To help celebrate Vancouver’s affiliation with Bee City USA, Vancouver Bee Project and its partners and sponsors will hold the 2nd annual Pollinator Festival on June 21 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Marshall Community Park

VANCOUVER – Vancouver City Council unanimously voted on April 7 to become a Bee City USA® affiliate, joining many other cities and campuses across the country united in improving their landscapes for pollinators. City Council’s approval of the affiliation is the result of efforts by the city’s pollinator subcommittee, Vancouver Bee Project and several city teams.

“City Council let it be known that we understand the importance of sustaining pollinators, and want to make our city more pollinator friendly,” said Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle.

To help celebrate Vancouver’s affiliation with Bee City USA, Vancouver Bee Project and its partners and sponsors will hold the 2nd annual Pollinator Festival on June 21 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Marshall Community Park. The free, family-friendly event will offer vendors, educational walks, world renowned speakers, food retailers, family activities and more. The community is welcome to join the celebration and learn about essential pollinating species.

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 encourage communities to protect 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.

“The program aspires to make people more pollinator conscious,” 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, build pollinator habitat spaces, celebrate being a Bee City USA affiliate and more.”

For more information about Vancouver’s Bee City USA program, visit Vancouver Bee City USA -The City of Vancouver, WA

Information provided by the city of Vancouver.