City of Bangor named a Bee City USA affiliate

For immediate release: Aug. 22, 2024

Contact: Anja Collette, Planning Officer
Telephone: 207-992-4234
Email: [email protected]

City of Bangor named a Bee City USA affiliate

BANGOR, Maine - The City was notified recently that it has met the standards for certification as a Bee City USA affiliate.

The Bangor City Council in July approved a resolution allowing the City to become a Bee City USA, joining many other cities and campuses across the country united in improving their landscapes for native pollinators. The Council's action was the culmination of months of effort by City staff to accomplish this affiliation.

Bee City USA is an initiative of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon. Bee City USA's mission is to galvanize communities to sustain pollinators by providing them with healthy habitat, rich in a variety of native plants and free of insecticides. Pollinators like bumble bees, sweat bees, mason bees,butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, hummingbirds, and many others are responsible for the reproduction of almost 90 percent of the world's flowering plant species and one in every three bites of food we consume.

An additional benefit is the Bee City designation supports Bangor's livability index, which has a positive impact on recruitment of new residents and businesses.

"The City Council let it be known that we understand the importance of sustaining pollinators, and want to make the City more pollinator friendly," said Councilor Susan Hawes, who chairs the Business & Economic Development Committee, which first reviewed the Bee City USA standards. "In some ways this designation is an extension of practices the City has already adopted, such as beekeeping efforts at the Audubon-certified Bangor Municipal Golf Course."

Scott Hoffman Black, Xerces' executive director, said, "The program aspires to make people more pollinator conscious. 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."

As part of its affiliation, the City of Bangor must take a number of steps, including preparing an annual report on habitat enhancement activities. Bee City USA especially encourages school gardens and educational programs for children.

For more information about Bee City USA, visit https://www.beecityusa.org/
For more information about the Xerces Society, visit https://xerces.org/
For information about four simple ways to help pollinators, visit https://xerces.org/bringbackthepollinators/

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The City of Bangor, Maine, is a service center community of 31,753 residents and is the county seat of Penobscot County. Bangor is the major commercial and cultural center for much of northern and eastern Maine. The City is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. For information on City projects and news, see www.bangormaine.gov.

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