Adventurer and wildlife presenter Steve Backshall and York’s MP Rachael Maskell have thrown their support behind a Buglife fundraising campaign to raise £5,000 to help revitalise York’s greenspaces, making them colourful and buzzing with life.
Urban Buzz York is asking for donations to help create bee friendly parks and gardens to help bees, butterflies and other pollinators, in the greenspaces of York. The project is creating 100 new ‘buzzing hotspots’ in community spaces in York as well as offering free training on how to create and manage pollinator friendly places. There will be new wildflower meadows, bee banks, fruit trees for bees and much more. But the project needs to raise at least a further £5,000 so this work can take place.
Steve Backshall said “York Urban Buzz is an amazing project that really needs your support. What could be better than making our parks and gardens great for us and at the same time providing food for our buzzing buddies? We need to look after these little guys as our world would be very different without them.”
Rachael Maskell MP – York Central said ‘Urban Buzz York is a fantastic scheme and a great opportunity to make our city a beautiful haven for pollinators. Encouraging bees and insects to thrive in our meadows and nesting sites makes for a richer environment for both people and wildlife.’
Alice Farr, Buglife said ‘Bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects have been having a tough time over the last few years – three of our bumblebee species have already gone extinct. Urban Buzz York gives people the opportunity to do something to help stop these declines. Look out for our buzzing hotspots across York in areas like Rowntree Park, Rawcliffe Meadow and York City Walls – they will soon be bursting with flowers. The best thing is that by making our parks and gardens bee friendly we are making them vibrant and more inspiring for us to enjoy too.’
