Blooming Success: How Germany’s Wildflower Plots are Helping Bees Thrive (Ep. 21)
Cities are becoming more and more critical for bee and other pollinator support. In Germany, the German Wildlife Foundation (in German) has taken active and successful measures to create bee-friendly spaces in the midst of some of its largest cities: Hamburg, Berlin, and Munich. Each municipality has approached its partnerships and interventions slightly differently, but all with the vision to create as many wild bee-friendly areas as possible.
In Munich, they’ve improved the conditions for wild bees by creating flowering meadows, planting flowering trees, promoting natural nesting structures, and setting up artificial nesting aids, like bee hotels. In Hamburg, they’ve made species-rich flowering areas in urban spaces and promoted natural gardening.
Our guest today is Anja Proske, a German Wildlife Foundation program manager in Berlin (in German). They’ve partnered with the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection, and the Environment to lead measures to ecologically upgrade public green spaces for bees. They also want to ensure green space maintenance is insect-friendly. We discussed why the program was started, the interventions Berlin has taken, and why public education and relations are such an essential part of saving wild bees.
Good to know
Fun facts from the project:
In Hamburg:
- 226 wild bee species have been identified
- There are three educational trails about wild bees for the public
In Berlin:
- 323 wild bee species have been identified
- Berlin’s pilot project showed how public green spaces can be upgraded to become urban habitats for wild bees
In Munich:
- 210 wild bee species have been identified
- 10 golf courses in the greater Munich area have created wildflower meadows within their courses
Intentionally planting wildflowers is also good for farmland, as we discussed in Episode 12.
Transcript
[00:00:00] In 2015, the German Wildlife Foundation launched an ambitious project in the city of Hamburg to support wild bees. They partnered with a variety of organizations to create and maintain wild bee friendly areas. The success of Hamburg’s initiatives led the organization to introduce similar protection plots in the cities of Berlin and Munich in 2018.
I’m pleased to have with us today Anja Proske from the German Wildlife Foundation. She shares with us the story of Germany’s wild meadow boon for bees and how the team transforms public and private spaces into blooming meadows. So what led the German Wildlife Foundation to start the Wild Bee Project first in Hamburg?
It all started with my colleague who was an [00:01:00] intern back in 2015 at the German Wildlife Foundation. And during that time he got more and more requests regarding insect decline and what one can do about it. And so the focus of the foundation has always been more on the mammal and bird side. So, however, then they decided to start a conservation project for wild bees as the habitat of wild bees due to their diversity represents that of many, many other animals as so called umbrella species.
So the success in Hamburg led to similar projects in Munich and Berlin, and Berlin in particular has had success with its Urban Bee Habitats program. Can you tell us how it works? Sure. I’ve been working in the Berlin project for a few years now, and the way it’s different from Hamburg is that the project gets mostly funded by the Berlin Senate for the Environment.
And since we have more funding, besides the consultations and the environmental [00:02:00] educations, we can actually establish wild bee friendly areas within the city limits ourselves. So what we do is we cooperate with the parks departments that send us suggestions for potential green spaces. And then we go to said green spaces and we see if it could technically already be a suitable habitat by simply changing up the maintenance.
Or if that’s not the case, and it’s mostly like thick grasses or something like that, we could always intervene and dig up the whole place and sow our specific wildflower mixes that we put together. And then from then on, we take over the maintenance with the company that we hire and try to make it more sustainable and try to apply phased mowing for up to two times per year and so on.
Tell me about the wildflower mix that you produced for your plots. Sure. We sat down wild bee experts, [00:03:00] as well as botanists and senate employees in Berlin to create this mix of about 40 species that have a lot of pollen, that have a lot of nectar, and that are also native to the city of Berlin or to the area here.
You’ve also included an environmental education element and working with the public. Why was this important? In order to create acceptance for wilder areas in the city, in order to protect insects and other arthropods, you first have to create some sort of empathy for those kind of animals. And there’s this quote that I feel like applies well, which is, in the end, we will conserve only what we love.
We will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught. And I feel like it applies super well here, especially considering how very different insects and other arthopods are from us humans. There’s such a diversity in their [00:04:00] lifestyles, and it’s so very different. And at the same time, wild bees especially are a super likable group and so diverse.
So I witnessed that many, many people don’t even know that besides a honeybee, which is one species, that there are so many other, I think, We had more than 300 species in Berlin, more than 600 in Germany, and when people learn about that, then they start to look more closely around in nature and what they first thought was a fly, for example, they then see, oh, that is actually a tiny bee and it carries tiny pollen and super interesting, and I feel like It’s already a success if people look around and just look closer and see, hey, there’s more to this than I thought I knew.
And I feel like I noticed this especially in children. So we’ve been trying to focus a little bit more on nature education for children because man, once they see what’s out there and once you take a look around and walk around and show them what could potentially be there or what is there at the moment, [00:05:00] so much enthusiasm, so much motivation, and it’s really, really fun to see.
And since you’ve started the program and kind of more people are being exposed to these wild areas within their parks, do you feel the public is becoming more receptive? Yeah, definitely. So we always get feedback mostly from the parks departments, which are basically responsible for these areas. So they always get the feedback from citizens that walk by and always have something to say.
And in the beginning, there has been a lot of, hey, this really should be mowed. Hey, this is looks way too wild. There’s, there’s trash here. There’s like so much dead plant material that we don’t want here. And this perception really has shifted in the past two years, and we always notice, I mean, we always have to mow, um, the areas at least one time, maximum of two times per year.
And we notice that there has been a shift in the perception of people, and within the past two years, every time we mow an area, which we have to do, in order that [00:06:00] the blooming plants have more light. There has been a lot of feedback from people saying, Hey, why has this been cut? Because it flowered so nicely.
