The City of High Point is becoming a Bee City USA affiliate – which means the city is joining many other towns and cities across the country that are united in an effort to improve their landscapes for bees and other pollinating creatures – a category that includes hummingbirds, wasps, moths, bats and butterflies.
Earlier this year, the City Council unanimously approved the move and the effort – now in full gear – is being led by the city’s Public Services Department.
Bee City USA is a program that originated from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation – a Portland-based nonprofit with offices across the country.
Bee City’s stated mission is “to galvanize communities to sustain pollinators by providing them with healthy habitats rich in a variety of native plants and free of insecticides.”
According to the group, pollinators – such as bumble bees, honey bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, flies and hummingbirds – are responsible for the reproduction of nearly 90 percent of the world’s flowering plants. So, what’s good for the pollinators is also good for the natural beauty of a city or town.
Rebecca Coplin, with the City of High Point’s Public Services Department, stated in a press release this week that, during the process of applying for the affiliation, a number of organizations were brought into the discussions including the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and neighboring Bee City USA affiliate Winston-Salem.
The Bee City program calls for doing things like planting native, pesticide-free flowering trees, shrubs and perennials and reducing pesticides that can be harmful to bees and other pollinating creatures.
Bee City USA Coordinator Laura Rost said each town that becomes an affiliate does things their own way.
“How each city completes the steps to conserve pollinators is up to them,” she said. “To maintain their affiliation, each affiliate is expected to report on their achievements and celebrate being a Bee City USA affiliate every year.”
The cities and towns – and, in some cases, college and other school campuses – hold public awareness activities, create an oversight committee, post signage and web links pertaining to the program and prepare an annual report on “habitat-enhancement activities.”
Bee City USA especially encourages school gardens and educational programs meant to teach children and young adults the importance of the pollination chain.
The City of High Point has designated the Keep High Point Beautiful committee as the committee overseeing High Point’s efforts to promote pollinator conservation across the city. The High Point Bee City Committee, which meets quarterly at 1 p.m. at the Piedmont Environmental Center, is inviting all High Point residents to submit their ideas regarding pollinator-friendly initiatives.
For more information on High Point’s Bee City USA program, those interested can contact Coplin by email at rebecca.coplin@highpointnc.gov or by phone at 336-883-3520.
I have a yard with trees, flowers, & woods (and weeds). We have bird feeders out, too. We seldom see any honeybees. We have lots of bumblebees, which are virtually harmless.
Without these critters, we’d have to hand pollinate our plants. Pesticides are responsible for the decline of flying insects. Remember the Alar that was sprayed on apples before they went to the market for us to eat?
Even a hamster doesn’t s^(t where it eats.
You’re spot on Miller! We likely subsidized Monsanto & others in the development of the very chemicals that have destroyed our natural plant species and crippled the beneficial insect population. One more instance where our government has put profits and votes above our health. I’d rather have a healthy garden and yard than a picture perfect one. Both are possible with a lot of work.
Reparations for flying insects.
That title sounds like you don’t like bees. Is this title all you can think of??? Sorry it’s far from the best title for this… If it was something like… the government supports prescription drugs that kill u… now that would be appropriate. Don’t hate we need the honey bees.
This is a great article that points out the beauty for which pollinators are responsible. However it fails to point out that 3/4 of the food we consume is totally dependent on pollinators. without them we would have to physically send people into the fields to manually pollenate each bloom which would make the price of food so high that only the 1% would be able to afford quality food and nutrition. It’s bad enough already with the inflated prices at the grocery store but without pollinators we would fall into worldwide famine that could only be duplicated by world war 3 or the eruption of a super volcano. Lets not push fate…