Message from the Executive Director

Happy New Year!

Thanks to the support of many and the hard work of our wonderful volunteers and staff, 2024 was a very good year for BNT. We are looking forward to an equally successful 2025!

We hope to break ground on the solar pergola in the Waterville carpark in the first quarter, having received Planning permission at the end of last year. This will be BNT’s first renewable energy project, but hopefully the first of many.

Buy Back Bermuda (our partnership with the Bermuda Audubon Society) has also received Planning permission for a small car park, trails and signage at High Point Nature Reserve in Southampton so we are on track for an official public opening on Earth Day 22 April 2025.

As you know, BNT advocates robustly for Bermuda's environment and cultural heritage. Although we are careful to choose our battles wisely, we sometimes get criticised for our stance on conservation issues. We are working on a comprehensive policy to help guide our approach to advocacy. If you wish to share your views on this subject, please feel free to reach out to me directly. Your input is very welcome.

Karen Border

Executive Director

Protecting your Personal Data

You may have heard that the Personal Information Privacy Act (PIPA) came into effect on 1 January – notices are everywhere! You can rest assured that BNT has instituted a Privacy Policy (which can be found on our website here) and we have reviewed and updated our processes to comply with the law.

We only collect personal data that is necessary for our purposes as a charity and with explicit consent. For example, we collect personal data to manage your membership of BNT, to manage landlord-tenant relationships, or to ensure we can properly safeguard children attending one of our camps.

Information on your race, sex and nationality is requested on a voluntary basis and used to monitor BNT’s membership profile in terms of diversity and inclusion. This data will only be used anonymously for statistical purposes.

Your information is held securely in a passworded digital database, can only be accessed by staff with a legitimate reason to use the information, and will never be disclosed to a third party outside of BNT without your consent.

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, to ask for it to be corrected or to ask that we delete/destroy the information when it is no longer relevant for the purpose of its use. Such requests must be made in writing to Bermuda National Trust, 2 Pomander Road, Paget PG05 or by email to palmetto@bnt.bm. BNT’s Privacy Officer is Dr Dörte Horsfield, dhorsfield@bnt.bm.

Natural Heritage Updates

Myles Darrell, Head of Natural Heritage

We can't do it without you!

As we start this new year, the Trust remains grateful for the continued support of volunteers and donors to help protect Bermuda's unique natural and cultural heritage. With many exciting environmental projects in the pipeline, there are plenty of opportunities for individuals of all ages to get involved and make a meaningful difference. If you want to learn more or are interested in helping on any of the projects below, please contact myles.darrell@bnt.bm.

‘Bermuda Bug Study’ gets underway

In 2025, BNT will be focused on a variety of exciting scientific projects, including a significant baseline study of Bermuda’s invertebrates.

You may notice special tents set up at various nature reserves across the island. These are “malaise traps” and are designed to collect flying insects. In addition, special illuminated traps will be set up at night. We urge everyone to exercise caution around the tents for two reasons: they include pitfall traps to collect critters on the ground, and any disturbance will render this project less effective. The traps are temporary and will be in place for about a week at each location.

This is all part of an iNaturalist project titled Bermuda - Supporting Atlantic Territories Invertebrate Conservation. The goal is to get a clear understanding of what invertebrates can be found in Bermuda and what if anything has changed since the last study was carried out. We have already logged over 6,000 invertebrate observations and had some amazing finds including the first ever photo of our endemic sac spider and we expect more firsts to come.

We need volunteers! We are off to a slow start due to the inclement weather but are ready to spring into action. If you can give us a couple of hours in the office pinning or documenting that would be great and you can even help from home by taking photos of the invertebrates you see in and around your property and uploading them to the INaturalist project page.

It’s off to work we go

If you haven’t come out for one of our Community Volunteer Days yet, perhaps 2025 will be the year! These are held one Saturday each month at a different reserve each time. After a brief introduction and tour of the reserve, volunteers get stuck in removing invasive species, planting natives and endemics, mulching previous plantings and generally improving the reserve. The first this year is on 18 January at the Rebecca Middleton Nature Reserve in Paget. To sign up for this or other upcoming Community Volunteer Days, visit the Events page of our website.

Kids, this is your future!

For young people looking to get involved, the BNT Garden Club at Waterville runs on Wednesdays after school and the Eco Club on Fridays after school at Government House. These free clubs provide valuable opportunities for youth to engage in community service while learning about the importance of environmental conservation. Click here for more information and sign-up.

Cultural Heritage Updates

Dr. Charlotte Andrews, Head of Cultural Heritage

Fresh Trust Museums Experiences!

We are thrilled to have Bermuda Tourism Authority’s support for fresh experiences at Verdmont Museum and Globe Museum in St. George’s throughout February, March and April! The BTA is helping us to elevate visitor experiences with funding for expanded hours, live tours and experiential activities that support our incredible, established team of museum volunteers. The BTA is also arranging minibus transport from the City of Hamilton to Verdmont in Smith’s on certain days of the week to make the museum more accessible for visitors with tour bookings. To book a tour, check our opening hours, or for other details about Trust Museums Winter Programmes please visit bnt.bm.

We are also inviting applications for part-time Museum Interpreters. Please see the ad below.

Commemorating Commonwealth war dead

The Trust is the Bermuda partner of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which cares for 23,000 war memorials and war cemeteries around the world commemorating 1.7 million Commonwealth casualties. Together, BNT and CWGC care for 141 war memorials in 12 cemeteries across Bermuda.

The Royal Naval Cemetery in Dockyard commemorates the most Commonwealth casualties with 76 memorials, one of which we recently replaced. Local partner Island Memorials removed a headstone for Royal Naval Armourer W.G. Emmerson that wasn’t to CWGC’s universal standards, and installed a new headstone at the foot of his resting place from 1920.

You can help with our work to care for Commonwealth war graves by volunteering with us at the Royal Naval Cemetery on Sunday, 26 January from 9:00 am - 12:00 Noon. Please register here if you would like to attend.

Dry fitting of the replacement headstone

Island Memorials team replaces the headstone

Upholding masonry traditions

The Trust is grateful to have received a Cultural Apprenticeship Programme grant from the Department of Culture to pair up a tradition-bearer mason with an apprentice mason to teach traditional masonry techniques. By working together on conservation and restoration projects at historic cemeteries under the Trust’s care, the masons will further the programme’s objective to 'foster the growth of a younger generation of tradition-bearers in Bermuda.’

We are seeking to identify masons for the tradition-bearer or apprentice roles to complete paid cemeteries projects. If you, or anyone you know, may be interested, please contact me on charlotte.andrews@bnt.bm or tel. 236-6483 x225

Heritage Education Updates

Anna Stevenson, Heritage Education Manager

This year promises to be a busy one for Heritage Education – we already have a full schedule of learning experiences for schools booked through January and February. We offer a wide range of field trips to our nature reserves and museums for children of all ages, covering both natural and cultural heritage topics and can customise tours for curriculum themes as required. We also undertake 3-part learning experiences where an out-of-class adventure is sandwiched between in-school learning sessions on the same topic on different days. Educators should contact anna.stevenson@bnt.bm for bookings.

Heritage Education also organises our Trust Talks. We are always looking for engaging speakers on natural or cultural heritage topics, ideally with a Bermuda connection, so if you know of anyone who maybe willing to present, please get in touch!