Introducing an exciting new project to create pollinator abundance in our landscapes and farms! Pollinate Avon is a farmer and community-led initiative to increase pollinator habitats and nature-friendly farming across the Avon bioregion.
There are 3 key ‘wings’ of the project: 1) Create a model a ‘pollinator abundant farm’ on our 15.5 acres at Weston Spring Farm including a thriving wildflower meadow, wetland, no-dig ‘pollinator garden’, and flower strips amidst agroforestry crop rows. 2) Engage diverse communities with pollinator-friendly farming and enable access to natural spaces. Including opening up public access to the wildflower meadow with a beautiful nature trail weaving through its abundance, with signs and artwork to teach and inspire about all our small ecosystem actors that we rely on! 3) Pollinate & multiply this model at different scales to support landowners, communities and farmers to take on similar initiatives. We are working with other landowners, market gardens and farms to widen this work, offering free support and flower seed to kickstart their pollinator journey. Get in touch at pollinateavon@gmail.com if interested to collaborate in any way!
We have secured £74,000 funding from the West of England Combined Authority to take this project forwards in a meaningful and impactful way, beginning by creating an abundant pollinator farm model here at Middle Ground Growers, on the west edge of Bath. Some of the project aims are below:
Part of the project will see our lower ‘Nipper field’ being restored to a semi wetland and wildflower meadow, interspersed with parkland trees, a willow coppice and our nuttery. Weaving through this wildflower abundance will be a new public access path open for nature walks, learning and connection. Other aspects of the project will engage community groups and young people to learn about pollinators and ecological farming, give out free wildflower seeds and
The time is now for rapid regeneration of our landscapes and peoplescapes at scale. We need to take bold and courageous action to protect and restore nature, whilst also providing healthy nutritious food for our communities locally. There are 3 interwoven roots that this project has emerged from:
Root 1: we need creative & collaborative solutions to the climate and nature crisis. The biodiversity crisis we face is largely driven by unsustainable land practices, and yet regenerative land practices have the potential to bring back diverse life to our landscapes and cultures.
Root 2: Communities and farmers are not currently empowered or resourced to drive regenerative land-based solutions. There is great potential in collaborating across these boundaries to create beautiful, natural and productive spaces. Root 3: Hope & vision for a bioregion coming back to life. We can build better solutions and we can have autonomy at the regional level to create these systems from the ground up, re-engaging people as regenerators of the nature around us.
This is part of a wider, deeper bioregional story, of ‘regenerating place’. We are all born here for a reason, as custodians of the Avon valley - the lands, soils and souls surrounding our river Avon. Imagine in your lifetime: these sacred waters cleaned, the air freed of pollutants, the lands regenerated, the wildlife returning, bee and butterfly abundance dancing in the summer sun, the majority of our food being produced locally and a diverse landscape in harmony once again with its people. Pollinate Avon is a tiny piece of this regeneration of place, and we need all the other parts of the jigsaw to join the party. Whats your call to action as a being of place, be it in Avon or another bioregion, and how can you play a role in the great turning of our times? It’s a great adventure to embark on, and one way or another we are heading towards the era of regeneration, rescuing humanity from the cliff edge of its own making, building bridges to a better tomorrow. Lets start, here, now, there’s much to relearn and much to do.
Keep updated with Pollinate Avon through its new instagram @PollinateAvon and email pollinateavon@gmail.com if you have any questions or can support in any way!
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