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1 Buzzword Bee the revolution and save the sound of summer bumblebeeconservation.org Members’ newsletter November 2017 Issue 35 Saving the sound of summer
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Buzzword
Bee the revolution and save the sound of summer
bumblebeeconservation.org
Members’ newsletter
November 2017Issue 35 Saving the sound
of summer
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Yesterday, today and tomorrow
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Get in touchPost Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Beta Centre, Stirling University Innovation Park, Stirling FK9 4NF
Phone 01786 594 130
Email [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Cover pictureBuff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus
terrestris) by Nikki Gammans
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Contents4. The summer months . . .
12. Chester Zoo’s Bumblebee Garden
16. Your Christmas gift guide
There was a time, not so long ago, when prime ministers went hunting and wrote books in the afternoon after they had dealt with the affairs of the state in the morning. Grocers and bankers knew what business they were in, brands were beans, accountants audited accounts and town halls knew what was good for their citizens. Developments in technology were – well predictable! The word ‘risk’ was generally associated with money, like investing in gold mines in South America.
Today, we don’t live in such a cosy world of certainties and the Trust’s journey over the past 11 years has seen a combination of frequent step changes and increasing complexity in both our
internal and external environments. We have embraced these changes head on, it’s been painful at times, but ultimately rewarding and has helped us towards resilience and sustainability.
The Trust has achieved a great deal since 2006; multiple successfully funded projects throughout the UK, partnerships that have proven to be vital in increasing our advocacy reach, engaging in scientific research and providing training for our volunteers. We have moved from being a small charity of 10 to a staff of nearly 30. A glance at our new website will surprise and delight with the achievements made, thanks to our members, volunteers, staff and trustees.
Our journey is still only really just beginning, it’s exciting, rewarding and good fun and ultimately we are here to protect the UK’s bumblebees today, tomorrow and in the future.
Gill Perkins, CEO
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The bumble blog
New mobile-friendly website
After much planning and hard work we were delighted to launch our new website on the 20 October. Our old website served us well, but advances in mobile phone technology since 2012 meant that it was time for us to move to a fresh new platform that makes it easier for people to access our bumblebee information, join and donate via their mobile devices.
Some of the key changes to the site include: an expanded ‘About bees’ section, with a page for every bumblebee species; more information about how our work is funded; and a Member Portal where you can login to view back issues of Buzzword and Bombus Review, renew or upgrade your membership. We hope to expand the contents of the Member Portal in the months to come to include special member-only offers and bumblebee identification resources. Watch this space (and the Portal) for more details. Visit: www.bumblebeeconservation.org
If you would like to see your photo featured in Buzzword, please email: [email protected]
Your photo gallery
3Saving the sound of summer!
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Photo: Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum) by Steve Byers
The summer months . . .
Bee Wild West WalesThe main activities centered around surveying, monitoring, training and other events. We squeezed in four bee ID training days, one intermediate bee ID training day, 17 rare bee surveys, two BeeWalk network events, one Shrill carder bee hunt event, seven guided walks and two school visits! The project has also been working with some local communities in south west Wales to deliver bee-friendly greenspace features. One of these sites is already complete, two are underway, and we are about to start consultation on the final two.
The weather in the latter part of August and early September was not very favourable, however, we had records of rare species such as Moss carder bee, Brown-banded carder bee and Shrill carder bee. Most importantly, we’ve had the company of lots of volunteers who are keen to improve their bumblebee identification skills, and so seeing common species is as important as seeing rare ones.
As the weather turns we will be focussing more on habitat creation and management. We have some scything training at Sandy Water Park in Llanelli. We will also be organising some work parties to create and manage habitat at sites across south-west Wales.
With the farmers and landowners in Devon, we have completed ten farm visits over summer, providing advice to farmers on how to support bumblebees and increase pollinators on their land. A special highlight this summer, was discovering the rare Brown-banded carder bee on two farms in Cornwall, a joint visit with the RSPB which was fantastic!
Plus, six beginner identification workshops, three talks, three events and three farm days were delivered.
And lastly, a piece on the importance of meadows for bumblebees was filmed for the BBC which is due to air early 2018, so do keep a look out for our piece.
West Country Buzz
Beetor Farm, Dartmoor
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Encouraging people to get involved in recording bumblebees, principally through the national monitoring scheme, BeeWalk, has been one of the key elements of our current Scotland project. With a focus on under-recorded areas, we have been training people in bumblebee ID and survey techniques across Scotland, including Dumfriesshire, Morayshire, Aberdeen, Ayr, Argyll and Highland Perthshire. We hope to see an increase in bumblebee records from these areas, which is vital to help us build the bigger picture as to what’s happening to our bee populations across Britain.
