There's a buzz about the course!

From the archive, first published Saturday 31st Mar 2007.

The ecology department of the Sports Turf Research Institute is a hive of activity.

A team of three have are running a project called "Operation Bumblebee" aimed at creating habitats to attract our stripy friends which look to be dying out. Two species have already been wiped out.

It is estimated that there are now 70 per cent fewer of the insects than there were 30 years ago because farmers are not leaving areas of clover and legumes for the bees to feed and live on. Bumblebees, unlike honey bees, make a new nest each year.

Last year farmers were recruited to help save endangered species by planting strips of clover mixture at the edges of their fields.

Farmers are being paid through a Countryside Stewardship scheme to sow a mix of seeds designed by the agri-business company Sygenta that will specially attract bees to their field margins.

Now the STRI, which is based at the St Ives estate at Harden near Bingley, is trying to entice bumblebees to an unusual nature reserve - the golf course.

The team have been commissioned to plant flowers and grasses in 36-metre-square patches on four golf courses across the country - Haggs Castle in Scotland, Worsley in Manchester, Fulford Heath in the Midlands and Bearwood Lakes in Berkshire.

Flowers they are set to plant to entice bumblebees include Yarrow, Knapwood, Wild Carrot, Scabious, Bird's-Foot-Trefoil, Selfheal, Red Clover, Rough Hawkbit and Cowslip. Grasses include Bent, Fescue and Smooth Stalk Meadowgrass.

They are confident that golf courses, which comprise up to 60 per cent rough' ground, will prove ideal for wildlife and are the perfect places to please bumblebees.

The team, headed by ecologists Bob Taylor and Lee Penrose, are preparing the sites for planting later this month.

The sites will be regularly monitored over the next three years, and, although the number of bees won't be specifically counted, the two say the increasing number will be evident.

Mr Penrose joked: "We thought about putting up plaques saying Bees, please land here!' But we know they will come."

Mr Taylor said: "Golfers often don't appreciate the wildlife there is, it is more subliminal.

"We're here to promote the positive side of golf. It is portrayed as a negative and selfish use of land and providing very little to the local surroundings. But nothing could be further from the truth on most golf courses.

"Many species totally depend on management given to areas outside immediate play. Small song birds such as skylarks which are declining in the countryside are common on golf courses. You often see grey partridge and protected species such as the brown hare.

"I am totally committed to wildlife and spend much of my spare time outside looking for wildlife.

"Working here gives me the opportunity to do what I enjoy, bringing back wildlife into part of the countryside that is very often overlooked."

The ecologists say they would like to see the initiative eventually rolled out on every golf course in the country.

Mr Penrose said: "It is important from our point of view that golf is involved with helping to retain bumblebee populations and not just nature reserves and areas where people would normally expect the habitat. There is massive potential to help them."

Giving STRI a pat on the back is Dr Roger Key, senior invertabrae ecologist for Natural England.

He said: "We welcome any project like this. People still see bumblebees in their garden - they are still common - and consequently we think there isn't a problem. We expect to see them and you do see them, but they are having a rough time as a species, even the common ones. It is a combination of not many flowers, the flowers on the road verges having gone. And the way we manage our countryside has taken away its untidiness. Bumblebees need grassland to make nests."

According to Natural England, the initiative is important because bumblebees are vital for the pollination of soft fruits, beans and flowers and are able to pollinate at lower temperatures that other insects.