Mavis King is 90 years old and has been a Trust Supportumblebee Ambassador for 20 years. We recently interviewed her at her local church, where she was running a bumblebee event.

Q: How long have you been a Bumblebee Ambassador for the Bumblebee Conseer and Brvation Trust?

A: I should think probably 20 years by now. I first watched little boys stamping on something under a tree … I went over to investigate, and they were stamping on bumblebees! That started it all, well and truly.

I started by writing to schools around the rural district. I would make enquiries and then write to the Head Teacher and say would they allow me to provide them with Trust paperwork. I liaised all the time of course with Gill Perkins, the current CEO, and the Trust CEO before her, and bit by bit it just became a habit for me to do that.

When my own great grandchildren started school, it was a good contact to have a child in the school, and then make a point to the Head Teacher. So it just, as I said, became a habit to do that.

Q: What things have you done over the years in this supporter role?

A: I’ve done lots of liasing with Gill and other Trust staff members over the years. Education is the most important area in my opinion. Over the past 20 years or so I’ve concentrated on children and education. I’ve read that there’s now an education programme aimed at juniors, but I’d like it lower than that, because those children I’ve seen stamping on bumblebees were primary school age. That really sparked me with such distress.

You’ve got to start younger at primary school. It’s a lovely juniors programme and getting this education into schools is great. But all my experience has been with primary schools. So really it’s got to start, in my view, as young as possible. It rubs off on the younger ones, the older ones, it even rubs off on the parents too.

Q: What is it that you love about bumblebees in particular – a favourite species perhaps?

A: I don’t think that I do have a favourite, actually. I think they’re all absolutely wonderful! I think what’s so amazing is some of the photography in the Buzzword membership magazine is out of this world, such beautiful photographs. How the photographer has got the whole face shape and the eyes, it’s almost as if you can see the brain of these creatures with some of the photography now.

But no, as far as I’m concerned, they’re all equally special and important pollinators. I’ve kept all my back issues of Buzzword. The lowering of their numbers, how unfortunately some of the species is so low now, it’s terrible – but we can all do something to help.

Q: Lastly, what do you enjoy the most about being a Bumblebee Ambassador for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust?

A: I believe that we’ve got to really focus on the education of children, truthfully. Over the whole country we are all in need of educating people better. I can only approach local schools if I can have a connection with them. A school in Beckley was through a lady who taught me to use a computer. Her niece and nephew are in that school, so that made the connection for me. I was in hospital nearly all of last year, so I never used that connection yet, but I’ve still got it, it’s still there, and I’ve still got my pack of information. So that’s what I do, I pop in and meet with the Head Teacher and offer information.

The main thing I like to offer them is the Bumblebee Conservation Trust ID poster. I think that is ideal as young children see the shape of the bumblebee and they know what it is. They’re too young to really understand all the rest of the necessities of bumblebees really, but they’re big and bright and enticing enough images that I’m sure do click.

I’ve got my two great grandchildren and they were two of the first in this group that was set up. (They’re both in junior school now, so it was some years ago). But they were absolutely thrilled to see their picture Buzzword and pass it round and show their teacher. That’s what we want – as much of that as possible!

In my little flat, halfway down the stairs, I’ve got the Bumblebee Conservation Trust ID poster. Last week, I had a workman over to fix a blind. He said, “I’ve learned a lot today. I know all about bumblebees now!” He’d been up and down the stairs for tools and things so many times and had seen the poster. And that’s not the first time!

Several times I’ve had workmen over and they’re doing something. As they go down the stairs, they see the poster there – we need a lot more of that. People just notice it and it goes in a little bit, just one particular bumblebee species or a fact about them. It’s a drip, drip, drip situation. Especially, as far as children are concerned, if you can get them to care and understand. Be it bumblebees among other things of course, but bumblebees particularly at the moment because we desperately need them.

Kirk Mason joined the Trust as a volunteer in November 2020, after attending our session at the University of Derby online volunteers fair, where he is currently studying, in the October. Kirk explains why he wanted to help and how he is currently doing this . . .

As an aspiring entomologist, it’s the time of the year where I always get itchy feet. Soon, it will be time to find bumblebees and other amazing insects – Spring is drawing close! Though each year, chance encounters with some of these amazing animals feels increasingly rarer.

Through my Zoology degree, it became apparent that pollinators such as bumblebees are incredibly important to the wider landscape. The service they provide, supports life from the ground up, by helping many flowering plants reproduce. These plants provide food for lots of animals such as insects, birds and mammals – including us! When I learned that more than a third of bumblebee species have declined by 70% in Britain between 1900 and 1980, I was shocked. Shocked that creatures, so charismatic, industrious and important could cease to exist in the future because of our activities – not through ill intentions, but simply not knowing.

This led me to read into how we can reverse these declines and prevent bumblebee extinctions. It quickly became apparent that the Bumblebee Conservation Trust are leading the fight to conserve bumblebees in Britain. How? Through conservation projects, education, helping land managers, research and engaging with people. The Trust also trains members of the public to contribute to citizen science projects (BeeWalk), which are incredibly important in developing a greater understanding of the bigger picture in Britain. After learning this is what the Trust does, I thought “I want to be a part of that!”

So, how am I contributing? For now, I’m helping with public engagement online, by contributing to the Trust’s social media through writing and photography. When I started volunteering with the Trust, I immediately felt at home due to the community spirit amongst the staff and volunteers. The positive and supportive mentality of everyone involved makes for an excellent collaborative environment, where everybody shares a common goal – to conserve our bumblebees.