We have also been working with groups with additional support needs, such as University students with learning difficulties and therapeutic gardening projects, to increase understanding about gardening for bumblebees and other pollinators. These small groups have been fantastic to work with and have all been very enthusiastic.In the far northeast, we’ve been working closely with farmers and crofters in Caithness who are considering an application for agri-environment funding. Our Conservation Officer has been surveying habitats and bumblebees on a number of farms, which is giving us good data about the availability of forage across the season. This information will be invaluable in targeting the right agri-environment options in the right places, supporting fragile populations of Great yellow bumblebees.
Saving Scotland’s bumblebees
5Top left: Great yellow bumblebee (Bombus distinguendus) by Dave Wood
Shrill carder bee Recovery Project
Short-haired bumblebee
BeeWalk 2017
The summer of 2017 saw the beginning of the long-awaited Back from the Brink partnership, a collaboration of conservation charities all working towards the same goal of saving our species from the brink of extinction. For the Trust, this was particularly exciting as work on protecting the Shrill carder bee, one of the UK’s rarest bumblebees could get underway. Since the beginning of the project, our Project Officer, Daisy Headley and a team of volunteers have been buzzing about the countryside surveying. Overall it was a successful year of monitoring with Shrill carders found on a total of eight sites in Somerset, including several where they had not been found previously. Now the queens are overwintering, there is no time to rest as planning for next year’s activities begins.
This summer the Short-haired bumblebee project greeted its first trainee under the HLF funded and Kent Wildlife Trust-lead project ‘The Fifth Continent’. We welcomed Lucy Witter, who spent five and a half months with the Trust. During this time, Lucy recruited 11 new volunteers, set up seven new bumblebee transects, conducted three workshops (beginner bumblebee identification day, a garden party and a farm day event) and gave advice on 17 new and existing sites totalling 300 hectares. We will be advertising for a new trainee early next year. To date the project continues to work with 77 farmers and 35 landowners. We have advised on over 1,600 hectares, recruited 39 volunteers and established over 25 bumblebee transects.
The 2017 BeeWalk season has been the biggest yet in terms of transects walked (412), active volunteers (346) and records submitted (19,500) as well as total bees seen (65,000) as the project matures into a hugely valuable resource for bumblebee research and conservation.The weather certainly helped with this, the warm spring marked the first time that all seven common species were recorded on transects during March since 2014. The hot early summer saw many species race through their colony development and go on to have a partial second generation. BeeWalkers now have until 1 Jan 2018 to submit any remaining data. A second BeeWalk Annual Report will be produced and published in spring next year.
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Cuckoo bees
Six of the UK bumblebee species are known as ‘cuckoo bumblebees’. The wiley bees get their name from the cuckoo bird, as they are also nest invaders. The female cuckoo sneaks into the nest of a host species, kills the queen and uses the worker bees to raise her own offspring. So how do the cuckoos get away with it?
It has a lot to do with timing; if they attack a large nest with 50 or more workers, they almost always fail. However, one study found that if the nest is young and only had five workers, the cuckoos succeeded almost all of the time.
In the dark world of a bumblebee nest, the bees inside depend a great deal upon scent to recognise their nest-mates. Research into the
By Suzanne Rex Conservation &
Volunteering Assistant
chemical composition of the scent of cuckoos found that for some species they very closely match the scent of their host. For other cuckoo species, they use the opposite strategy and produce a chemical repellent called dodecyl acetate, which seems to repel worker bees and covers up their scent.
But when she has invaded successfully, her next task is to keep the workers in line. So, she first kills off the older worker bees (she can tell how old they are by their scent), but allows the next generations to live so they can raise her offspring. She produces chemical secretions of her own which prevent them from trying to lay their own eggs, which is what worker bees will usually do when there is no queen in the nest.
This leaves a problem for male cuckoo bees, as only the females produce the mimicked scent that tricks the worker bees, leaving the males vulnerable to attack. It turns out that the males can also produce repellents which act as a shield over their own scent, putting the workers off their trail and allowing them to leave the nest undetected.
Photo: Female Forest cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus sylvestris) which
uses repellent - by Nick Owens
Howdothey
getawaywithit!
