Say it with flowers
LAST week, a new Protection of Pollinators Bill was presented to the House of Commons; it contained a proposal to establish a national network of wildflower-rich pollinator corridors, restoring and creating tens of thousands of acres that would be beneficial to bees.
Some 97% of British wildflower grassland has been destroyed since the 1940s and, over the past few years, wildlife charity Buglife has been working with more than 150 partners to gather support and draw up a map outlining the best areas in England that can be connected with remaining wildflower-rich areas in both town and country.
‘If we get landowners, farmers, businesses, local authorities, schools and the general public to help, then the wildflower networks can become a reality,’ comments Paul Evans of Buglife. Under the new Bill, Defra would be in charge of approving the map and encouraging public authorities to get involved. It follows hot on the heels of a Defra-backed ban on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides for all outdoor crops, which was endorsed by EU member states last month.
Joining in the clamour, on Monday, Plantlife published a list of the ‘dirty dozen’ plant marauders that are especially rampant on our verges, the floral richness of which, it claims, has been reduced to 20%, with hugely wildlife-friendly red clover and lady’s bedstraw in particularly rapid decline. The conservation charity also identifies ‘silent killer’ air pollution and poor management by councils as culprits.
The exhaust-loving ‘nitrogen guzzlers’ include nettle, bramble, rough meadow-grass, cow parsley, Yorkshire fog and creeping buttercup, which are crowding out areas that have previously been a haven for wildflowers. Victim species include tufted vetch, bugle, tormentil, white campion, greater knapweed, fen ragwort and wood calamint, their decline severely damaging the last remaining refuge for many bees, butterflies, birds, bats and bugs.
Simple changes, such as cutting less and later in the year and ‘harnessing the power of semi-parasitic yellow rattle to act as Nature’s own lawnmower’, can significantly improve the biodiversity, advocates the charity, the research of which estimates that if all of the road verges in the UK were well managed, there would be 418.88 billion more flowers (6,300 per person). Furthermore, those that have already followed Plantlife’s advice, such as Dorset County Council, have seen both floral results and financial savings.
‘Verges are positively bursting with the untapped potential to arrest the alarming decline of our wildflowers and wildlife,’ explains Plantlife’s Dr Trevor Dines. ‘If all our verges were managed for Nature, we would see an area the size of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh combined adorned with wildflowers. This surge in pollen and nectar would have a genuinely transformative effect on the prospects of wildlife—half of which we have tragically lost in the past 50 years alone. Re-enlivening our neglected roadside offers us a route away from biodiversity oblivion.’ Visit http://plantlife. love-wildflowers.org.uk/roadverge campaign to sign Plantlife’s petition.
Meanwhile, Alan Titchmarsh, vicepresident of Butterfly Conservation, is calling on gardeners to set aside one square metre of their gardens, planted with nectar-rich flowers, as a refuge for struggling butterflies, moths and other pollinators this summer. The Plots for Pollinators project came about due to concerns that the cold start to the year could impact butterflies—the small tortoiseshell and the garden tiger are among those that have plummeted in numbers in recent years. ‘It doesn’t have to be on the lawn,’ he explains. ‘You could create a vertical garden on a bit of unused wall or fence and this would make a huge difference for pollinators… There are so many different flowers that are great nectar sources, like catmint, cosmos or calendula.’
‘Planting just one plot in each of the UK’S estimated 24 million gardens will make a huge difference,’ says Butterfly Conservation ambassador Kate Bradbury, ‘because if everyone did this, the whole country would be linked with nectar and pollen-rich flowers.’ To take part, visit www. butterfly-conservation.org/plantpots