Did you hear the latest buzz? The City of Louisville has officially been designated a Bee City USA® affiliate, a pollinator-friendly designation intended to improve local conditions for necessary beneficial insects. Louisville is the third city in Colorado to receive this designation, joining many other cities and campuses across the country united in improving their landscapes for pollinators.

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 a 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 Bee City USA certification is both an honor and a responsibility. The program endorses a set of commitments for creating sustainable habitats for pollinators by increasing the abundance of native plants, providing nest sites, and reducing the use of pesticides. City staff and community members work together to carry out these commitments and make their city a better place for all pollinators.

“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.” 

The Parks and Public Landscaping Board (PPLAB) brought the idea of becoming an affiliate of Bee City USA to the City's attention, and the City Council adopted the resolution in December 2022. 

The City of Louisville has demonstrated its commitment to protecting pollinators and their natural habitats with initiatives such as reducing herbicides by following a comprehensive Integrated Weed Management Plan (IWMP), planting pocket prairies with pollinator-friendly plantings, partnering with Resource Central for programs such as Garden In A Box, and increasing the abundance of native plants on public lands. As an official Bee City USA affiliate, the City will continue creating sustainable habitats for pollinators and educating residents about bees' critical role in our ecosystem.

Would you like to learn more about what you can do to support pollinators and pollinator-friendly landscaping?

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/

For more information on Colorado pollinator gardens visit https://resourcecentral.org/seminars/