NEWS RELEASE
CITY OF GUELPH
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If residents ever needed proof that Guelph is a hive of activity, they’d need only look at the City of Guelph’s Bee City designation from Bee City Canada.
Monday night, Council approved a staff-recommended Bee City application that commits to three pollinator-friendly goals:
- Creating, maintaining and improving pollinator habitat
- Educating the community about the importance of pollinators
- Celebrating pollinators during International Pollinator Week and other times of the year
“Being officially designated as a Bee City complements all the great work our staff and the community are already doing to encourage pollinators into our city,” says Dave Beaton, supervisor of Trails and Natural Area Stewardship. “Currently, the City maintains pollinator habitat in parks, trails and gardens, hosts speakers from Pollination Guelph to drive education, and runs the Healthy Landscapes program that encourages creating pollinator habitat in private spaces.”
Guelph joins 16 other Canadian municipalities as a Bee City including Newmarket, Whitby, Kitchener and Niagara Falls.
To celebrate, Council cut the ribbon on the City’s first bee condo aptly named Air Bee and Bee on June 25. The condo is a wooden structure stuffed with bricks, reeds, hollow stems and wooden logs, and thin branches with holes drilled in them, that encourage pollinators to nest.
The condo was furnished by Guelph residents on June 12 and on display in City Hall for Pollinator Week before finally moving to its home on City Hall’s green roof.
About becoming a Bee City
Bee City is a designation that encourages cities across Canada to commit to pollinator-friendly goals that encourage education, habitat creation and awareness events.
Guelph’s application is a collaborative effort by staff from multiple departments including facilities management, parks and recreation, and planning, urban design and building services.
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