Launched this week, the B-Lines initiative will create a network of wildflower corridors across England to help bees and other pollinators.
Sadly, England has lost an estimated 97 per cent of its wildflower meadows since the second world war. This habitat loss has had a catastrophic effect on butterflies, hoverflies and bees, with numbers of some species estimated to have fallen by 80 per cent in recent years.
“A complete England B-Lines network is a real landmark step in our mission to reverse insect declines and lend a helping hand to our struggling pollinators,” said Catherine Jones, Pollinator Officer at Buglife. “We hope that organisations and people across England will help with our shared endeavour to create thousands of hectares of new pollinator-friendly wildflower habitats along the B-Lines.”
The red lines that crisscross the map of England (below) aren't roads, they are actually the new wildflower highways designed to carry bees and other pollinators as part of this initiative to halt the decline of insects.
Known as B-Lines, the map joins the dots between existing wildflower habitats in England and identifies suitable routes between them that could be turned into wildflower corridors for pollinators. If you want to zoom in to see if you live along a corridor, click to see Buglife's B-Lines Map
The map was launched by the conservation charity Buglife, which is calling on farmers, businesses, public bodies and individuals to plant wildflowers along its B-Lines network in a bid to restore habitats that pollinators depend on.
Buglife has 5 other suggestions that everyone with a garden could do to help the country's pollinators:
Grow more flowers, shrubs and trees
Let your garden grow wild
Cut your grass less often
Leave insect nests and hibernation spots undisturbed
Think carefully about whether to use pesticides
More ideas for helping bees: