I was honoured to be awarded Second Place in the Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year 2024 for my poems about endangered insects.
Insects make up over half the species on Earth, but their rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling alarmingly, year on year. I hope that the poems bring more attention to some of the amazing insects that are under threat.
One of these insects is the Bilberry Bumblebee (bombus monticola), an endangered bee which was once widespread in north and western Britain. I was excited to hear that my poem about this scarce bee came second in the Manchester Cathedral Poetry Competition, and hope that more people will learn about this beautiful bee, including the way that populations have declined because of habitat loss and the warming climate.
Rachel Bower 