Get Dorset Buzzing Appeal

Dead bee on tarmac © Cat Bolado

Save Dorset's pollinators

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We urgently need your help to raise £10,000 to Keep Dorset Buzzing and save our precious pollinators.

£10 could fund an invertebrate survey to find out how insects are faring.
£20 could pay for enough Dorset native wildflower seed to create habitat the size of a tennis court.
£50 could enable a DWT wildlife advisor to visit a farmer and talk about actions for pollinators.
£100 could fund a volunteer group to spread seed that restores a wildflower meadow.
£150 could enable a training course on creating habitats for community volunteers.

Please donate and help us, help pollinators!

Donate now and help us #KeepDorsetBuzzing

In addition to our work with farmers, on our nature reserves and in the county's parks and green spaces, we will:

Create and monitor 9 hectares of new wildflower meadow, linking species-rich habitat in the Marshwood Vale
Create community wild flower verge projects in Bridport, Broadwindsor and beyond!
Manage flower-rich chalk grassland across West Dorset with scythes, loppers and bowsaws, and much more!

Thank you! Or if you would like to become a member of DWT, click here!

Buff-tailed bumblebee on Crocus © Jane Adams

Stop pollinator decline!

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Why we need your help to #KeepDorsetBuzzing!

We'd like to give a big thank you to everyone who participated in our get Dorset Buzzing campaign. We hope Get Dorset Buzzing has inspired you to help pollinators by providing sources of nectar and pollen in your garden.

Please now help us to help Dorset's pollinators.

Pollinators are a key part of Dorset’s ecosystems and our food chain – they help plants such as wildflowers and commercial crops to reproduce and at the same time are food for many other creatures.

75% of the food we eat depends on pollinators

However bees and other pollinators such as butterflies, moths and hoverflies are facing worrying decline. A key reason for their decline is habitat loss, which reduces the available food sources needed for their survival.

How is DWT helping pollinators beyond the garden?

If we are to reverse the fortunes of pollinators in Dorset, everyone needs to play a part. You have led the way by taking action through Get Dorset Buzzing, along with nearly 4,000 other gardeners. We want others to follow your lead, and not just in gardens. Click below to find out more about our aims to help pollinators across Dorset.

Farming

70% of the land in Dorset is farmland and here pollinators are in serious trouble. Dorset Wildlife Trust works with farmers and other landowners, raising awareness of what they can do to help – from using fewer pesticides, to planting pollinator strips, to restoring meadows. We need to reach more farmers and get back the buzz in our fields.

We also use the seed from our best wildflower meadows as springboards for the restoration of other sites and the creation of new meadows elsewhere in Dorset.

Nature Reserves

Dorset Wildlife Trust carefully manages many nature reserves which have flower-rich meadows alive with invertebrates. We want to run more walks and events that show people this wonderful wildlife and talk about how to manage habitats.

We record and monitor the plants, insects and other wildlife to keep a track of how they are doing. We want to set up a new monitoring scheme which records how invertebrates are doing across our reserves.

Lorton Meadows Nature Reserve © Pat Jefferies

Parks & Green Spaces

There are many community groups who want to help wildlife and DWT would like to support more of them to create better local habitats for insects. With support, training and guidance, local volunteers and groups can create and manage magnificent wildlife areas which are accessible to everyone.