Protecting the pollinators
Public information sessions on bee-keeping and education planned
The far end of Fairview Cemetery is buzzing with activity.
Within nine bee boxes nestled along the edge of the Niagara Falls cemetery’s green burial section, thousands of bees are busy pollinating, procreating and providing honey.
The Stanley Avenue cemetery is home to Niagara’s only green burial site and is home to more than 10,000 native pollinator plants.
Earlier this month, the city became the 16th city in Canada to receive a Bee City designation.
A Bee City is part of a North American movement to help the struggling bee population.
Designated communities support collaboration and establish and maintain healthy pollinator habitat within the municipality.
Niagara Falls council submitted an application with Bee City Canada in March after hearing a presentation by Renee Delaney, founder of Small Scale Farms and a passionate advocate for pollinators.
“Right now, bees are being sprayed and a pesticide is a pesticide…it kills insects,” she said.
“Before, it was we needed the
bees to do something for us. At this point, we need to do something for the bees. They need us. It’s a crisis.”
Mark Richardson, the city’s manager of cemetery services, said the newly-developed green burial section at Fairview was an ideal location to establish a colony for bees.
“We have a two-acre wildflower meadow here that is a natural and safe habitat for the bees,” he said.
“Bees, like many wild animals out there, have fewer and fewer areas that are safe habitats. Our meadow has all native species and there’s no chemicals and no fertilizers being used.”
Delaney says while pollinator gardens in public spaces is a step in the right direction, more needs to be done to protect bees.
By going from municipality to municipality, she hopes to educate the public on why bees are disappearing and what that means to the food system.
Public information sessions on bee-keeping and education about the insects will be held at Fairview Cemetery in the future.
A sponsorship program is also in the works where people could sponsor a hive.
The city, through the Niagara Falls Parks in the City committee, has also partnered with local schools to raise awareness of the beleaguered bees.
Last month, students at St. Mary Catholic Elementary School participated in a sunflower see bomb planting at the cemetery.
The children placed seeds inside balls of clay and mushroom compost and planted the seed bombs not far from the bee hives.
Soon, towering sunflowers will provide yet another habitat and pollen for the bees.
Meanwhile, the Niagara Parks Commission has established 12 pollinator gardens along the Niagara Parkway, including one at its Butterfly Conservatory. The NPC is also in process of restoring 120 acres of fallow fields at the Chippawa Battlefield site into native grassland habitat to support pollinators and grassland dependent bird species.
There are also pollinator gardens at Firemen’s Park and Westlane Secondary School.
St. Catharines was designated as a Bee City last May and Welland is also set to receive the designation in the future.