A Cutting-Edge English Initiative Replaces Lawnmowers With Scythes to Restore Wildflowers and Save the Bees

The conservation charity English Heritage recently recruited volunteers willing to cut grass in the way of their ancestors—with the Grim Reaper’s blade. They’re now scything through Somerset meadows in exchange for bread and cheese. The three-year project aims to maintain English meadows without overly disturbing their natural inhabitants—specifically, the endangered shrill carder bumblebee.

According to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, which is collaborating with English Heritage on the project, the shrill carder bumblebee (Bombus sylvarum) is among the United Kingdom’s rarest and most vulnerable bee species. It lives in only five areas, one of which is the southwestern county of Somerset. A particularly “shrill” carder bee The shrill carder bumblebee is so named for its unusually high-pitched buzz.

The volunteer scythers, trained by Somerset’s Exmoor National Park Authority, have begun working in the meadow of the historic Muchelney Abbey. Soon, they’ll be scything grass at English Heritage-managed sites across the county, per a statement from the charity. Its exact—likely ancient—origins remain mysterious, but historians know the scythe became common in Europe around the eighth century.

Composed of a thin, very sharp blade attached to a curved wooden handle, the tool is swung from left to right by a standing scyther. According to the Museum of English Rural Life, an experienced reaper could cut down two acres of wheat in a day. You find your rhythm and zone into it.

You can really connect with the meadow, the landscape.” The shrill carder bumblebee’s population has shrunk significantly with the decline of England’s flower-rich grasslands, per the statement. Taking a lawnmower to existing meadows, like those around Muchelney Abbey, can actually help wildflowers grow, and in turn provide bees with pollen. But the invasive machine can kill the bees, which nest in the ground.

As Joseph O’Shea, a project officer at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, tells the London Times’ Will Pavia, electric mowers are “so fast that things can’t get away.” The volunteer scythers won’t just be landscaping in a bee-friendly fashion. They’ll also be performing wildlife surveys. Per the statement, the volunteers will record the number of bees, which flowers are in bloom, which plants the bees are visiting and how far the insects travel from their nests.