Birmingham has been buzzing for the past 21 months with Urban Buzz providing a variety of new feeding and nesting opportunities for a number of different pollinators throughout the city. Working closely with many different volunteer groups from ‘Friends of Groups’ to regeneration trusts and scouts, as well as partnering with the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country and Birmingham City Council Urban Buzz has been in prime position to help drive the pollinator agenda further to forefront of local people, facilitating workshops and training events making people aware of how important bees, butterflies, beetles and other pollinators are to us, and what people can do in their garden or local open space to help conserve them.
Urban Buzz created 115 buzzing hotspots throughout the city consisting mainly of vibrant wildflower patches and meadows bursting with pollen and nectar, with other key sites including plug planting in young woodlands, wetland planting along brooks and streams, bee bank creation in nature reserves and honeycomb planted planters in Birmingham’s business district. The success of the project was mainly down to all the hard work put in by the local community groups and local partners, but a massive thanks has to out to our primary funders, Biffa Award and Garfield Weston, and other funders including HLF, People’s Postcode Lottery, Aviva and Bunzl who’s funding ensured we could create these wonderful habitats and look after them for many years to come.
Urban Buzz Conservation Officer Nick Packham: “The Urban Buzz Birmingham project has been such a dynamic project and an amazing experience, working in many different settings throughout the city from creating wildflower patches in key locations across the Queen Elizabeth hospital to creating bee banks at Moseley Bog, one of Birmingham and the Black Countries most celebrated nature reserves. The project has allowed me to work on many fantastic sites alongside some of the most enthusiastic and passionate wildlife enthusiasts I have ever met, a project built on local partnerships ensuring a pollinator legacy for many years to come”.
Birmingham and the Black Country Wildlife Trust Conservation Manager Simon Atkinson: “Urban Buzz has been a great project showcasing how two organisations can work together to achieve a common goal in establishing lots of pollinator habitat throughout the city. The project worked in corridors identified through the Birmingham and the Black Countries Nature Improvement Areas (NIA) initiative ensuring that Buzzing hotspots were created in key areas where they would most beneficial to wildlife and local communities. Urban Buzz has created a number of different habitats that will leave a lasting impression on the city for many years to come.”
