Making a home for a York favourite; York employers help extend the Tansy habitat

The Tansy beetle is something of a favourite among York residents. It’s an endangered species almost entirely unique to the banks of the Ouse. So to be involved in a project to protect and encourage the species is something many volunteers jumped at.

On New Walk, between Millennium Bridge and the city centre, teams from York organisations have been digging up invasive species on the riverbank, and clearing the ground ready for planting the Beetle’s favourite: the Tansy plant.

They’re helping create the right habitat to encourage this local favourite to make its home along a longer stretch of the river.

Charlie Freeman was part of a team volunteering from the London Market Tech and Change team at Hiscox:

“We all agreed to do half a day volunteering. We didn’t know what it would involve but we thought it would probably be manual labour.

“We found out our task was about protecting the Tansy beetle – because the Tansy is a lazy creature apparently and doesn’t like to walk far to find a new habitat – so we’re creating a longer stretch of the kind of plants it likes.

“This is the first time I’ve volunteered through York Cares and it’s been so easy to organise. We have a day a year to do this kind of thing but it doesn’t always get used. So to have a partner that organises everything for us means this is something we’ll look to do a lot more of.

“It’s hard work! But the benefits for us align well with our Hiscox values. One of those is ‘Human’ and this gives us an opportunity to give something back to the people in our community. And another is ‘Connected’ – which is what we’re doing here today. We only tend to see each other once a week and it’s very different in a work environment. This is an opportunity to properly connect. It’s a full team effort and feels very beneficial in terms of team building.”