The City of Belleville has been named the newest Bee City by Bee City Canada, an organization created to inspire cities, towns, First Nations, schools, businesses and other organizations to take action to protect pollinators. They offer programs which recognize communities and organizations that are taking steps or are committed to future initiatives to help pollinators.
Council voted last month in favour of joining Bee City Canada.
Bee City Canada commended Belleville on their habitat initiatives which included reduced mowing to pollinator gardens along city trails, the creation of 2.75 hectares of pollinator habitat along the Shirley Langer Trail and for collaborating with Quinte Conservation to provide seedlings for residents to plant on their property. They were also impressed with the city’s commitment to adding signage to Belleville’s pollinator habitat to educate residents about the importance of pollinators.
“Having Belleville officially declared as a ‘Bee City’ by the Bee Cities Canada organization is a terrific way to end what has truly been a remarkable year for parks and open spaces in the city,” said City of Belleville Green Task Force Chair, Councillor Chris Malette. “The members of the Green Task Force, with the enthusiastic help of our environmental services and operations staff and the talented and dedicated crew of gardeners, planners and maintenance crews with our parks department have made great strides in not only creating some of the most beautiful parks and gardens in the city’s history, but we’re making great inroads in helping create and perpetuate sustainable, eco-supportive city greenspaces. We’re very excited to see what 2022 brings in the way of helping grow our gardens and greenspaces in a way that helps pollinators to thrive and the planet to benefit as a result.”
