Islanders Asked To 'Bee' Friendly

Monday, 27 July 2020 06:00

A new website has been created where islanders can record and view areas that have been marked as 'Pollinator Friendly Areas'.

The Channel Islands Pollinator Project are asking islanders to help make the public online map as vibrant as possible.

Pollinator-friendly areas range from a small patch on your home street to a wildflower meadow.

The project was first set up in Guernsey in 2017 and spread out across the channel islands as a wider project.

Organisers say with everyone working together, they hope the current decline in insect pollinators in the Channel Islands can be reversed, and their populations conserved and enhanced for the future.

Les Landes School Pollinator Patch

Nina Cornish, Research Ecologist for the Government of Jersey, said they wanted island residents to 'bee' more friendly.

"The pollinator project is about protecting and enhancing pollinator areas and encouraging pollinators all over the island to help prevent the decline in pollinators across the channel islands and conserve the future.

"We depend on pollinators for much of our food, so supporting them with more wild spaces in both our rural and urban areas will help halt their decline."

She also explained the benefits of the new online tool.

"We've just launched a pollinator friendly areas form so you can now map and record where you've been doing some great pollinator friendly planting.

"What we want to know specifically at the moment is where you're growing pollinator friendly flowers or if you've done a pollinator friendly garden, once you've sowed and planted the area we'd love to know where they are.

"If there is any particular area that you've either planted on your land or in your garden, you can go on and record the area and what you've actually done, so this will help build a picture of where all the pollinator friendly areas are across the island."

Six bee-friendly things islanders can do are: