In Hendersonville’s home in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, honeybees make most of their honey from trees, due to biologically diverse forests rich in basswood, tulip poplar, black locust, and sourwood trees, to name a few.
In crafting the Bee City USA concept, our steering committee considered Tree City USA an apt model because of how effective the program has been at garnering citizen and city staff support for maintaining a healthy urban canopy. Both that kind of community buy-in AND the urban canopy are vital to sustaining pollinators.
Now Hendersonville’s Tree Board, the committee designated to facilitate the community’s Bee City USA activities, wants to update their “Species List For Street Trees and Land Development Projects” to either include a section about trees of high value to pollinators or possibly color code pollinator friendly trees within each of the existing categories.
Thanks to the Tree Board, the Environmental Sustainability Board, and the Public Works Department for their vision and commitment to collaboration on behalf of pollinators!
