The Chet Valley B-Line

The Chet Valley B-Line is an ambitious local project to help stop pollinator decline, including the much-loved bumble bee, by creating a 3-km wide pollinator-friendly corridor along the River Chet.

We are working to improve habitats for bees, hoverflies, butterflies and other pollinating insects along a 17-km stretch of the Chet - from its source in Poringland to Hardley, where it meets the Yare and joins the national B-Line network. Locally the Yare, the Bure and Waveney are all part of the proposed national network.

B-Lines were devised by the charity Buglife to provide corridors of pollinator-friendly habitat to facilitate their dispersal and survival in a changing environment across an otherwise adverse landscape.

The threats are a combination of habitat fragmentation, agricultural intensification (including pesticide use) and climate change. Loss of pollinators is a conservation disaster and has huge economic consequences for global agriculture.

The corridors work by providing ‘stepping stones’ of habitat, preferably no more than 500 m apart, with flowers for nectar and pollen, food plants for larval stages, and suitably structured vegetation for protection from predators. There are many aspects of land and garden management that can help.

We will achieve our aims to boost pollinator numbers by increasing and linking together our stepping stones of flower-rich habitat through:

  • Working alongside FWAG with farmers and landowners
  • Advising public bodies on planting plans and grass cutting practice
  • Encouraging wildlife gardening by the public

What you can do to help:

  • Avoid harmful pesticides
  • Plant pollinator-friendly flowers and shrubs
  • Provide a home - a patch of long grass and a source of fresh water

Our projects so far have included:

  • Enlisting the support of Parish Councils, churches, schools, businesses, individuals, and community groups.
  • Providing site specific and general advice on and planting pollinator hedges, bulbs, wildflower meadows and wildlife gardening.
  • Challenging grass cutting practice by other organisations.
  • We are particularly proud that all three doctors’ surgeries now have wild areas. Look out for our roundel that marks these sites.

If you want to record that your garden or other area of land is part of the Chet Valley B-Line then enter it at https://www.buglife.org.uk/our-work/b-lines/b-lines-east-and-midlands-of-england/ and click the box “Submit Your Details”. Please record the organisation as Chet Valley B-Line in the appropriate box.

 

How to contact us:

By email : chetvalleybline@gmail.com

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Project Management and Supporters:

The CVBL project is led by Bergh Apton Conservation Trust (BACT) but works closely with Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT), South Yare Wildlife Group (SWYG), and Norfolk Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG). It is funded by the Water, Mills & Marshes Landscape Partnership Scheme administered by the Broads Authority and is supported by Buglife (National Invertebrate Conservation Trust), Norfolk Naturalists Trust, The Woodland Trust and is part of the RHS Its Your Neighbourhood scheme.

The CVBL Management Group is chaired by Anthony Davy, Emeritus Professor of Ecology at the University of East Anglia and Chair of Bergh Apton Conservation Trust (BACT), and comprises Bob Kerry (BACT Treasurer), Matt Jones (NWT Living Landscapes Officer), Rodney Aldis (SWYG) and Andrew Milner.

 

Newsletter:

Documents:

Useful Links:

 

Our main funding partner is the Broads Authority, Water, Mills and Marshes Landscape Partnership Scheme: https://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/looking-after/projects/water,-mills-and-marshes

We support the broader aims of WildEast: https://www.wildeast.co.uk/

 

Three parish councils formally support us these are:

Chedgrave PC https://chedgrave-parish-council.norfolkparishes.gov.uk/

Loddon PC https://www.loddonpc.org.uk/

Poringland PC https://www.poringlandparishcouncil.gov.uk/

Other parish councils have nominated councillors to be contact points.

 

Some other sources of advice:

Royal Horticultural Society for comprehensive advice on suitable plants https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/conservation-biodiversity/wildlife/plants-for-pollinators

Wild About Gardens shares advice and answers a wide range of questions. Their Facebook pages are probably the best platform.

British Trust for Ornithology https://www.bto.org/how-you-can-help/providing-birds/wildlife-gardening

Kew Outreach project https://www.growwilduk.com/

And for an insight into how a local authority can change its approaches try this webinar from the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council in Northern Ireland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-GaUv5yWUk

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