Nonprofit Spotlight: Bee City USA

Bee City USA is a nonprofit organization focusing on protecting bees. With over 3,600 bees native to the United States and with their numbers declining, it is important to protect these vital pollinators. "Bee City USA provides a framework for communities to come together to conserve native pollinators by providing them with healthy habitat that is rich in variety of native plants, provides nest sites, and is protected from pesticides." Bee City USA understands how important it is for our communities to look beyond the traditional honey bee and appreciate the wide variety of bees there are and the unique jobs they each do. Their community events and initiatives will in turn also protect other important pollinators such as butterflies and moths who are also in need of protection.

Bee City USA has a robust website with lots of educational information including videos and a speaker series to help you better understand how you can help protect these important insects. They also have information about Integrated Pest Management (IPM) which is a way to create healthy landscapes without the pesticides.

Ways that you can help grow this initiative is to plant native flowering plants in your yard, tell others about native bees and the wide variety of them and not using pesticides in your landscape.