SUSTAINABILITY

FEATURES
Making a buzz with the
Ministry of Defence
Brown banded male humilis © Bumblebee Conservation Trust
Over the last 60-70 years the UK has
lost over 97% of its ancient wild flower
meadows. During and after the WWII
we had the dig for victory campaign
in which we needed to feed our
population and troops, much of our
common land was put into agriculture
production and the government gave
subsidies to increase the use of
fertilisers and pesticides/insecticides.
This dramatic loss of habitat has had a
significant impact on many of our
farm land species, such as our insect
pollinators. For example, two of our
The first short haired bumblebee seen this year
© Bumblebee Conservation Trust
bumblebee species have become
extinct and a further seven are classed
as rare and threatened. However,
much of the remaining ancient wild
flower meadows remain on MOD
ranges such as Salisbury Plain. Many of
these sites have never been ploughed
or fertilised so the soil has not become
damaged and retains a high level of
floristic diversity.
Insect surveys on MOD land have
demonstrated that many of these
ranges retain a good diversity of
bumblebees and other rare insects.
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust
(BCT) has been working with different
ranges to survey and give advice on
managing wild flower habitat for our
bumblebees. In the south of Kent in
Dungeness and Romney Marsh an
exciting project is taking place to
reintroduce one of the UK’s extinct
species, the short haired bumblebee.
The short-haired bumblebee project
was formed in 2009 by Natural England,
RSPB, Hymettus and BCT. The aim of
this project is to work with local farmers
Identification training walk on the ranges
© Bumblebee Conservation Trust
and other land owners to restore and
recreate wild flower habitat, to
monitor wild flower areas for
bumblebees and to reintroduce this
extinct species from Sweden (where a
good population still remains).
The Short Haired Bumblebee
Reintroduction Project has been
releasing queen bumblebees at
Dungeness for the last four years. The
aim of this is to encourage the species
(which was declared extinct in the UK
in 2000) to re-establish in the area. The
release site is just a few kilometres
from Lydd Ranges, and the
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Sanctuary 44 • 2015