The Chet Valley B-Line project seeks to create a corridor of pollinator-friendly
habitats that focuses on the course of the River Chet, from its source in Poringland
to its confluence with the Yare at Hardley (some 17 km), but also embraces sites
in the whole Chet catchment area. It aims to provide local ‘stepping stone’
refuges that allow the dispersal of bees, hoverflies, butterflies and other
pollinating insects, as their populations experience adverse, changing
environmental conditions.

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A map of the Chet Valley B-Line can be found here.

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Pollinators, particularly bees, are threatened globally by agricultural intensification (especially insecticide use), habitat fragmentation and climate change. The pollination services they provide are of enormous importance for food production and biodiversity. Pollinator loss risks
becoming a catastrophe economically, as well as for the balance of nature and biodiversity conservation.

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B-Lines were conceived by BugLife as a national network of ‘motorways’ to promote insect mobility.
Ours is the first to be attempted in Norfolk. Local communities, landowners, householders and other
stakeholders are being asked to take action and manage sites for the benefit of pollinators. Pollinators need plants to provide nectar, food for their larval stages and
habitat. We will depend on volunteers to plant flowers, shrubs and trees, monitor insect populations (citizen science), and disseminate knowledge locally.

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The project is led by the Bergh Apton Conservation Trust, whose nature reserve in the Chet Valley is a
‘keystone’ site, with the collaboration and support of many organisations: e.g. Norfolk Wildlife Trust, BugLife, The Woodland Trust, Norfolk Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, and Parish Councils.
It has been made possible by a grant from Water, Mills & Marshes: the Broads Landscape Partnership Scheme.