Have you heard of ‘insect pathways’ or ‘habitat stepping stones’? They act as connecting pieces of landscape that link up areas of habitat, supporting natural processes that occur in a healthy environment.
B-Lines is a national network of wildflower-filled insect super-highways. They are designed to reconnect our landscapes, enabling pollinators and other wildlife to move freely, to recover and thrive.
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A conservation effort with multi-faceted results
Led by conservation officer Ruth Quigley, Aberdeen B-Lines is a Buglife partnership project that aims to transform 20 hectares of grassland within the city into nature-rich, pollinator friendly wildflower habitats.
The North East offshoot of Buglife’s wider B-Lines work, Aberdeen B-Lines worked specifically across 11 sites along the coast and the Rivers Don and Dee.
- Torry Battery (Greyhope Road)
- Donmouth Local Nature Reserve
- Aberdeen Beach Esplanade
- Seaton Park
- Duthie Park
- Riverside Drive (Garthdee)
- Riverview Drive (Dyce)
- Stonehaven Road
- Garthdee Road
- Westfield Park
- TECA (P&J Live)
Working in partnership with Aberdeen City Council, the project launched in March 2024, with the aim to change the way grasslands are managed within the city of Aberdeen – to support nature’s recovery. The project also helped to create key habitat for invertebrates within the city via the creation of flower rich grasslands by seeding, planting plug plants and creating nesting sites such as bee banks.
What’s more, the Aberdeen B-Lines project contributes to improving the mental and physical wellbeing of city inhabitants by providing more nature rich green spaces.
Last year, the project was a runner-up for the Wright Sustainability Award at the 2024 Keep Scotland Beautiful Awards.
Now, the project will soon be coming to a close. We look back with Ruth on what was achieved, what were the project’s main aims and how you can still help to contribute.
Working as a community to give local pollinator populations a helping hand
Ruth said: “We have lost an estimated 97% of our flower-rich grasslands in the UK since the 1930’s. Habitat loss is one of the main threats facing our invertebrate populations and it is crucial that we try to tackle this trend by creating habitat through projects such as B-Lines, so that species can move around the landscape more freely in order to respond to threats such as a changing climate.”
By focusing on 11 key sites, Aberdeen B-Lines has created diverse and colourful wildflower meadows with locally relevant and sourced plant species. This is done to provide vital forage and nesting sites for a range of pollinator species such as bumblebees, hoverflies, butterflies and more.
The project garnered local interest and support via providing a number of volunteer opportunities such as habitat creation events, training workshops, partnerships with local schools and Guided Pollinator walks. Volunteers helped with wildflower plug planting and seeding, assisting with pollinator monitoring activities and added their own pollinator sites to the B-Lines map.
Ruth said: “We are so pleased to receive such generous funding from the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot to enable us to expand Buglife’s B-Lines network into the north-east of Scotland. Aberdeen B-Lines is an opportunity for us to provide tangible support for our local pollinator species, but also to help increase awareness of why these insects are so important. By creating this network of wildflower meadows, we can work as a community to give local pollinator populations a helping hand.”
Ruth continued: “The project has sown 75kg of wildflower seed, planted 5,500 wildflower plug plants and built 2 solitary bee banks- with more to come in March during the final weeks of project delivery. This has all been possible thanks to the help of 167 local volunteers over 73 hours of volunteer events!”
How can you help?
Simply visit Buglife’s B-Lines page, where you can find out what you can do in your garden or local area to help pollinating insects, then add your pollinator patch to the B-Lines map. Your contribution is vital in the work to restore nature in Aberdeen and beyond!
For the wildlife of Aberdeen, the future is bright. Ruth said: “We have received further funding to the value of £56,163 from the Nature Restoration Fund, distributed by NatureScot*. We have been successful in another bid with a new project, Aberdeen Nectar Networks, kicking off April 1. This new project will work with a range of partners- Aberdeen City Council, NHS Grampian, Cove Woodland Trust and Robert Gordon University. Watch this space!”
This project is supported by the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot. Both Aberdeen Nectar Networks and Aberdeen B-Lines are additionally supported from a variety of matched funders.
Conversation