Have you created a wildflower patch in your back garden? Or maybe you’ve planted some bee-friendly flowers such as heather or lavender in a window box? If so, you can now plot your green space on a newly-created online pollinator map of Cumbria, which will show how people in Cumbria are getting their gardens and green spaces buzzing.

The online pollinator map has been created by Get Cumbria Buzzing, which was set up to boost pollinating insects in Cumbria. Our pollinating insects are in trouble: more than half of UK bee, butterfly and moth species have declined in the past 50 years, and 30 species of bees face extinction.

However, all of us can play a part in halting that decline, as Get Cumbria Buzzing Project Manager, Tanya St. Pierre, explains: “There are over 15 million gardens across the UK, a whopping 667,000 acres, an area seven times the size of the Isle of Wight! Think of the difference it could make for these hugely beneficial insects if each garden or green space was cared for in a pollinator-friendly way. And with many of us spending more time at home at the moment, this is the perfect time to create your very own haven for wildlife. It will bring you joy to look at, while giving our pollinating insects a much-needed boost.”

Tanya continues: “If you’ve planted for pollinators, simply click on this link. Just add the details of what you planted and your postcode  – a bee symbol will come up on the map to show your location so we can see where Cumbria is buzzing! Our mission, with your help, is to cover the whole of our project area with gardens and green spaces full of wild pollinators!  By simply creating a wildflower patch, adding pollinator-friendly plants to your borders or planters, and mowing less frequently can make a big difference, significantly increasing the survival rates of bumblebees, butterflies and other pollinators.”

The Get Cumbria Buzzing project area is outlined in red on the interactive map. If your garden space is outside the project area, you can still log your pollinator-friendly work on to the map, as Get Cumbria Buzzing would love to have the whole of Cumbria’s gardens and green spaces buzzing with pollinators!

Join in the conversation on social media using #GetCumbriaBuzzing

Get Cumbria Buzzing is a ground-breaking, three-year project which aims to get parks, school grounds and other green spaces around north and west Cumbria buzzing with bees and pollinators.

This £1.6 million project is made possible by National Lottery Players and support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Highways England, Cumbria Waste Management Environment Trust, Rees Jeffreys Road Fund, Tesco, Allerdale Borough Council, Solway Coast AONB and The Hadfield Trust.