Photo: Female Red-tailed cuckoo bee (Bombus rupestris) which smells like it’s host - by Nick Owens
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Twitter.com@BumblebeeTrust @BuzzingWales@BuzzingPeak @BuzzingDevon
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Follow us on:
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it!
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Phill lectures on people and business management topics at Winchester University Business School. He also operates as a business mentor with SMEs, as well as providing consultancy support to small charities. His earlier career spans a number of commercial sectors, including leisure and retailing, typically working in strategic HR roles.
Meet our new trustees8
Phill Jennison
Lena is an evolutionary geneticist with a particular
interest in host-parasite interactions. During her PhD she studied the quantitative
genetics of disease resistance and immunity in bumblebees
and in her current role as Senior Lecturer in Molecular Evolution
at Exeter University her lab is investigating the effect of Varroa
on disease prevalence and abundance as well as on viral diversity in wild pollinators.
Dr Lena Wilfert
Vicky is a dynamic and skilled conservationist with a passion for pollinator conservation and 12 years experience in the environmental charity sector.
Vicky Wilkins
To read more about all our trustees, visit www.bumblebeeconservation.org/how-we-are-run/our-trustees
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Pollinator web pages take off
The web pages for the Pollinator Monitoring and Research Partnership (PMRP), overseen by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) are now live. They include details of latest activity, including progress with the new volunteer recording schemes.
The PMRP aims to combine improved analyses of long-term records with new systematic survey activity to establish how insect pollinator populations are changing across Great Britain. It will work with existing recording schemes to improve our understanding of population trend estimates, and increase their capacity for data flow and record verification.
www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/projects/pollinator-monitoring
SNH publishes Pollinator Strategy for Scotland
The Pollinator Strategy for Scotland 2017–2027 and its accompanying Implementation Plan was launched on 26 July 2017, setting out how Scotland can be a place where pollinators thrive, and the actions needed to help achieve that. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust was pleased to be referenced in the information, advice and resources section. The Strategy was accompanied by the short film ‘Biodiversity Begins with a B’, a ‘darkly comical’ look at the importance of bees to our natural environment and encouraging people to take a few simple actions to help support them.
www.snh.scot/biodiversity-scotland/scottish-pollinator-strategy
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During December and January, workers have been recorded foraging and males seen flying in February, therefore a small subset of queens are beginning new colonies in autumn and skipping going into hibernation.
Why have they just begun to do this and how are they able to? Some bumblebees can forage at zero degrees. One possible reason is that winter flowering species are now available in our gardens, parks and amenity areas. Gardeners and open spaces planting flowers such as mahonia, winter-flowering heathers, salvia, rhododendron and winter honeysuckle means forage resources are available and together with the
By Dr Paul Williams, Terrestrial Invertebrates
Since the end of the 1990’s, it has been particularly noticed in the south of England, through parts of the Midlands and even in south Yorkshire that colonies of the Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), are still active during the winter months.
Bumblebee News
Winter-active bumblebeesBy Dr Nikki Gammans, Sub-T Project Manager
Photos: Buff-tailed bumblebee, queen (Bombus terrestris) by Michelle Ernoult &
winter flowering Mahonia
milder winters, possibly through climate change, has meant that some of these winter colonies are successful.
Interestingly over the last two years, workers of the Garden bumblebee (Bombus hortorum), have also been recorded in January and February in the south of England. So it may not just be the Buff-tailed bumblebee which is now active. Do keep looking in your gardens or local parks where winter flowering plants are available and send your records to BWARS (Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society, www.bwars.com) who are mapping winter bumblebee activity. It will be very interesting to see if the spread of winter-active bumblebees is increasing across the UK and which species are doing this.
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Do you want to see your advert here?
If you would like to advertise a business
or an event in our next Buzzword magazine, or a future edition, please contact us for rates and further information at:
media@bumblebeeconservation.
org
Thank you
Corporate Support
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has many years of experience in developing strong relationships with companies who share our values and our passion to protect the UK’s bumblebee population.
A partnership with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust would be a fantastic way to not only boost employee engagement, but also raise vital funds and awareness of the plight of our humble bumble. Associating your brand with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust provides the perfect platform to promote your company’s environmental credentials.
We do not take a prescriptive approach to partnerships and instead prefer to work with organisations to make sure your individual environmental,
sustainability and other objectives are met, while at the same time protecting the future of bumblebees and saving the sound of summer.
So, whether you are looking to create a cause related marketing initiative, boost staff engagement, increase PR, choose a Charity of the Year, or simply demonstrate your commitment to the environment, we can discuss the ideas, aspirations and goals your business has and create a mutually beneficial relationship to achieve these.
