Making a difference

Pollinators are popular. That however hasn’t protected them from multiple challenges, and it’s a source of comfort that bodies such as Aberdeenshire Council go out of their way to help these important insects. Amongst the first councils in Scotland to launch a Pollinator Action Plan, they are now onto their third such plan.  And the good news is they are making a difference.

It was back in 2015 that Aberdeenshire got its first Action Plan, almost a decade on the latest iteration adds more measurable, time limited actions to the impressive suite of tools. 

There is no doubt we operate in challenging times when it comes to helping nature. As if changes in land use, fragmentation of habitats, pesticides and disease were not enough of a catalogue of issues, we are increasingly looking with concern to climate change. Rather alarmingly figures released recently showed that some parts of the UK endured their wettest 18-month spell since records were first compiled back in 1836. Four of the top ten wettest winters have now occurred in the last decade.

Such conditions aren’t easy for pollinators. And that is a problem for us, as pollinators are key to supporting healthy landscapes and habitats. 

In Aberdeenshire the Council’s Ranger Service, Greenspace Officers, Natural Environment Team and Community Groups have all looked to see what they can do to help pollinators in the immediate future. That typically means addressing concerns around a good supply of nectar and pollen, looking to achieve habitat connectivity, and planting with an eye to pollinator needs throughout the changing seasons and insect life-cycles. 

So, what have they been up to in Aberdeenshire? How do things look on the ground?

One particularly pleasing measure is that at least 80 school grounds are earmarked to be pollinator-friendly by 2027. Encouraging the next generation to appreciate and help nature is time well-invested. The creation of a Biodiversity Education Pack for schools is a logical way to bolster this work. In both practice and theory, the school environment is increasingly geared towards helping pollinating insects. An extremely popular and successful B-Lines project creating pollinator habitat with schools in the north of Aberdeenshire further shows their desire to engage, practically and has worked with 12 schools to date.  

Simultaneously, perennial plant promotion (as opposed to reliance on annuals) is gaining traction with the Greenspace Project initiative ‘Perennials for Pollinators’, running for its third year in 2024. This initiative supports the gradual shift away from the endless cycle of replacing annual bedding plants in community planting schemes to something with practical value rather than short-term narrow aesthetic appeal. It’s likely that increasingly natural regeneration will come to supplement this approach. With the growing enthusiasm amongst communities, the Council nursery facility is also being considered in its potential for perennial plant production in years to come.

At least 10% of council manged public greenspace in Aberdeenshire will be managed specifically for pollinators and biodiversity by 2027. The council is exploring habitat creation at woodland sites they own, with a shift to native tree species (hastened by significant storm damage and woodland loss in 2021/22), and shrub planting in open rides and around woodland edges an emerging preference. And in a welcome, and highly-visible move, wildflower areas are steadily becoming more prevalent in parks and recreation grounds, active travel routes, road verges, and school grounds.

Many have been created with the support and help of people power, highlighting the enormous social value of these biodiversity projects. Allowing grass to flower longer was trialled in 2023 with No-Mow May and Let it Bloom June being introduced at several sites across the Shire. A massive bulb planting effort, facililated by the Greenspace Project, saw over 300,000 flowering bulbs planted by over 100 community groups across the region. This will not only provide a source of nectar in the bulb flowers, but also allows the grass to flower for longer. 

Whilst the council pursues its agenda to help pollinators, it also enthusiastically embraces partnership working. They seek allies in neighbouring local authorities and the busy North East Scotland Biodiversity Partnership. Support also comes from NESBReC training courses which often focus on volunteer recording of pollinating insects and habitat surveys. There is also a supportive collaboration with Buglife Scotland in exploring opportunities for a B-Line project next to the River Don. 

Pollinators generally enjoy a high profile within the public perception. There is broad awareness of the threats they face but messages need to be periodically reinforced. In Aberdeenshire that takes many shapes, one of the most visible being the 150 or so Ranger Service sessions run each year with local schools, nature groups and communities to raise awareness of pollinators. There is also an online training course, “Mowing for Biodiversity” created by the Ranger Service. The course highlights the importance of pollinators to Council staff and elected members and shares information on what actions can improve habitats for pollinators.  

The new plan is evolving to build on success. Habitat creation and management, the creation of green networks and corridors, and raising the profile of the plight facing our pollinators are all positive actions which are retained.  The willingness to review and modify actions to help pollinators is a sign of not being prepared to rest on their laurels. It’s that observe and learn method which is a key strength of the Aberdeenshire approach. 

