Hunts bumblebee, Bombus huntii on European Purple-Coneflower, Los-Alamos | Craig Martin
Los Alamos County Becomes an Affiliate of Bee City USA
Los Alamos, NM; 2/16/2024—Los Alamos City Council unanimously voted on January 9, 2024 to become a Bee City USA®, joining many other cities and campuses across the country united in improving their landscapes for pollinators. The Council’s action is the culmination of months of effort by community volunteers, Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC), and Cory Styron of Los Alamos Community Services to accomplish this affiliation.
Bee City USA is an initiative of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon, with offices across the country. Bee City USA’s mission is to galvanize communities to sustain pollinators by providing them with healthy habitat, rich in a variety of native plants and free of insecticides. Pollinators like bumble bees, sweat bees, mason bees, honey bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, hummingbirds, and many others are responsible for the reproduction of almost ninety percent of the world’s flowering plant species and one in every three bites of food we consume.
The Council’s vote was made after a presentation by Kristen O’Hara of PEEC and KokHeong McNaughton of Los Alamos Seed Library & Master Gardeners, to Council members.
Numerous community members wrote emails to Council members to express their support of the Bee City Los Alamos designation.
PEEC is excited to be the host organization for Bee City Los Alamos and is looking forward to incorporating pollinator education and outreach into their already robust environmental educational programs and services. A sizeable grant application was written by, and awarded to, PEEC for pollinator activities and for hiring a Bee City Coordinator to guide the County through the first two years. PEEC is proud to bring both expertise and resources to the project.
The working committee that was the driving force behind the effort to become a Bee City affiliate has formalized their committee structure with representation by County Parks & Recreation as liaison to the County, members of the community, and PEEC representation. The Bee City Los Alamos Committee meets the 3rd Tuesday of every month at the Pajarito Environmental Education Center at 2600 Canyon Road in Los Alamos from 4-5 PM and invites all residents of Los Alamos County to offer their ideas for pollinator-friendly initiatives. The more people and organizations involved, the sooner pollinator declines will be reversed.
“The program aspires to make people more PC—pollinator conscious, that is,” said Scott Hoffman Black, Xerces’ executive director. “If lots of individuals and communities begin planting native, pesticide-free flowering trees, shrubs and perennials, it will create large-scale change for many, many species of pollinators.”
“How each city completes the steps to conserve pollinators is up to them,” said Bee City USA Coordinator Laura Rost. “To maintain their affiliation, each affiliate is expected to report on their achievements and celebrate being a Bee City USA affiliate every year.”
Each affiliate should hold public awareness activities; publicly acknowledge the commitment to the program through a standing committee, signage and web links; and prepare an annual report on habitat enhancement activities. Bee City Los Alamos will have a table at the PEEC Earth Day celebration on April 20, 2024 from 10 AM to 2 PM. You can find the webpage on PEEC’s website under the Learn tab or at https://peecnature.org/bee-city/
Bee City USA especially encourages school gardens and educational programs for children.
For more information about Los Alamos’ Bee City USA program, contact Bee City Los Alamos Coordinator Dana Ecelberger or Kristen O’Hara at beecity@peecnature.org
For more information about Bee City USA, visit https://www.beecityusa.org/
For more information about the Xerces Society, visit https://xerces.org/
For information about four simple ways to help pollinators, visit https://xerces.org/bringbackthepollinators/