the common frog, the common toad (pictured), the smooth, palmate and great crested newts.

Threatened by: Development and filling in by farmers.

Farmland mosaic

Location: Throughout the region but fragmented.

Reason for importance: Grasslands, hedgerows and woodland on farmland supports songbirds such as skylark, small mammals such as voles and shrews and the birds which prey on them, including the threatened barn owl.

Threatened by: Intensive agriculture

Mudflats

Location: North-East coast.

Reason for importance: Wading birds such as lapwing and redshank and the invertebrates which support them.

Threatened by: Reclamation of land for industrial use, coastal housing developments, overfishing of shellfish, pollution from industry and agriculture, recreational developments such as marinas.

Coastal sand dunes

Location: Scarce (just 11.5 hectares in County Durham, 0.04 per cent of the national total, and 15 hectares in South Tyneside.) There are also mudflats on Teesside.

Reason for importance: Grasslands containing orchids and other wildflowers as well as butterflies, moths, bees and wasps.

Threatened by: Erosion, recreation, off-road motorbikes, litter, rising sea levels.

Bogs

Location: Upland areas but under severe pressure.

Reason for importance: Invertebrates such as the rare large heath butterfly, wildflowers, wading birds, grouse and birds of prey.

Threatened by: Changes in land use, peat extraction, recreation.

Although there are many initiatives now under way to protect and increase habitats, including agricultural schemes, tree planting and the creation of new nature reserves, some naturalists believe it could already be too late for some species.

They are becoming increasingly aware that a major problem is that the surviving habitats are fragmented and isolated, which leaves creatures nowhere to expand their range.

Crucially, it also means they cannot escape a crisis, such as damage to their habitat or an imbalance between males and females, which means the creatures have to travel further afield to find mates.

Because many species, such as some butterflies, cannot move large distances, fragmented habitat can be their death knell.

Terry Coult, conservation manager for Durham Wildlife Trust, says: "There is a growing awareness of the importance of protecting habitats but also looking for large chunks of habitats which are interconnected. Protecting habitats is all well and good, but it is much better if you have a mosaic which acts like an interconnecting jigsaw, otherwise you have islands and the moment some kind of event happens you get extinctions."

For some species the clock may already be counting down to that doomsday scenario.