Council urged to aid efforts to rewild Buckie 'bird lane' path
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MORAY Council are being urged to stick to their climate emergency plans and help efforts to rewild a section of a popular Buckie path.
For the last two years local man Eddie Devlin has been working to create a 'bird lane' on a section of the old railway line path heading west from the site of the former station, parallel to Marine Place.
As part of his plans he has put in place feeders made from the stumps of felled trees on which passers-by can leave food for the birds in the area – which include gold finches and green finches – bird boxes on lamp posts and among the trees and three memorial benches where people can relax and enjoy the peaceful surroundings.
However, Mr Devlin says Moray Council have been dealing his efforts a double whammy which, he added, flew in the face of the local authority's commitment to tackle climate change.
He said: "I started the bird lane two years ago which coincided with the council's commitment to protect and enhance biodiversity, including creating living lawns and wildflower meadows.
"I put up signs along the bird lane politely asking the council not to cut the grass there as it's home to a lot of birds and other diverse wildlife. I'm more than happy to do any maintenance on the area myself.
"The grass cutting has also created another problem. The teams who cut the grass don't scout ahead before they start and pick up plastic bottles and other stuff like that, so when they go through it with their strimmers it just chews this up and contaminates the land with bits of plastic.
"Tackling plastic pollution is supposed to be a major priority, but this is just making it worse.
"If the environment there is damaged or destroyed then a lot of that wildlife will leave and never return. The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world for animal and bird life so you'd think the council would be doing the opposite of what they're doing.
"What they're doing here flies in the face of them declaring a climate emergency two years ago and all the promises they made back in 2019. It's just a load of greenwashing, as far as I'm concerned.
"What Moray Council are doing at the bird lane is just vandalism."
A spokesperson for Moray Council commented: “We’re keen to support nature positive management of council land where possible and have installed signage at sites that are ‘Managed for Wildlife’, where wildflowers have been sown or grass cutting is limited or reduced to support pollinators and biodiversity.
"Maintenance at this particular location is already reduced to cutting back a strip of vegetation to control growth, at most once or twice a year, and we’ll continue to do this to control growth along the path. We’re delighted residents are taking an interest in supporting efforts to increase and improve biodiversity and would encourage them to get involved with their local community wildflower planting initiatives, too.”