Get in touch
To discuss ways in which we could work together, please call us on 02380 642060 or email [email protected].
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Bombus terrestris, Bombus lucorum, Bombus lapidarius, Bombus pascuorum, Bombus pratorum, Bombus hortorum and Bombus hypnorum and several cuckoo species. Members of the gardens team, therefore already had a keen interest in bumblebees.
We proposed that we develop a ‘Bumblebee Garden’ on the site of an old rock garden, with the primary aim of showcasing a range of plants, both native and non-native, that are useful to bumblebees. The new garden would also provide potential nesting sites and over-wintering spaces for queens. It would feature interpretation boards to explain all of this to our visitors; the aim being to inspire people to go home and replicate aspects of it in their own gardens. The area chosen was in need of a revamp, yet in an area of heavy foot-fall, with an open, south-easterly aspect, and so presented us with great potential.
In 2016, Chester Zoo initiated ‘Wildlife Connections’, a project led by the zoo to create safe spaces for our most precious local wildlife. We encourage people to sign up and tell us what wildlife- friendly spaces they are creating and to record the wildlife they spot in their area. The idea is to create highways through our neighbourhoods and protect the precious wildlife that we love. The Botany and Horticulture Department was asked to come up with ideas for spaces within the zoo that would demonstrate to our visitors (around 1.9 million of them annually) how they might achieve this.
For several years we have been monitoring the bumblebee species within the zoo, by conducting a monthly BeeWalk, which is the Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s national recording scheme, along a set route through the gardens. We have recorded seven of the most common species here:
Chester Zoo’s Bumblebee Garden By Liz Young
Horticulturist
‘
‘
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Image: White-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum) by Andrea Finch
We re-used the existing sandstone blocks to create drystone wall terracing. Mature Camellia shrubs were retained as a backdrop. A water feature, modelled on the rounded cells that the queen creates in the nest, is completed with a sculpture of a bumblebee queen. There are no hexagonal shapes anywhere to be seen in our garden! Our intention is to focus on the needs of bumblebees; to make it clear that though they are social bees they are distinct from the European Honeybee (Apis mellifera), and also differ from the bees that nest in tubes.
A variety of herbs, bulbs, perennials, fruit trees, vegetables and climbers were planted; annuals were grown from seed in our nursery, and part of the lawn is left to grow long.
A garden shed, made by artists Jacqui Symons and Richard Dawson, largely from reclaimed wood, provides nesting opportunities underneath. There are
also nest boxes located inside, with external access for bumblebees. A green roof is planted with a variety of drought-tolerant flowering plants and grasses, giving opportunities for feeding and diapause sites. This can be viewed as you walk past, and also from above, on the monorail train that runs alongside the garden.
Reclaimed wooden planters echo the shed’s design, and host annuals such as cosmos, dwarf beans, tomatoes and dwarf, repeat-flowering sunflowers. A trio of obelisks support runner beans and sweet peas.
Our ‘Bumblebee Garden’ demonstrates how a succession of flowers, both wild and cultivated, blooming from February to November, can provide for the needs of bumblebees while also providing an attractive garden. Whatever we all do at home, none of us will attract a tiger into our garden but we can all provide a home for our furry stripy insects!
Clockwise, from left: Camellias and shed, Shed roof, spring flowers; Garden shed and sunflowers;
Water feature and sunflowers and Echium vulgare; Tropaeolum majus ‘Tip Top Apricot’; Garden shed
green roof; Water feature and moorhen!
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Imagine a world with no pollinators, what a colourless and miserable place it would be. Many of the nutritious foods we eat would no longer be available, and where they were their prices would be sky-high; malnutrition would be rife, especially in parts of the world which already struggle to source nutritious food; and hundreds of thousands of wild flowers would struggle to reproduce, rendering whole ecosystems defunct, along with all the animals that depend on them (including us humans). It’s a scary thought. However, sometimes you only really appreciate something once it’s not there anymore, or fortunately (for now) in this case, by imagining it’s not there anymore.
With this in mind, for a week at the end of August across our online social
media channels, we showcased what life might be like if pollinators decided to down their tools and stop working. #Beesonstrike aimed to get people thinking about what life would be like without our most loyal insect civil servants, and what we can all do to improve their working conditions. Hopefully the message got through - our lives would change immeasurably for the worse without them and it is in all of our best interests to do something to help them. We left our followers with one last thing to think about: imagine if every single person decided to do even just one small good deed for the creatures which contribute so much to our lives. We included a list of ideas to help them get started.
