A network for pollinators

We created a diverse range of habitats along the A66 and A595 Strategic Road Networks using innovative techniques; short flowering lawns, flower-rich grassland, sunny banks, glades, and tussocky areas to provide overwintering refuge for wild pollinators.

And by adding important pollinator plants such as goat willow, devil’s-bit scabious, clovers and trefoils, pollinators have a forage from spring to autumn.

Our roads, B-Lines & community sites

Roadside verges

For the 155,000 people commuting to work by road everyday in Cumbria, a fleeting view of the roadside verges can be their only daily contact with nature. Apart from being a soothing green backdrop, verges can bring colour to our everyday lives brightening up our everyday travel and helping us connect with nature.

They can be better for us and better for wildlife particularly for the plants and insects that depend on them  for survival. More than 700 species of wild plants are known to exist on our roadside verges and they're a vital refuge for our wildflowers and a valuable resource for pollinators, but to maintain them they need our care and attention.

Here in Cumbria, road verges are managed by a combination of National Highways and Cumbria County Council. As part of Get Cumbria Buzzing! project between 2019-2022, we worked closely with our partners and funders and restored or created 39.43 hectares of pollinator friendly flower rich habitat on the strategic road network and restored or created 80.4 hectares of pollinator habitat at community sites.

Over the last ten years we’ve worked in collaboration with experts and road verge management organisations to come up with the best ways to improve the environmental value of road verges so that roads connect and benefit a wide variety of species not just us humans.