DIGGING IT
Getting Everyone Involved Turning a campus, city, town or county into a pollinator
haven seems like it would be hard work. But the program wants to promote change and encourage places to become a habitat for pollinators on public and private land by reducing the use of pesticides, introducing more native plants into the landscape and letting To reign in expenses, every
available resources to design their unique pollinator gardens. Admin- istrators, horticulturists, master gar- deners, students, volunteers as well as home owners join forces to cre- ate pollinator-friendly ecosystems on municipal and residential prop- erties. Stringing these small plots together produces amazing results. - iate can be found on the Bee City website,
www.beecityusa.org.) The 96 (and counting) Bee Cit- ies and the 80 plus Bee Campuses across the USA unite behind two principles: creating pollinator hab- itat and educating the community on how small changes add up to big booms in pollinators. “Everybody can participate in providing habitat for pol-
Relax! Why mow every
week when pesticide-free beds support the bees, moths, bats and hummingbirds that pollinate nearly 90% species and 75% of food crops?
Let Nature be Your Guide Leave Mother Nature to her own devices and balanced ecosystems evolve. We’ve meddled with the landscape to make them comfortable for us. But if we restore the balance, survive. When we reduce our pesti- cide use in urban environments and integrate native plants, we can repli- cate what nature intended. The Bee City initiative strives to do just that. In Decatur, Georgia, the city do- nates pieces of property for their pollinator plot challenge involved a - nated as a repetitive loss by FEMA. The city purchased the land with grant money provided by the Flood Mitigation Assistance Program and left it in the capable hands of Bee- catur’s experts to transform into a pollinator garden. Peter Helfrich, chairperson of
Decatur’s Bee City USA program proudly proclaims they turned the empty three-quarter-acre lot into lush pollinator habitat. “Hopefully, it no problems so far, but if we have to replant, we will.”
- iate in Hendersonville, North Carolina. “It doesn’t matter if you have hundreds of acres or live in an apartment with just a window box or a planter on the porch. There’s something everyone can do to help.”
year as a Bee Campus and partnered with neighboring Deca- tur to enhance their community.
Educating the students and public about the vital role
bees play in the environment motivates Alaina Bandanza’s passion to transform their campus into a pollinator paradise.
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© Amy Yarger
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