September is Bee Aware Month and there’s a real buzz around Wellington City Council as we help raise awareness around the crucial role bees play in our lives.
The Council works with community groups and stakeholders to deliver a series of events to spread the word about our honey making friends – and to encourage residents to get involved and make a difference too.
Mayor Celia Wade-Brown says Bee Aware Month is a great opportunity to highlight the importance of bees and their pollination to Wellington and New Zealand.
“Our native bees are important to our urban ecology, and honey bee pollination is essential to our wider food production systems.
“Wellington City Council is aiming to be a completely bee-friendly city and we are working towards that through things like including using non-toxic products on our plants, growing seasonal flowers to support bee populations’ delicate ecosystems, and having bee hives on public reserves,” says the Mayor.
The bee population in New Zealand contributes about $5 billion to the country’s economy annually and supports about one third of everything we eat.
The Council’s Urban Agriculturist, Sarah Adams, is focused on creating a resilient and sustainable city and says bees are a low cost, but critical, investment for our growing population.
“The simple action of planting your garden with flowering plants year round, especially winter flowering, makes a difference to our urban bees who often suffer from a lack of variety of food.
“Many of the events happening over Bee Aware Month will focus on asking and answering questions about bees, but there’ll also be fun bee-related activities and tips about beekeeping, and of course there’ll be plenty of honey.”
Check out our information about Bee Aware Month and get some useful tips about how to be bee-friendly.