A Good Place to Bee
How Redding Became Bee City USA…
There are around 1,600 species of native bees in California alone (the United States has about 3,600 species of bees total), and out of the 255 Bee City USA affiliates across America, one of them is right here in Redding, California.
Redding became an official Bee City USA back in spring of 2017, when University Preparatory School student Luke Blankenberg became interested in beekeeping. Along with advocating to allow beekeeping within city limits, Blankenberg researched what it took to become a Bee City.
He pledged to organize the committee, create an educational event, design a webpage and pay the initial registration fee toward the cause.
As an offshoot of The Xerces Society (a Portland-based nonprofit dedicated to invertebrate conservation), Bee City USA was formed to boost awareness and protect/improve habitats for our local pollinators. Considering that around 40 percent of invertebrate pollinator species throughout the world are on the verge of extinction due to habitat loss, pesticides, climate change and disease, Bee City USA is committed to keeping the dialogue going about communicating the role bees play in our communities with the hope that cities will support bees by providing them with a healthy habitat full of native plants that are free of pesticides.
City of Redding Director of Community Services Travis Menne was fresh into his job with the city when Blankenberg brought up the idea of Redding becoming a Bee City USA affiliate.
“A community member really spearheaded the effort. I had been at my job four months and learned a lot about the initiative,” Menne says. In looking further into it, he realized the City of Redding was already doing a lot within its Parks Department to cater to our local pollinators, such as regularly removing invasive plants from public open spaces, pruning native plants to keep them healthy and using pesticide sprays (when necessary) compliant with state mandates. It helps that Shasta County is rich in native agriculture.
“Ninety percent of the plants that grow here are pollinators,” Menne says. “We have things here that cater to them,” he adds, mentioning the pollinator area of its Riverfront Park.
The City of Redding also regularly uses erosion control pollinator seed mixes, and in its Carr Fire restoration efforts planted as many native wildflowers as it could. The city also participated in The Whole Earth and Watershed Festival for many years and still sets up a booth at Caldwell Park during Earth Day.
“We put signs up here and there and do vegetation management control to help with invasive species as well as mitigate fire risk. We do a lot of vegetation clean-up throughout the year,” Menne adds. At one point, they even collaborated with Turtle Bay to help propagate plants for the city. “In our parks projects, we use a lot of native plants,” Menne says.
Considering that the neighboring Palo Cedro is referred to as the Queen Bee Capital of the World and has held the popular Honey Bee Festival for 44 years running, it makes sense for the City of Redding to also embrace the honey-makers.
Menne himself has plenty of pollinator plants in his own yard. “Bees are all over,” he says. “I have a citronella plant, a lot of flowering trees and native flowers. It’s cool to see how many native plants were already here before.” A few of his favorite pollinator plants include the California Fuchsia, yarrow, the shrubby Western Redbud (with its pink and purple blooms), and California poppies—the last two being some of California bees’ favorite flowers.
Redding is one of the top 50 original Bee City USA affiliates that has continuously renewed its application every year, proving its ongoing commitment to local pollinators. And when there are happy bees, there’s a happy Redding. •
