Ensuring pollinator pathways in green spaces

If you manage green spaces within a property or facilities management portfolio, there are straightforward ways you can ensure you are making some positive efforts for biodiversity - these changes can be cost-effective, and also enhance the reputation of your business.

Doing the right thing for nature also improves the quality of your green spaces - and this in turn increases the value of all the properties around it. Public green spaces and private gardens both play a vital role in supporting urban wildlife - by understanding how these spaces interconnect, property and facilities managers can contribute significantly to urban biodiversity in the just the same way as a private garden owner can.

Creating Connectivity

Pollinators need more than isolated patches of habitat to thrive. They require continuous or stepping-stone corridors that allow movement between feeding and nesting sites. Residential sites and corporate landscapes, particularly those on business parks, housing estates and campus-style developments, often provide significant areas of managed grounds that can form crucial links in these wildlife corridors.

Practical Steps for Property Managers

The transition to pollinator-friendly management doesn't require a complete redesign of existing landscapes. Simple adjustments to current maintenance regimes can significantly improve habitat value, but need to be introduced thoughtfully and intentionally:

• Allocate areas of less frequently mown grass; by ensuring these areas are situated within more regularly mown areas you can create an informal 'meadow' area that looks designed and intentional.

• Retain dead wood where you can - this is essential habitat and it should no longer be a default action to remove fallen trees. Even trees that have to be chopped down can be left on site, all that is needed is some thought about how and where they are left.

• Install interpretation boards - this is crucial. Signs that explain why there are changes in how you are managing the landscape. These are proven to convert negative perceptions into positive ones, and can be paid for with the money you save in other ways - such as from mowing less of your grass areas.
• Consider ways that you can adopt integrated pest management approaches - this might include introducing more biodiversity features such as nest boxes to encourage pests that may nibble away at the plants. More nature = healthier plants.
• Mulch your flowerbeds annually rather than insisting on them being cultivated annually. This increases biodiversity and protects soil - a far more fragile resource than many people realise.
• There are ways to reduce pesticide use, especially once you have clients and tenants on board with more visible practices such as described above. Often, the greatest resistance to reducing herbicide useage actually comes from traditionally-minded managers - in wider society there is a real appetite for change.

Engaging Residents and Tenants

For residential and commercial property managers, success often depends on resident/tenant buy-in.

Consider:

• Providing residents/tenants with pollinator-friendly planting guides if they have their own private gardens/grounds on your sites.
• Including wildlife-friendly clauses in landscape maintenance contracts.
• Installing educational signage explaining the importance of connected habitats.

Commercial Property Considerations

Business sites present unique opportunities for pollinator conservation:

• Green roofs and living walls can create vertical wildlife corridors.
• Car park peripheries can support wildflower margins.
• Reception areas can showcase pollinator-friendly ornamental planting in schemes that are far more sustainable and cost-effective than bedding plant schemes.
• Sustainable drainage features can incorporate wetland species.

Property and facilities managers are uniquely positioned to influence significant areas of urban green space. By adopting pollinator-friendly management practices and encouraging stakeholder engagement, they can play a crucial role in creating resilient urban ecosystems. The benefits extend beyond biodiversity, enhancing property values, reducing maintenance costs, and contributing to corporate environmental goals.

As we face increasing pressure on urban wildlife, every managed landscape represents an opportunity to support pollinator populations. Through coordinated action and informed management, property professionals can help ensure these vital species continue to thrive in our urban environments.