With council grass cutting on hold due to lockdown this spring, many of us have delighted in the profusion of wildflowers in our neighbourhoods. Reduced cutting has allowed flowers to flourish where they would normally have been cut before flowering.

But it isn’t just people who appreciate the change. Wildflowers provide a valuable source of food for bees emerging from hibernation. The humble dandelion for example, often regarded as a weed, is an important source of early nectar offering a lifeline for hungry pollinators.

 As well as a pandemic, we are in the midst of an ecological crisis. Studies show that 40% of insect species face extinction. Without the ecoservices they provide, we are in trouble. It is estimated that 1/3 of our food requires insect pollination; Scotland’s soft fruit production is unsustainable without this.

The countryside is often less hospitable to pollinators than urban areas due to agricultural production and research shows that bees are now heading in to towns attracted by the flowers in our gardens; if the bees are clever enough to adapt to changing circumstances, then we should be clever enough to help them.

Stirling Council, we the undersigned ask you to manage greenspaces to support nature, not to work against it. Please manage grasslands to encourage floral diversity. Cut the grass later, cut it less and time the cuts carefully. Let the flowers grow and the bees flourish. 

In doing so you can save money, reduce emissions, protect food security and support our hardworking bees.