Find out more:

Aberdeenshire Council Pollinator Action Plan 2022 to 2027

NESBReC Biological records for the North East of Scotland

North East Scotland Biodiversity Partnership

Greenspace biodiversity – Aberdeenshire Council

People and Pollinators in Strathmore

Claire Pumfrey of Buglife Scotland is our guest blogger today. She takes a look back on a busy year of helping pollinators in the Strathmore area and the fantastic B-Lines project

The Strathmore B-lines project, which started in April 2022 and sadly comes to a close in March 2024, has been busy working with landowners, land managers and communities within the Strathmore valley to raise awareness of the importance of our native pollinators and increase flower-rich habitat within the Strathmore Valley. 

It’s been a very busy 2023 field season so far with plenty of site surveys, habitat management workshops, pollinator identification training and ‘get close to nature’ events. One of the highlights included a Moth trapping event, held in partnership with Scottish wildflower seed producers, Scotia Seeds, at Mavis Bank Farm. It was fantastic to give members of the public an opportunity to get up close and personal with these insects – everyone loves a Poplar Hawk Moth! 

Other successful events included our Pollinators Picnic held in partnership with Sustainable Kirriemuir, Bumblebee identification training held in partnership with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Yoga in the Meadow, and our two scything workshops delivered by Rob Brodie. 

Moving into late summer and autumn, the project has been focusing on habitat creation and restoration at selected sites. Dedicated project partners and volunteers have been helping to sow Yellow Rattle seed and plant native wildflowers – so far 3,500 plants have gone in the ground! This has included at The Hermitage with The National Trust for Scotland, Loch of the Lowes with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Montrose Kirkyard with Angus Council, and in Blairgowrie with Biodiversity Blair and staff from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. 

None of this would have been possible without all of the amazing volunteers and project partners – so a massive thank you to everyone who has helped out and got involved so far! We still have plenty of habitat work to carry out, including wildflower planting and seed sowing, and we are on the lookout for volunteers. If you would like to get involved please contact  claire.pumfrey@buglife.org.uk

The work of Strathmore B-Lines has been made possible by funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Gannochy Trust.

More than history

Just as NatureScot works to improve Scotland’s natural environment, so Historic Environment Scotland is the government agency tasked with caring for and promoting Scotland’s historic environment. However, they do much more besides, and with a strong Climate Action Plan they increasingly make space for our hard-pressed pollinators.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has a fascinating remit. They look after a suite of properties of national importance, care for many of Scotland’s major ancient monuments, and in addition are involved with a range of archaeological works.  Where their work most notably crosses over with NatureScot’s remit is in their contribution to the Scottish Government’s strategy to tackle climate change and reduce Scotland’s carbon footprint.

Given that a key aim of the Pollinator Strategy for Scotland is that by 2027 there will be a strong network of good quality pollinator habitats in place they are a valuable partner in driving things forward.  With a suite of over 300 properties, often with green spaces attached, they are well placed to help our hard-pressed pollinators. What’s more they work with a range of private landowners so are particularly adept at liaising with others to achieve their goals.

Charlie Hawkins, Biodiversity and Climate Change coordinator at HES, leads on this work. An appreciation of the challenges facing nature lies close to his heart. He knows that within the suite of Historic Environment Scotland properties are many opportunities to make changes and introduce management regimes which are helpful to nature.

At Holyrood Park, the Ranger Service has long worked on ensuring areas of the park can support pollinators. Adjacent to Queen’s Drive, for example, there is a wildflower area comprised of yellow rattle, yarrow, harebells, and white campion, among many other species. In 2023, this area was strengthened through collaboration between the Holyrood Park Grounds Staff, and volunteers. Between them they grew and planted 1,500 wildflower plants from seed to further benefit pollinators.

Talk with the HES team and they will quickly flag up a recognition of the value of creating pollinator corridors and stepping stones across Scotland’s landscape. They link that desire equally to linear features such as the natural corridor created by the Tweed where the likes of Dryburgh and Melrose Abbeys feature, and this is an area which supports the Buglife Pollinators along the Tweed project. It’s a mix of identifying a range of opportunities which shows neatly their flexible yet determined outlook.

Not all interventions to help pollinators need to be high profile or involve significant new plantings. Often not doing very much in green space can be a huge help. Where nature is left to its own devices the results are often pleasingly satisfactory.

Staff at Dryburgh Abbey wanted to recreate an early 19th Century landscape and six years on the fantastic flowering meadows they have created are set to inspire other HES sites.

