A WEEK-LONG celebration of planting wildflowers by communities across north and west Cumbria was celebrated by over 1,000 people.
One hundred community groups signed up for The Big Plant, the latest initiative from Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Get Cumbria Buzzing project which looks to celebrate and save our precious wild pollinators.
From primary schools to community centres, from allotments to hospices, a huge range of local community groups took part in The Big Plant, including St Bees Village Primary School, Christchurch Allonby and Food Carlisle.
In total, the 100 community groups planted an amazing 15,000 plug plants, which had been grown at Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Gosling Sike wildflower nursery.
Carolyn Postlethwaite, Get Cumbria Buzzing project officer, said: "I was blown away at the amazing response we had to The Big Plant – thank you so much to all 100 community groups for signing up and for their fantastic planting work last week.
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"The Big Plant was all about empowering local community groups to create their own beautiful wildflower areas, for local people and for wild pollinators. The communities of north and north-west Cumbria have shouted loud and clear that they want to support direct action for pollinators across the region, by taking part in The Big Plant. It shows how much people want to make a difference in their own community, to help nature’s recovery.
"Wild pollinators are incredibly important – did you know around 1/3 of the food we eat relies on pollinators? Sadly, they are struggling. More than half of UK bee, butterfly and moth species have declined in the past 50 years and 30 species of bees face extinction. Over the last 75 years, the UK has lost 97 per cent of our flower rich meadows, which means we’re losing the flower-rich, wild spaces that support wild insect pollinators.
"But local actions really can make a big difference to local pollinators. We don’t necessarily need to create big nature reserves in order to see changes to local pollinator populations! By creating small-scale areas where wildflowers can thrive, whether it’s a window box, a back yard or a roadside verge, we can start to see the benefits to local pollinator populations, from changes at a very local level," she said.
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