Rachel Richards, B-lines Officer from Buglife, will talk to Churnet Valley Farmers about how farming can help pollinating insects.
This is event is being run through Churnet Valley Farmers Facilitation Group.
We’ll hear why invertebrates are so important, what we can do to help them and why they need to be considered more. The event will focus on wild pollinators including bees, butterflies and beetles and how small changes in farming practices and land management could help them.
There will be opportunity for discussion and to find out more about which Countryside Stewardship options and Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) actions could be used that will benefit pollinators and provide payments for farmers.
To book your place, please visit Eventbrite.
About the speaker:
Rachel is a qualified Ecologist (MSc, BSc) and a naturalist with interests in wild plants, fungi, birds, mammals and invertebrates, particularly bees, wasps and hoverflies. She is B-Lines Officer for Buglife, where she has worked for the last 2 years encouraging farmers, local authorities and the general public to consider the needs of pollinators and other invertebrates in the way they manage green spaces and to record their work for pollinators on the B-Lines – Buglife map. She represents Buglife in her current works with the NFFN (Nature friendly Farming Network) and Farm Wildlife and has been inputting into the development of the new ELMS, providing advice and guidance on how best to support invertebrates, especially pollinators, on farms. Prior to this she worked for Durham Wildlife Trust, where education and engagement were a central part of her role and before this as a freelance ecologist which included work with FERA carrying out botanical surveys on farms.
Main Image Credit: Grayling Butterfly (Hipparchia semele) © Iain H Leach
