Helping endangered Great Yellows cut it in far north meadows
SCYTHES are being used as the new weapon in the battle for the Great Yellow Bumblebee’s survival as activists battle to bolster population numbers.
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BCT) is encouraging people to, if possible, scythe smaller wildflower meadows to help protect the endangered species of bumblebee for which Caithness and Sutherland serve as the last base in the mainland. Great Yellow numbers have gone down by 80 per cent over the past 100 years.
Conservation officer Katy Malone said meadows offer bumblebees a great source of food, but need to be carefully managed.
“Although larger scale meadows need to be managed with powered machinery, smaller meadows are often not accessible by large tractors, this led me to wonder if scything might be an option instead,” she said.
“Following some research, I decided to organise a course on scything and after mentioning it to a few people, realised there was easily enough interest to run a course in Scotland.”
Anyone interested in getting involved in a scything course should contact the Bumblebee Conservation by emailing Trust katy.malone@bumblebeeconservatoin.org or call 07525 115489 for more information.
