After nearly two years, Buglife’s Urban Buzz Leeds project has come to an end after working with local community groups to bring bees, beetles and butterflies into the heart of Leeds and smashing all of its targets!
Thanks to the enthusiasm and hard work of 1,366 volunteers, 112 Buzzing Hotspots were enhanced for pollinators with wildflowers, bug-friendly garden plants, flowering shrubs, nesting habitat and a host of other work. Urban Buzz Leeds worked in high profile locations such as the Gotts Park, University of Leeds and Rothwell Country Park and with partners including Leeds City Council, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, members of the Parks and Green Spaces Forum and the University of Leeds- all working together to bring colour and wildlife back to our parks and open spaces.
Buglife is also pleased to announce that the joint winners of the Best Buzzing Hotspot for Leeds are Wades Charity, Leeds City Council, The Friends of Armley and Gotts Park, Leeds Wildlife Volunteers and Leeds Volunteer Rangers for their work at Gotts Park. The Runner Up was awarded to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Leeds City Council and volunteers for their work at Water Haigh.
Nationally the Urban Buzz projects enhanced over 325ha across 956 Buzzing Hotspots with the help of over 12,000 volunteers, across Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Falmouth, Ipswich, Leeds, Leicester, Plymouth, St Austell, Truro, Wadebridge and York.
Catherine Jones, Urban Buzz Leeds Officer commented, “The Urban Buzz project has been a fantastic community effort making a real difference for our precious pollinators. It’s heartening that at a time of widespread insect declines around the world, the people of Leeds have banded together to bring colour and wildlife back to their parks and open spaces! Thank you to all of the amazing volunteers, partners and funders”.
Gillian French, Head of Grants, Biffa Award said: “At a time when our natural world is in decline projects like this one couldn’t be more vital. It is fantastic to be able to support Urban Buzz and exciting to watch the work going from strength to strength. Brand new habitats are being created for pollinators and we can’t wait to see the impact this will have on local wildlife.”
Urban Buzz Leeds was made possible thanks to the generous support of Biffa Award, National Lottery Heritage Fund, People’s Postcode Lottery, Garfield Weston Foundation and The Sir George Martin Trust.
