The latest decision from the Vancouver City Council is something worth buzzing about.
With growing concern about bee populations throughout the United States, the council has designated Vancouver as a Bee City USA affiliate. The goal is to prioritize bee- and pollinator-friendly practices that support critical habitat for pollinator species.
Meanwhile, a Pollinator Festival is scheduled for June 21 at Marshall Park, with guest speakers, bee walks and a pop-up arboretum.
The designation is appropriate and important. Entomologists at Washington State University reported last month that honeybee colonies in the United States are projected to decline by up to 70 percent this year. “A combination of nutrition deficiencies, mite infestations, viral diseases and possible pesticide exposure during the previous pollinating season led to higher losses,” NBC News reported.
Such a loss would accelerate a decadelong decline. Over the past 10 years, experts report, honeybee populations have annually declined between 40 percent and 50 percent. The impact is felt in wild bee populations and commercial operations.
That has a profound impact on the economy. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that honeybees had a production value of nearly $350 million in 2023, pollinating crops that eventually land on dining-room tables or become ingredients in a variety of products. California almonds are the biggest crop for honeybees, and fewer bees means higher costs for growers.
Washington State professor Brandon Hopkins said: “I don’t want to be a fearmonger, but this level of national loss could mean increased bankruptcies amongst beekeepers. Growers of crops downstream from almonds may need to scramble if the beekeeper they’ve relied on to pollinate their apple trees, for example, isn’t in business anymore.”
Notably, honeybee populations are declining throughout North America and Europe, but not in other parts of the world. The difference is extreme habitat loss and pesticide use in developed nations, exacerbated by global climate change. The United States ranks third in agriculture production — behind China and India — and maintaining that status will depend on pollinators.
As Dennis vanEngelsdorp, a bee expert at the University of Maryland, told PBS News: “Everything falls apart if you take pollinators out of the game. If we want to say we can feed the world in 2050, pollinators are going to be part of that.”
Declaring Vancouver a bee city cannot mitigate the issue, but it can help the local population of pollinators, boosting wildflowers and other vegetation in addition to agricultural crops.
Kyle Roslund of the Vancouver Bee Project said the designation comes with certain obligations for city officials: “They have to do pollinator education annually, and they have to have events centered around pollinators and pollinator education. They have to take a good look at their integrated pest-management plan and update it, and that is the plan that the city uses when they’re doing things like applying herbicides and pesticides.”
Equally important, the designation can raise awareness of the importance of pollinators and generate household efforts to support those pollinators. As Roslund said: “We want a community that’s engaged and active and interested in these things, too. That’s a huge goal of ours. We want people to have information to make good choices.”
In other words, city officials are trying to generate some buzz.
