The South Downs team are celebrating after more than 66 hectares – or 163 football pitches – of lush wildflower habitat have been created to help bees flourish thanks to donations from the public.
Together with the Bee Lines initiative, which has been creating wildflower corridors for the past four years, the National Park continues to give a helping hand to struggling pollinator populations by creating wildflower havens at farms, community fields, recreation grounds, road verges, schools, and even cemeteries and golf clubs.
Nick Heasman, a Countryside Policy Manager for the South Downs National Park, said: 'It’s blooming marvellous that thanks to all the donations from the public we’ve been able to create these new havens for pollinators. Bee Lines is just one strand of the National Park’s ReNature campaign and it’s incredibly exciting to see nature recovery in action.'
Prince’s Mead School in Winchester has been one of the beneficiaries of the funding and, two years on from the planting, a large section of the school grounds is now well-established wildflower meadow.
To donate visit southdownstrust.org.uk/beelines and for anyone interested in future rounds of Bee Lines funding, contact Victoria Crespi at grants@southdowns.gov.uk.
FUNDED PROJECTS FOR 2022-23
1. Corhampton Golf Club
2. Barn Field Selborne
3. Buriton Recreation Ground
4. Blacknest Buzzing - Alice Holt
5. Catersland Wildflower Meadow
6. Botany Bay Community Interest Bee Bank
7. Cissbury Fields
8. TECT Community Field
9. Piddinghoe wildflower meadows
10. Alciston Court organis farm conversion
