Flying Start For Fife's Buzzing Project

Fife’s Buzzing is a partnership project between Buglife and Fife Council that will see the creation of over 12 hectares of colourful wildflower meadows across Fife.

Since World War Two, over 3,000,000 hectares of flower-rich grassland have been lost in the UK. In Fife, there has been a significant loss of this important habitat to urbanisation, industrialisation and agriculture. This has resulted in large declines in pollinators such as bumblebees, butterflies and hoverflies, as well as small mammals, birds and amphibians which use this habitat. Buglife - the only organisation in Europe devoted to the conservation of all invertebrates - is particularly concerned with the decline in pollinators across Britain. It has joined forces with Fife Council to help reverse this trend through Fife’s Buzzing, which will engage with hundreds of people to transform areas of intensively managed amenity grassland into rich meadows that are buzzing with life.

So far, more than 4 hectares of native flower-rich grassland have been created with the help of 720 people - mostly school children - through plug planting and seed sowing. Volunteers have also given 190 hours of their time. Fife Golf Trust and Woodland Trust Scotland are also project partners. The focus this spring was on Ravenscraig Park and Dunnikier Golf Course (Kirkcaldy), Guardbridge Park, Poplar Road (Methilhill), Silver Sands (Aberdour), Leuchatsbeath (Cowdenbeath) and Riverside Park (Glenrothes).

Johanna Willi is the Biodiversity Coordinator for Fife Council says "its a brilliant educational resource as well as being an important habitat for wildlife".