Buglife Scotland welcomed Natalie Stevenson as Scotland Manager (maternity cover) last week. Natalie joins the organisation after more than ten years running small environmental charities. She is looking forward to adding her knowledge and experience to the Scotland team.
Now is a critical time for Buglife in Scotland, with several key projects in development. We will shortly be releasing a completed B-Lines map for Scotland, the culmination of many years of work and a road map to creating sustainable pollinator habitat across the country. We are also working with many of our partner organisations on the collaborative Species on the Edge project. This is one of the most ambitious species-focussed partnerships we have seen, it will support invertebrates (and many other species) living on our coast, from the South of Scotland all the way up to the Northern Isles.
It is not just new projects however, our existing B-Lines work across the central belt and peatland restoration projects are key in protecting the invertebrates we rely on so heavily as a country.
After just a couple of weeks in post, Natalie said “the team in Scotland have been so welcoming and I am so impressed by the range of activities and support Buglife Scotland offers to communities here”.
On a rare sunny September day, Natalie took the opportunity to add her own FIT Count to the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme data, “this was such a fun activity and a great way for me to take a break and spend ten minutes outside. With COVID many of our normal activities have not been possible, but a FIT Count is something everyone can do at home in their own gardens. Just ten minutes in the sunshine with the bees was a fantastic way to connect to nature and relax, great for my mental wellbeing and a lovely way to introduce myself to some of our amazing pollinator species”.
Natalie will be working from home until we can go back to office-based activity.
If you would like to do your own FIT Count you can find out more.
