Celebrating OUR Bees
Posted by Cherry Dang on
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
What’s happening to our hardworking bees? Bee it bumblebees, honeybees and other bees, OUR bees are disappearing.
As winter starts to close and spring begins to bring on nature's most beautiful transformations, it’s time to bring our focus to one of nature's contributors to this natural process – our bees. Our bees are pollinators of strawberries, apples, beans, tomatoes, carrots and other vegetables which we need for nourishment. Let’s not forget livestock that graze our pastures, they are also dependent on bees to pollinate the plants that they feed on. Bees help support life and are an important part of our life sustaining planet.
In March 21, 2017 the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Rusty Patched Bumblebee as an endangered species. So what’s happening to our bees? Experts and scientist say pesticides, loss of habitat, climate change, disease and colony collapse disorder. They’ve studied, gathered the facts, and provided us videos and other media with this information, so what now?
What can we do? Let’s help to make sure that no other bee goes on the extinction list. Let’s celebrate that we still have our bees and help them stay with us by planting bee-friendly flowers and flowering herbs in our gardens and yards, don’t use chemicals and pesticides to treat our lawns or gardens, buy local raw honey, bring about awareness and share solutions with others. These small actions are a start to protecting our bees, our life.
"Wild bees like the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee aren’t just beautiful creatures emblematic of summertime meadows; they’re central to the functioning of natural ecosystems and agricultural production."
~ Lucas Rhoads - Staff Attorney, Pollinator Initiative