The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Transport firm creates a wildflower meadow
Family hope to show others ‘simple acts can create wonders’
A Tayside transport company has used lockdown to create a “thriving and beautiful” wildflower meadow helping to support local nature.
Family-run Alan Davie Transport, based at Duntrune in Angus, has spent the last few months sowing wildflower seeds in an unused area of the business’ land.
The field has become a colourful meadow supporting dwindling bee populations and attracting other insects such as butterflies and ladybirds, as well as many birds.
Jani Morton, whose grandfather started the business 50 years ago, said the experience has been uplifting for the whole family.
She said: “Seeing the area thriving from just a field of grass with not much life to now truly blossoming feels incredible and we know it is so important.
“It was a great experience with the family to all work together. In the months over lockdown, nature has truly blossomed without much assistance from us.”
The business, which Mr Davie started himself as a lone truck driver, now employs around 50 people, with its headquarters three miles north-east of Dundee.
He now runs the company alongside sons Euan and Ian, providing logistics services, including haulage, and palletised freight distribution throughout the UK and Europe, including Scandinavia.
The family has a large area of land surrounding its warehouses. To stimulate the wildflower patch they do not mow the rest of the field. This encourages the establishment of longer grass and clover, which are popular with bees and insects.
Later in the year they plan to go even further to offset the company’s carbon emissions, planting a large hedgerow and a mixture of native trees.
Ms Morton hopes to inspire others to give some of their free space back to the environment. “We know our area is just a very small patch in the grand scheme
“Seeing the area thriving from just a field of grass with not much life to now truly blossoming feels incredible. JANI MORTON
but if we can inspire and show others that simple acts can create wonders...”
She said easy tips that individuals and councils can adopt include not mowing the grass so often to let clover and dandelion come through; these are important nectar-rich plants for bees.
“Or get out and spread some wildflower seed on some bare soil and see what comes through, and not using chemicals to tackle so-called weeds which are often wildflowers that bees like,” she said.
“I feel it is also a really significant time after the last few months to truly understand and value that nature brings enormous benefits to our mental and physical health and we should try our best to create more space for it.”
It comes after Dundee City Council announced plans to create “biodiversity zones” in 26 local parks.
Grass and plants in the proposed biodiversity zones will not be cut and weedkiller will not be used while officers consult with community groups.
Covid-19 has blown a hole in the “normal” holiday plans of British people, causing political leaders to recommend “staycations” as an alternative to jetting off on foreign jaunts.
The economy-boosting plan has merits but will not benefit every community as things stand.
The tourist-attracting cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh will feel the effect of stay-at-home holidaymakers far more readily than centres with fewer obvious attractions.
For this reason, it is essential those tasked with persuading us to open our wallets and purses do so creatively.
They cannot presume people will continually visit the usual tourist attractions and depend on the resultant ripple effect to local businesses.
The idea of siting at least part of the Carnoustie hoard in Angus is a fine one.
There will be insurance and logistical considerations but surely Tayside’s need for its own – almost literally – homegrown attractions trumps the central belt’s?
Similarly, the pandemic’s effect has strengthened the case for Perth receiving the Stone of Destiny in a repurposed city hall.
If Scotland’s tourism industry is to bounce back from the coronavirus as a whole, rather than merely in a concentrated Glasgow-Edinburgh corridor, every part of the country must be given the means to do so.