Newest Bee City USA, Talent, Ore., Goes Above and Beyond for Bees

Photo: Mail Tribune/Jamie Lusch

Ever since Talent became a Bee City USA community in early August, interest in helping the bees just keeps growing. On September 22, leader Dolly Warden spoke to the neighboring city of Ashland about why they should become a Bee City USA affiliate and described the process Talent had followed. They formed a grassroots group of citizens to educate themselves and then city council about why pollinators needed their help and how cities could make a difference. 

Bee City USA's application process helped them to develop a foundation--a standing committee, signage, website, plant list, annual proclamation and celebration--but the most important thing they did was to make the people of Talent more PC--pollinator conscious, that is. Now they have a pollinator garden at the elementary school, they're talking about a pollinator garden corridor throughout the town, and just yesterday, they pulled together a wide array of people and organizations to rescue a feral beehive wrapped around power lines 20 feet in the air.  Public Works staff even built a special box with an observation window to place the colony in, branch and all. It was a TV news event and applause erupted when the bees and their rescuer were safe and sound on the ground. Yay bees!  Yay Talent!

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