We are pleased to announce that the beneficiary for Dougie's Grant 2025 is
Pollinator Project
"Dougie’s legacy takes root at Fort Field
When the Pollinator Project applied for Dougie’s Grant, there was something about Fort Field that seemed particularly appropriate.
Dougie Le Huquet loved Guernsey, farming and the natural world. Our plans for Fort Field were about creating something that would last: improving the wildflower meadow, planting trees and hedges, creating more habitat for wildlife and making the field a more attractive place for people to walk, sit and enjoy.
So we were absolutely delighted to learn that the Pollinator Project had been awarded the £10,000 Dougie’s Grant for 2025/26.
And since then, we have been busy putting it to work.
Fort Field, alongside Fort Road, is one of Guernsey’s most visible areas of public open space. Thousands of people pass it every week, while many others use it for walking, exercising their dogs or simply enjoying some fresh air.
Our ambition is to demonstrate that a public space like this can work for people and nature at the same time.
During 2025 we experimented with a different approach to managing the wildflower meadow, cutting paths through it so that people could walk amongst the flowers and changing the cutting regime to encourage greater plant diversity.
We also asked islanders what they wanted from the field. Nearly 100 people responded to our public consultation and around three-quarters supported retaining the wildflower meadow. Their suggestions also helped shape our plans for what came next.
At the end of the year we entered into a three-year agreement with the States of Guernsey to manage the meadow and surrounding area. Winning Dougie’s Grant gave us the funding to start turning those plans into reality.
Volunteers have now planted ten fruit trees to create a small community orchard. Native hedging is being established to provide food and shelter for insects, birds and other wildlife, and an avenue of native cherry trees will provide spring blossom for pollinators as well as fruit for birds later in the year.
We are also working to increase the diversity and colour of the meadow and roadside verge with native wildflowers.
Some of the less glamorous work is just as important. Wildflower meadows need managing. Grass has to be cut, the cuttings removed and areas prepared for the following year's growth. Dougie’s Grant helps us pay for this essential work as well as the more visible planting.
And people are a big part of the project.
Our volunteer work parties have brought islanders together to plant trees and hedges, rake meadows and improve the field. We are creating places to sit and enjoy the surroundings and, over time, information around the field will explain some of the wildlife people can see and why the area is managed as it is.
We don't expect everything to happen overnight. Trees take time to grow, hedges take time to establish and changing the diversity of a meadow takes several seasons.
In fact, that is one of the things we particularly like about this project.
In years to come, people walking through Fort Field will see mature cherry trees flowering in spring, fruit growing in the orchard, established native hedges and a meadow that should become richer and more diverse.
Some of those people will have no idea who planted them.
But they will be part of a legacy created by a Guernsey man who cared deeply about his island.
For the Pollinator Project, that seems a particularly fitting use of Dougie’s Grant."
L to R Sharon Hickman, Gordon Steel, Rebecca Eker and Shelaine Green.