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Mono buzzes in to become the 16th Bee City in Canada

June 29, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Jasen Obermeyer

The buzz around Mono recently is the town’s designation as a Bee City, thanks to its pollinator garden on Hockley Road.

The Town is the 16th Bee City in Canada; others include Newmarket, Waterloo, Niagara Falls and Kitchener. The Town earned its designation by creating the pollinator garden and for its efforts to protect pollinators and promote native plants. Councillors Ralph Manktelow and Sharon Martin initiated the garden.

“It’s very satisfying,” Councillor Manktelow told the Citizen on the designation, reiterating how Mono is big on being environmentally friendly.

Volunteers have worked the two-acre plot of land just east of Highway 10 since 2016. Now, over 2,200 perennials and trees have been planted, walking trails have been created, and signage was recently installed to help educate the public.

“The concept is primarily educational. It has a value of course, locally for various pollinator insects, but the main value of it is educating all of our members of the community,” explained Councillor Manktelow, who added that he is impressed with how well the work has been done in such quick time.

According to Bee City Canada’s website, “Mono has been advocating against the use of neonicotinoids and has undertaken a number of reforesting projects resulting in over 30,000 trees being planted over the past two years.”

The Town also has a program where they sell over 6,000 native species of trees and shrubs to residents every year at a nursery’s wholesale prices.

The organization’s mission is to “inspire cities, towns, First Nations, schools, businesses and other organizations to take action to protect pollinators.”

Councillor Manktelow also added that they are starting to work with the schools on education and getting the students to visit the garden, in the hopes of getting their parents involved and spreading interest.

For additional information visit www.beecitycanada.org.

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