To read more about this social media initiative, go online and search #Beesonstrike.
#beesonstrike
Photo: Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus
terrestris)
By Darryl Cox, Science & Policy Officer
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This year’s meeting took place at Skern Lodge, Appledore, north Devon. The north Devon coast holds the only known populations of the Brown-banded carder bee (Bombus humilis) and Moss carder bee (Bombus muscorum) in the county. By holding our meeting here, we could also carry out field searches to understand the distribution of these and other bumblebees, and look at the habitat.
The meeting kicked off with a discussion around the Trust’s Strategic Planning over the next two years and beyond. The next day, with the weather thankfully on our side, we visited Baggy Point and Northam Burrows. With assistance from rangers from the National Trust and Croyde Bay and a group of volunteers, we surveyed the coastal grassland and dune habitats. We didn’t find the carder bees we were hoping for, but we did find lots of other bumblebees such as the Early bumblebee, Common carder bee, White-tailed, Buff-tailed and Red-tailed bumblebees and the Field cuckoo bee. We also found solitary bees including the stunning Gold-fringed mason bee (Osmia aurulenta) which nests in empty snail shells.
That evening, we had a fascinating Skype meeting with the Xerces Society; a north American organisation working to protect invertebrates and their habitats, and we plan to continue collaborating. The next day, we discussed the importance of gathering evidence in our projects using case studies, to monitor the effectiveness of our conservation work. After a brain-storming session on the next project for Scotland, we visited Home Marsh Farm. This was a great opportunity for Conservation Officers to share ideas and experience.
Conservation&ScienceField trip 2017 - by Cathy Horsley
15Top & middle: Baggy PointBottom: Northam Burrows
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Handmade by the lovely Rosie, Organik Orangutan sells organic, palm oil free soap. Bee Free supports the Bumblebee Conservation Trust by donating 10% of the sale price. It is fresh smelling and packed full of gorgeous oils and butters, cleansing yellow clay and beautiful organic essential oils – a great Christmas present for anyone!
www.organikorangutan.com
As this is the last Buzzword before Christmas, we thought we would share some bumblebee friendly gift ideas with you, that not only make wonderful presents but that also help to save the sound of summer. You can find out more on our website www.bumblebeeconservation.org/shop
The Tale of the Shrill Carder bumblebee family - this beautifully written and illustrated book tells the tale of Lizzy, a Queen Shrill carder bee and her family’s life cycle by author and illustrator, Felicia Jones. £1 from each sale will be donated to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
www.turquoisestagdesign.com
The aptly named Bee Struthers, is an artist who has created a series of fabulous designs, showcased on a sustainable 100% cotton tote bag, and donates £1 per bag sold to help us continue our vital conservation work.
www.beestruthers.com
Based in rural Oxfordshire, Stonesfield Soap make a range of pure, palm-oil free, hand-made artisan soap, carefully crafted from natural plant oils and butters, using the traditional cold-process method. Created just for us are the fabulous ‘Bumblebee Lucorum’ and ‘Bumblebee Monticola’ soaps, with half of the sale price kindly donated to the Trust.
www.stonesfieldsoap.com
Your Christmas gift guide
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Christmas Gift Membership Delight your loved ones with a membership of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust for Christmas! By becoming a member of the Trust your family and friends will be supporting our vital work to conserve habitats, raise awareness and influence policies to support bumblebees. They will receive a welcome pack (containing factsheets, bee-friendly wildflower seeds, a car window sticker, postcards and a fold-out bumblebee identification guide) and our Buzzword newsletter three times per year, providing fascinating facts about bumblebees and updates on our projects. They can also get exclusive access to our scientific supplement - Bombus Review.
The Christmas gift pack can be posted to you or directly to the recipient. Remember to let us know your special message and we will hand write this into a Bumblebee Conservation Trust Christmas card.
Simply visit the website at the link below, select the type of membership you would like to send as a gift and complete the details required.www.bumblebeeconservation.org/shop
The last posting date to guarantee delivery for Christmas is Monday 18 December.If you would prefer to call us to arrange the gift our telephone number is 01786 594130. We can take payments by card over the phone.
Give a bee-autiful gift that lasts a whole year!
