Gainesville receives Bee City USA designation

With assistance from the Florida Wildflower Foundation, the City of Gainesville has achieved an official Bee City USA® designation. Gainesville joins cities and campuses across the country united to improve landscapes for pollinators at a time when bee populations remain threatened by disease, habitat loss, climate change and other factors.

“The City’s parks, greenspaces and community gardens teem with native wildflowers, and flowering plants trees and shrubs that create vibrant ecosystem for bees and other pollinators,” said Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward. “We welcome this designation, and remain dedicated to enhancing and expanding this natural environment,” he said.

Bee City USA is an initiative of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation with a mission 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, 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.

The Foundation’s role is as an advisor and to oversee Gainesville’s Bee City USA Committee. The committee will include volunteers, agency and organizational partners, and city staff. There will be a quarterly meeting schedule and all meetings are open to the public. The inaugural meeting has been scheduled for February 6, 2023 at 10:00 AM at the Alachua County Library District headquarters library downtown in room B.

Learn more about protecting pollinators in your own landscape: https://www.flawildflowers.org/pollinators/