Mark Gillie, head gardener at Dryburgh is delighted with the progress that’s been made: “It was 2017 when we first started to move away from the manicured lawns you usually associate with the places like Dryburgh Abbey.  We now have many natural growing areas, and in around a third of them we have introduced wildflower seeds. Just within one small patch you can see daisies, yellow rattle, yarrow, orchids and many more – and you can also see the insects which need them.”

Of course there is a need to be sensitive in any approaches of this kind given the importance of the sites involved. As Sarah Franklin, Landscape Manager at HES explains: “We will be taking this approach forward, although some sites have sensitive archaeology and that can make life difficult for establishing wildflower meadows.. We can’t just lift the turf and scatter seeds around many historic buildings, but we will be looking to recreate what we have here at Dryburgh on sites where we can.”

A key strength in the HES approach is their desire to work in partnership with others. To this end they have recently been devoting considerable effort into a natural corridor created by the Tweed, work which blends neatly with the Buglife Pollinators along the Tweed (PATT) strategy.  

HES and Buglife Scotland met recently to discuss their partnership and visited both Melrose and Dryburgh Abbey. There is growing excitement about opportunities for the two groups to work together in habitat creation and meadow management skills such as scything training for staff and volunteers too. 

Over in the west, at Iona Abbey, a simple change in mowing regime has been really successful too, with the site buzzing and lots of visitors complimenting the staff on how much better it looks compared to when strict mowing was the order of the day. 

Of course, Scotland’s vital historic sites are often rigidly protected from development, which in turn can make them special havens for biodiversity as the habitats and species benefit from that greater level of protection.

NatureScot and Historic Environment Scotland can dictate outcomes for nature by coming together in sharing good practice. This is already happening successfully in our collaboration on the Dynamic Coast project. 

Now the goal is to replicate this team work in enhancing opportunities for pollinators. By pooling information on practices such as meadow management, removing arisings, following planting and flowering regimes which best suit pollinator life-cycles, and cutting carbon footprints there is clearly a shared agenda. 

We have the knowledge, we have the desire … watch this space.

Further reading

Find out more about the work at Dryburgh Abbey in this BBC article.

Falkirk’s forward-looking green progress

Pollinator-friendly actions are nothing new to Falkirk Council.  Over the years they have been involved in a range of projects which have made life easier for pollinators, and brought considerable enjoyment to people.

So what have they been up to lately?  We caught up with Anna Perks, a local biodiversity officer, to find out.

“I think one of our most exciting local developments has been that Falkirk Council has commissioned consultants to carry out a piece of work looking at the potential for habitat creation on our land/buildings to help sequester CO2.  Although CO2 sequestration is our primary goal, we anticipate that many of the identified opportunities will also have benefits for pollinators and other biodiversity. 

“To deliver this project we will be looking at a range of habitat creation opportunities, including woodland, long grassland, wetland, and green/brown roofs and walls.”

Other bodies liaise with Falkirk Council to good effect in projects which, in passing, improve prospects for pollinators.  Take, for example, the work of amphibian and reptile specialists Froglife.  As part of their ‘Come Forth for Wildlife’ project they created a number of small meadow strips in four of Falkirk’s parks. That was great news in its own right, but in late 2020 volunteers carried out a bit of supplementary sowing at those meadows.  It’s a classic example of where helping one element of biodiversity can have a positive knock-on effect for another group.

Anna has developed a keen eye for new ideas or practices and relays these to her colleagues where there is a potential biodiversity gain. 

“I have written a report detailing proposed changes to Falkirk Council’s grass and verge cutting regimes”, she explains by way of example.  “This could not only benefit biodiversity but meet other objectives such as our aims to take action to combat climate change, and deliver budget savings.  I have just had approval from the Council to  implement a pilot phase of these changes this year (at  35 sites) and review these in spring 2022 with a view to wider roll out after that.”

Anna is realistic that change doesn’t always happen overnight. However,  approval to run this pilot represents significant progress, It’s an excellent sign of the direction things are headed.

This forward thinking is nothing new in a council area which saw pollinator-friendly planting in a range of parks in spring 2018, and native bulbs planting in autumn 2018 to complement those new meadows. This tied in well with Buglife Scotland’s B-lines initiative and engaged several local groups with pollinator activities.  Working with groups such as Buglife Scotland has been a welcome element of Falkirk’s approach.

And the progress on ‘completed’ sites continues with the council recently purchasing equipment that allows them to cut and lift long grass – a key element to building on the good initial planting work. This will prevent soil becoming too nutrient-rich and favour wild flowers. 

It’s intriguing to see how Falkirk has built on its early actions to continue to make solid environmental improvements. Come spring and summer the community here will be able to enjoy a host of pollinator friendly flowers. And that’s great news for pollinators – and people.