Buglife have secured £37,000 from Biffa Award, for the exciting Making a B-Line for the North East project. The project will help bring back wildflowers to a number of Local Wildlife Sites around the North East and will also transform other areas of grassland into colourful, wildflower-rich havens for both people and wildlife.
Buglife will work with Sunderland City Council and South Tyneside Council to manage a number of important Local Wildlife Sites and create new wildflower-rich areas on mown grasslands. These vibrant wildflower-rich areas will create vital habitats for a whole range of insect pollinators, from bumblebees to moths, and butterflies to hoverflies; all of which have declined across much of the UK.
The Making a B-Line for the North East project will help build up a UK-wide network of wildflower-rich areas which will provide valuable food for insect pollinators while also helping them to move around the country. Our pollinators are incredibly important as without them we would not have food like strawberries, apples, beans and peas. However they are under threat, due to pesticides and loss of habitat. This B-Lines project aims to help halt the declines.
The project will also work with local schools and communities. Working together Durham Wildlife Trust and Buglife will visit many local schools giving children an opportunity to learn about pollinators and wildflowers. Several schools will also be given help to create new wildflower-rich meadows and bee hotels in their school grounds. The project will provide a great opportunity to bring people closer to wildlife across Sunderland and South Tyneside and make it a happier, brighter place to live.
Paul Evans, Buglife’s B-Lines Manager said “It’s exciting to think of more of the North East’s parks being full of flowers and alive with bees and butterflies. Thanks to Biffa Award we’re able to work with local Councils, people and communities to help restore wildflower-rich areas across the region. There will be many opportunities to get involved with the Making a B-Line for the North East project, including helping to create meadows”.
Kirsty Pollard, Durham Wildlife Trusts Community Education Officer said “The project provides an incredibly valuable opportunity to engage children in natural habitats and develop their understanding of the importance of these insects. We hope to inspire over 150 young people to value and help look after the wildlife around them and believe that they themselves can influence their friends and families in the same way.”
The Biffa Award funding builds on previous grants of over £100,000 secured from the JP Getty (Jnr) Trust and Northumbrian Water’s Branch Out programme.