And then we always have to explain, Hey, there’s more flowers to be come. And that’s a super interesting thing that we’ve really noticed. Have you been able to gather any data about the success of the program? Yes, we do map the vegetation of certain plots regularly to check whether our approach really works.
So what we do is we go to the plots and we check which flowering species of our seed mixes and also of the spontaneous vegetation are blooming every month. And we notice that the blooming success, as we call it, is kind of dependent on the different plots, which is most likely linked to the existing substrate or the water retention properties we figured.
And for example, we have one very representative plot in the city center. That was the only area that got watered as the surrounding park got watered as well. And we have figured that this [00:07:00] one works best, of course. But considering the other blooming success of the other plots, we’ve looked at our seed mixes and tried to adapt them, especially considering climate change and like how dry the past two years were.
Then some species haven’t even been blooming at all after some time. So we always try to adapt our maintenance regime, our seed mixes, and we continuously try to work on that. And then, of course, we’ve been monitoring the wild bees with some experts that go to some of the plots and they check which species are found.
For example, in Berlin, there’s supposed to be more than 300 wild bee species, and on our plots we already found about half of them. So that’s a really good success. Why are urban initiatives like these wildflower plots so important to native bees? So, especially in our project in Berlin, we create these wildflower meadows, not from scratch, but from these green spaces that have already been there that are usually short [00:08:00] mowed lawns and parks areas.
So a lot of people walk by there. We also believe we reach a lot of people in the cities. And since there’s always info boards on site, people can inform themselves, okay, why does it look different? Why does it look more wild than it used to? We’re trying to create a different image in the people’s heads in a way of, okay, it doesn’t always need to look so neat, it doesn’t always need to look orderly, but it can also create a lot of life.
We want people to walk by to be informed what could be, and maybe also take that as an example of what could be happening in their own gardens or in their own balconies. Because wild bees often don’t need so much or other insects, you know? If you just mow less, if you just maybe have a little area that’s left wild and uncut, then that can already help a lot of other species.
Because wild bees are kind of an umbrella species, right? If you help them, you help a lot of other different animal groups. Like [00:09:00] birds, but also true bugs or any kind of small animal that will find their home there and by creating these areas, you can see them as model plots, not only for people with their private gardens or also companies with their areas, their green spaces, but also for other cities.
So you can start on a very small scale, and then you can already see that these can be used at stepping stone habitats, and we have a really good example in Hamburg. In Hamburg, they cooperated with a company that is responsible for the bus shelters and they started to create these green roofs, wild bee friendly green roofs on top of the bus shelters.
Within one year, they found that on only two of these bus shelters with the green roofs, they found about 50 species of wild bees within one year in these like tiny areas that I was really good to see because The nectar and pollen from these areas has been used, and you can really take that as an example for other places, and especially green roofs.[00:10:00]
So, I feel like that was a great success, and it’s great to see that even the smallest of areas can be a habitat for species. That’s a fantastic success. Can you share any future plans for the Wild Bee Project, either in Berlin or Hamburg or elsewhere in the country? Yeah, of course. In Berlin, our project is going to be funded until the end of 2025, at least.
And so until then, we set ourselves the goal to establish 100 blooming meadows within the city. We’re already at 85 as of now. of this point. It’s 2023 right now. And we want to try to focus more on environmental education as we see a lot of potential there, you know, starting by, hey, there’s more than one honeybee species.
There’s so many more other species to learn about. And by creating this enthusiasm about wild bees, then maybe there’s a chance that people take this to heart and [00:11:00] create some more wildlife friendly areas in their private grounds. Do you have any advice for other cities or organizations looking to incorporate some sort of pollinator plot in their area?
As you can see from our project, like already a little bit goes a long way. And if you start by doing a little less maintenance and a little less mowing, maybe only phased mowing, just mow parts of the area, not the whole thing, so that bees and other insects always have a place to find food. Because food availability is a really big topic right now.
There’s less and less flowers in the area. So if you just start planting flowers or sowing seed mixes, or just create some nesting structures, which can be as easy as just leave some open ground, you know, and don’t always plant everything with grass. Do you have a favorite bee? Yeah, I really like the violet carpenter bee.
It’s this massive [00:12:00] bee that didn’t used to be in Berlin before, but now with climate change, it got a little bit more northward. So we now find them here as well. And it’s this massive bee that looks a little bit like a… I guess the name says it all, like a dark blue violet bumblebee esque bee, and it’s really cool to look at, um, it even has violet wings.
And what’s cool about this one is it’s nesting above ground, and while other bee species often use pre existing holes in the wood made from beetles and stuff, this one can even gnaw its own nest with its mandible, so that’s really cool, I guess, and it’s a, it’s a fun one to look at. What do you believe is the biggest threat to wild bees and what can we do to help?
So, especially in cities, there’s a huge potential to make areas more wild bee friendly, starting with the parks. If you always leave a little bit of a wild habitat, that could already be a start, as we heard from the [00:13:00] bus shelters, you know, all of the roofs can maybe be made into green spaces at some point.
And I think there’s just so much potential also for every. private person with their garden and their balcony. I love what Anya said about letting little plots of land go wild. Do you have access to a small area that you could give over to the bees? Perhaps in your yard or at your office? Bees need so little but give us so much.
As these urban projects have shown, even an area as small as a bus shelter roof can have a profound impact on urban bees. If you’ve already followed and reviewed the show, thank you so much. If you haven’t, it would mean a lot if you could do that today. Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter, The Hive, so you never miss an episode.
Do that at thebeesknees.website. Thanks for joining me today, and until next time, keep buzzing.