News and events

Saturday 1st March 2008 - Buckinghamshire County Beekeepers Association 12th annual seminar. The day promises a fantastic line-up of speakers, which includes BBCT's Conservation Advisor, Dr. Juliet Osborne from Rothamstead Research. She will be giving a presentation about bumblebee ecology, conservation and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Tickets cost £10, which includes refreshments and a ploughman's lunch. Please contact the BBCT on 01786 467818 or enquiries@bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk to book a place

Sunday 22nd June 2008, 10am - 3pm - Sheringham Park, Norfolk (National Trust). Nick Owens is running an identification and conservation of bumblebees workshop. Cost £12 to National Trust members and £14 to non-members. Tel. 01263 820550 to book. The session will include field work and photography of bumblebees plus an indoor workshop

Thanks to the amazing support we've received from members, the general public and others (including the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Biodiversity Action Grants Scheme, SNH and Esmée Fairbairn), we continue to grow rapidly!

Firstly, a warm welcome to our newly appointed secretary, Christiane Nitsch. She'll be the first point of contact for anyone contacting the Trust, and has the dubious pleasure of getting us all a bit more organised!

In addition to Chrissie, we will soon be joined by a new Scottish Conservation Officer. More soon...

SNH have kindly funded a (£17,000) project to help the Great Yellow Bumblebee (B. distinguendus). We're producing 400 interactive schools packs for P2-3 children. These packs provide all of the resources and information necessary for 3 exciting lessons, which are integrated into the national curriculum. They've been trialled (and very well received) at a number of schools throughout Scotland, and the final packs are in production. Any interested teachers from Scottish schools, please contact us.

We've also produced information leaflets and posters for farmers and crofters, which will be widely distributed in GYBB strongholds. We hope to help improve the management in these areas, for the benefit of GYBB. 

Plans for our own demonstration wildlife garden (at the University of Stirling) are taking shape. We're hoping to create a beautiful cottage garden, using traditional garden plants and wildflowers, which will be a haven for bumblebees.

In addition, we are developing a wildlife garden site at Johnston Terrace in the centre of Edinburgh, in partnership with the Scottish Wildlife Trust

We are delighted to welcome Bridget England and Lucie Southern to the trust. They have taken up full-time positions as Senior Conservation Officer and Conservation Officer respectively. We are very pleased to have them on board, and wish them every success in all that they do.

BBCT are pleased to announce that we have been granted charity status (Registered Charity Number 1115634). We had previously been operating as a not-for-profit company while the paperwork was processed. If you haven't already - pleased print and post a gift-aid form.

NEW! We are searching for Reserve Founders. Thanks to the amazing support that we have already received, we are now in a position to consider buying or managing our first nature reserve. We are going to need help to raise the extra funds to do this. To find out how you can become a Reserve Founder, or to support our Reserve Appeal - click here

We are delighted to announce that we have just been awarded two major grants to help kick-start our conservation efforts. The £50,000 and £28,000 grants come from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Biodiversity Action Grants Scheme (which is jointly supported by Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Executive) respectively. We are enormously grateful to these organisations and look forward to the important work ahead.

2006