La juniper supplies a unique range of homeware and gifts, including British made & designed pieces, alongside products made ethically abroad. They love all bees - bumblebee, honey, tree or otherwise! To add a little more positivity to the world they are donating 10% of all takings from bee items to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
www.homeofjuniper.co.uk
Walton & Co are a wholesaler of home furnishings who draw their inspiration from a variety of commercial influences. All items from the fabulous Bee range are 100% cotton and 10% of sales go towards supporting the Trust. Give someone a bee-autiful present this Christmas.
www.waltonsofyorkshire.co.uk
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Our ambitious three-year Making a Buzz for the Coast project was granted National Lottery funding through the Heritage Lottery Fund in July. We would like to introduce the team. A warm welcome to:
Konstantin Gospodinov has joined the team as our Project Manager. Konstantin will be responsible for the management of all the work strands within the project and ensure the project is resourced and implemented correctly to the satisfaction of the Trust and the funders.
Wanda Louw has joined the team as our Admin and Finance Officer. Wanda will assist with the day-to-day management of the project’s administrative and financial activities and provide financial information, advice and support to staff and external stakeholders.
Lauren Kennedy has joined the team as our Outreach and Volunteer Officer. Lauren will coordinate the project’s outreach and volunteer activities and manage the delivery of the project’s Trainee Programme.Kate Fidczuk-Sterry has joined the team as one of our Conservation Officers'. Kate will coordinate the delivery of the project’s habitat creation/restoration and landowner advice targets at the west part of the North Kent Coast and will support the delivery of the project’s Trainee Programme and volunteer activities.
Lawrence Sampson has joined the team as Conservation Officer. Lawrence will coordinate the delivery of the project’s habitat creation/restoration and landowner advice targets at the East part of the North Kent Coast and will support the delivery of the project’s Trainee Programme and volunteer activities.
A warm welcome
Trust News
A buzz in the air!This year’s AGM and Members’ day, held in York was once again heralded as a success. The York Pavilion hotel provided superb Yorkshire hospitality, food and service was excellent, but it was our 48 members attending who generated a positive vibe and ‘buzzed’ about the quality of the presentations. The theme this year was ‘Science & Conservation’ and the presenters were able to provide insightful and thought provoking information about bumblebees through their talks and about the many successes the Trust has achieved this year. We were also delighted to welcome Annelise Emmans Dean ‘theBigBuzz’ with her inspirational talk.
More information about the day and the presentations given and how you can start planning for Members’ day 2018 in Cardiff will be provided in the March 2018 Buzzword.
Bumblebeefact:Did you know bumblebees have smelly feet? Well they do! After feeding they leave a scent on the flower which helps other bumblebees to avoid wasting energy landing - the flower will contain very little nectar or pollen.
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Diary dates
New website Now ‘live as of October 2017
Visit the events calendar at www.bumblebeeconservation.org for courses
Trust Christmas shutdown Mon 25 Dec - Tue 2 Jan 2018
Trust News “Just to say thank you for a perfect day. Thoroughly enjoyable, informative and inspiring brilliantly organised by the very best conservation team in the world”
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Member and regular volunteer Ron Rock praised the AGM event
In September, our bumblebee life ‘cycle’ team cycled over 150 miles between them in the Wiggle New Forest 100 raising funds for the bumblebees! Our final total we raised was . . . £1,150! A huge thank you to everyone for your support! Here’s to 2018 . . .
Payroll GivingHave you considered using Payroll Giving as a handy way to raise extra funds for your favourite bumblebee conservation charity? It’s an easy, tax-effective way to donate to charity and can help boost your company’s Corporate Social Responsibility profile.
If you did want to get involved, the first thing to do is to check if your employer is listed on the Payroll Giving website at www.payrollgiving.co.uk. If yes - brilliant! Simply follow the link to complete a donation form and Payroll Giving will do the rest. If no - not to worry, simply complete a donation form or e-mail [email protected], and Payroll Giving will ask your employer to set up a scheme – it’s that simple!
Good luck!Dawn Ewing our Strategy and Engagement Manager is expecting her second baby and will be going on maternity leave this month - all the team here at the Trust wish her and her family all the very best!
Goodbye . . .
And finally . . . we wish you all a very merry Christmas!
After a year volunteering at events for Pollinating the Peak, Annie Ives joined the team back in the summer as Project Assistant. Annie has been instrumental in supporting events in the Peak District with the team, engaging children in bumblebee science, learning through play and much more. Attending more than 10 events, Annie will now continue her studies for her MSc in Wildlife Biology & Conservation with Edinburgh Napier University, and is looking forward to continuing her involvement with the Trust as a volunteer. We wish Annie all the best.
Thank you!
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