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Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/510169
www.urban-forestry.com 23 Bee City USA (beecityusa.org) Bee City USA encourages city leaders to celebrate and raise awareness of the contribution bees and other pollinators make to our world. Launched in 2012, the Bee City USA program endors- es a set of standards, defined in a resolution, for creating sus- tainable habitats for pollinators, which are vital to feeding the planet. Cities, towns, and commu- nities across America are invited to adopt these standards and become a Bee City USA affiliate. In 2006 when honeybee colonies started disappearing, later dubbed "Colony Collapse Disorder," bee- keepers and non-beekeepers alike became very concerned. After all, one in every three bites of food we eat is courtesy of insect pollination. Equally import- ant, 85% of flowering plants and trees rely on pollinators for the survival of their species. While less is known about native bees and other pollinators, we do know that entire species are disap- pearing at alarming rates as they battle most of the same enemies as honeybees—loss of habitat essential for food and shelter, inappropriate pesticide use, dis- eases, and parasites. The inaugural Bee City USA was Asheville, North Carolina. (Hoping that Asheville would launch a movement across the nation, members of the Buncombe County Chapter of the NC State Beekeepers Association established Bee City USA.) Communities that followed were Carrboro and Matthews, North Carolina; Talent and Ashland, Oregon; and Clarkson, Kentucky. On April 8, 2015, Southern Oregon University (SOU) and Bee City USA launched the national Bee Campus USA pro- gram, designed to marshal the strengths of college campuses for the benefit of pollinators. The University collaborated with Bee City USA on develop- ing the guidelines for certifica- tion after being inspired by two of the early adopters of Bee City USA—SOU's hometown of Ashland, and neighboring Talent, Oregon. All honeybees found in the United States belong to the genus Apis and are considered imports to the New World. Both the European honeybee (EHB) and the African honeybee (AHB) are subspecies of the western honeybee, Apis mellifera. The EHB was first introduced to the Americas by European colonists and has been popular for centuries because of its high lev- els of honey production and importance as a pollinator, as well as for its docile behavior and reduced tendency to swarm or split colonies. While the EHB was found to be a prolific honey pro- ducer in temperate North America, its performance was less noteworthy in the tropical and subtropical climates of Central and South America. As a result, the AHB was brought to Brazil in the 1950s as part of breeding efforts designed to increase honey production. During this time, several queen AHBs were accidentally released, thrived in the local environment, and began a northern and southern migration. Although slightly smaller (approximately 10%) in size, the AHB is not visually distinguishable from the EHB