A long-lost insect species has been successfully reintroduced to the marshes of East Anglia after years of work by conservationists aided by dozens of local volunteers.

In a press release, the United Kingdom government confirmed the success of the scheme to bring the large marsh grasshopper back to Norfolk after an 86-year absence. The appropriately named "Hop of Hope" was a venture by Citizen Zoo to mobilize volunteers to help raise thousands of grasshoppers in captivity ahead of their release into the wild. 

The area director for the Norfolk and Suffolk team at Natural England, Hannah Thacker, hailed the project's success: "We're delighted with the Hop for Hope project's progress. ... Our partners have developed groundbreaking techniques using preincubated eggs to establish new populations in Norfolk sites where bog and fen habitats are thriving."

Thacker pointed out that a viable breeding population has now taken hold, marking the first time the large marsh grasshoppers had hatched in the wild since 1939. The success was made possible by the work of 46 "citizen keepers," ordinary people who volunteered to help rear grasshopper nymphs drawn from their last remaining wild populations in the New Forest in Hampshire. 

Releasing adult grasshoppers into the wild rather than just eggs meant a greater proportion survived, improving the odds of a viable population taking hold. The large marsh grasshopper is Britain's largest grasshopper, and it fulfills a key ecological role in wetlands through nutrient cycling and as a food source for many other species. Interestingly, student research from the University of Rhode Island revealed that grasshoppers play a surprisingly large role in the overall health of the state's salt marshes. 

Reintroducing a species to an area is a challenging yet rewarding endeavor. There have been multiple examples of successes, and those triumphs have had surprising knock-on effects for the ecosystem at large. The Hop for Hope venture succeeded because of residents taking local action to support the project. 

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One of the volunteers, Mark Welch, a retired mineralogist from the Natural History Museum, told the Guardian: "It is exciting to be part of putting them back into a place where they've been extinct for 50 years, and it's gratifying to feel that you're making a small contribution."

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