In partnership with Colesville Nursery, the Town of Ashland is officially a Bee City USA! Bee City USA is an initiative with the Xerces Society to create pollinator-friendly communities. The Town is looking forward to working with Colesville to plant bee habitats in the parks and educate our community on bee-friendly practices.
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is 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 healthy habitats, 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.
“This partnership with Colesville is a natural fit for our parks here in Ashland and I am excited to join the Bee City USA movement,” said Emmy Houck, who leads Parks & Rec for the Town.
“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.”
“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 and celebrate being a Bee City USA affiliate every year.”
The Town looks forward to our new partnership with Colesville Nursery to engage the community in promoting pollinator conservation.
For more information about Ashland's Bee City USA program, contact Emmy Houck at: ehouck@ashlandva.gov or 804-798-9219.