Saving the small things that run the planet
The North Cornwall B-Lines project worked with local landowners and communities to help threatened bee species by creating and enhancing 24.75 hectares of flower-rich habitat along the North Cornwall coast.
Quick Facts:
- Name of Project: North Cornwall B-Lines
- Duration of Project: 2022-2023
- Location of Project: Cornwall
- Species benefiting from Project: Large Scabious Mining Bee (Andrena hattorfiana), the Brown-banded Carder Bee (Bombus humilis) and the Buff-banded Mining Bee (Andrena simillima) & a wide range of pollinators and other wildlife will benefit from the project.
- Project funded by: Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund and Milkywire. The fund is being delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England and the Environment Agency.
- Habitat enhanced/created through project: 24.75ha across 14 sites
Buglife were delighted to announce in 2022, that new populations of the rare bees, including the Large Scabious Mining Bee (Andrena hattorfiana) & Red Bartsia Bee (Melitta tricincta), were found in Cornwall through the North Cornwall B-Lines project. Read more…
What did this project do?
The project’s work focussed on three keys areas of the North Cornwall B-Line, including around Hayle and The Towans, Perranporth and Cubert, and Trevose and Polzeath. Along the wider North Cornwall B-Line, workshops and one-to-one site visits were run to help people enhance their farms, gardens or businesses to create more places for pollinators. Over the course of the project, 153 volunteers helped pollinators by supporting the project with ecological surveys and conservation work parties.
We also worked with schools and local communities to introduce them to the threatened bee species they share their local area with. In total, 322 primary school children attended the bee sessions, and 356 members of the public were engaged through the events held. The project developed an education pack for schools that can be freely download and used by educators.
Large Scabious Mining Bee (Andrena hattorfiana) © Will HawkesHow can you stay involved?
Record your pollinator sightings on iRecord or take part in the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme and carry out a Flower Insect Timed (FIT) Count.
Do you live, work or manage land along the one of our B-Lines in Cornwall or are you part of a community group or school? Help us create B-Lines and add your flower-rich habitat to our B-Lines map!
Or get in touch [email protected].
To celebrate the success of the North Cornwall B-Lines, a short film was created with local video production company Here Now Films. This film showcases some of the work undertaken through the project.
Listen to the ‘Introduction to Cornwall’s Rare and Threatened Bees’ online event:
Join Buglife’s Laura Larkin and Cornish entomologist Paddy Saunders, to learn more about the fascinating bees that inhabit Cornwall, the work Buglife are doing to conserve them and how you can get involved.
Learn how to identify more wonderful wildflowers:
Let Fern Carroll-Smith from the Eden Project’s National Wildflower Centre take you through the basics of botanical ID.
‘North Cornwall B-Lines’ is funded by the Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund and Milkywire. The fund is being delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England and the Environment Agency.
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