Once restrictions lift, I hope to help with face-to-face engagement and physical activities such as habitat management. Though there are many ways that we can help, some of which I hope to try! There are green-fingered activities such as bulb planting, growing seeds and cuttings. Surveying through walking outdoors, looking for bumblebees and documenting results is a crucial way of contributing to our scientific understanding of bumblebees. Talks, guided walks and fundraising are great ways of talking about bumblebees with people and helping at the same time. There are admin duties, preparing event resources and even data handling opportunities. Becoming a member of the Trust really helps and no matter your skill set, there are many ways to contribute in the fight to conserve British bumblebees!

See how you can get involved by visiting out volunteering page here. 

By Helen Dickinson, Surveys & GIS Officer

There has been a ‘buzz’ around the words citizen science for quite some time and the involvement of members of the public in scientific monitoring and research is increasingly relevant in a world with increasing demands for data around the continued loss of biodiversity. Citizen science is an incredibly important way individuals can contribute to conservation in the UK and across the globe. The large quantity of data required to get a good understanding of what’s happening to our habitats and species is something that we need as many people as possible out recording.

There is an ever growing number of ways that people can get involved in citizen science biological recording: from seaweed searches to ladybird counts, to bat roost monitoring and commitments from one off, to monthly, to annually, means that the range of schemes available provides something for everyone. See detailed list of surveys.

There are many reasons why people choose to become citizen scientists, including to support scientific research, to get fresh air, to develop identification skills, to meet like-minded people and the benefits to people as well as the schemes they contribute to, are becoming increasingly evident.

Volunteer recording links people to their local natural areas, encouraging a greater interest and equipping amateur scientists to monitor their changing environment and play a role in the natural world. Having a better understanding of local species and habitats empowers people to take on guardianship roles and increase awareness in their own communities.

The benefits of being outside and engaging in the natural world are highlighted more and more, with positive impacts on mental as well as physical health. It’s wonderful to have a reason to observe the changes in the season and get better acquainted with the wild world on our doorstep, and doing so whilst contributing to scientific research is a win-win!

You don’t necessarily have to be an official part of a recording scheme either, there are many ways you can now submit all types of wildlife records that you may encounter in your garden of when you’re out and about. If you’re really new to identifying species iSpot is your first port of call. You can upload photos and get help on identification of all types of flora and fauna from the UK, and you can also help identify other photos on the website which is a great way to get involved whilst improving your own identification skills!

If you’re ready to get recording iRecord is an online portal where you can submit all your wildlife records in one place, where they will be collated and checked by experts and made available for research and policy making, all via the National Biodiversity Network (NBN). This data is also shared with National Recording Schemes and Local Environmental Records Centres (LERCs). These LERCs are often a great local resource and you can often submit records directly to them for your local area.

There is a balancing act in play when creating citizen science projects, with a need to ensure schemes are accessible for the amateur scientist whilst also ensuring collected data is accurate and usable from a scientific perspective. This is hugely important, particularly for national monitoring schemes like the Trust’s BeeWalk scheme, and this is why there can seem to be a frustrating set of criteria that need to be met to submit data!

Particularly for people completely new to biological recording, there can be obstacles and the set methods required to be followed can occasionally feel daunting and unnecessary. This is where adequate resources and support comes in: it can be easy for those running schemes to forget how alien things like counting insects and submitting data to an online portal can be to people doing it for the first time!  At the Trust, we have been working hard behind the scenes and we are now able to offer more support than ever for our own BeeWalker citizen scientists. A big part of my role as Surveys and GIS Officer for the Trust is to support BeeWalkers through the process and be on hand to offer advice and assistance when required.  If you think this is you, please do get in touch via beewalk@bumblebeeconservation.org.

BeeWalk is the only standardised national recording scheme for bumblebees, but it’s still a relatively new scheme.  It began as a University of Stirling PhD project, undertaken by Leanne Casey (supervised by Professor Dave Goulson) entitled ‘Using citizen science to monitor bumblebee populations’.  The scheme was opened up to Trust members in 2010 and then to the general public. The early years began with just 1 transect walked in 2008 with 226 individual bumblebees recorded: this has now grown to 373 transects, with over 18,000 records of more than 54,000 individual bumblebees received in 2016.

The aims of the recording scheme are to:

• collect long-term data on bumblebee distribution and abundance
• analyse data to identify population trends
• use findings to inform BBCT projects and policy work
• improve understanding of forage plants preferences
• identify impacts of habitat and climate change
• identify impacts of management
• encourage public understanding of bumblebees and the changes they are facing.

The ability to monitor population trends for bumblebee species enables us to detect population declines over time, meaning the scheme can act as an early warning system to changes in species abundance. Holding up-to-date national population data allows us to better target our conservation activities and ensure that the advice we provide, including to governmental organisations, results in policies such as National Pollinator Strategies, which reflect the current needs of our bumblebee populations.

We have a fantastic group of regular BeeWalkers but we need more, could you help? Bumblebee monitoring involves choosing a set route, generally of around 1-2 miles (although it can be any length!), setting this up on the BeeWalk website, then walking it once a month between March and October and counting and identifying the bumblebees you see. Basic knowledge of how to identify common bumblebees is required, you can find help with this on the Trust website Identification and also keep an eye out on our events page for identification workshops throughout the summer.

Our citizen scientists contribute a massive number of hours to BeeWalk every year, and we really couldn’t run the scheme without them, it’s an incredibly important way you can contribute to bumblebee conservation, if you’d like to find out more please see www.beewalk.org or email beewalk@bumblebeeconservation.org.