2nd April - People for Bees

This month's Green Drinks is about the IWT People for Bees programme. The alarming decline of our bees and other insects is clear, but what can you do about it? The People for Bees programme aims to support communities and individuals in Ireland to take action to help fight bee decline. IWT Coordinator Kieran Flood provided an update on our People for Bees plans for 2019 to let you what you can do to help out, including making your gardens and green spaces more pollinator friendly. Volunteers can also learn field skills like bee identification, bumblebee monitoring and biodiversity record taking. The project is aimed at community groups and members of the public in every province of Ireland.

You can learn more about this important initiative on the IWT website: https://iwt.ie/people-for-bees/

Kieran at a bee identification workshop

Green Drinks Tues 4th Sept - Bees and other pollinators, a vital role

Orla ní Dhúill of the Irish Wildlife Trust and DCU gave a talk on the role bees and other pollinators play in maintaining a healthy environment around us. The declining numbers of bees internationally has starting to break into mainstream news stories, but many people do not know much about the various species of bees and pollinators that are effected or what's causing these declines. This is of vital importance to us humans, as most of the plants we grow for food rely on bees to pollinate them.

Orla talked more about what's going wrong and what can be done to help. Habitat loss is a major factor, and we can all do our part. First we can grow lots of flowers that bees like, but also we can preserve habitat for our bumblebees who are all under pressure. Leaving a grassy bank or piece of earthen bank free for the bumblebees to make their nests would be a great help. Having things too tidy leaves no room for our bumbles!

Know your bumblebees: the following diagrams can help you to identify them.