Plea for bees in the city hopes to overcome legislation and raise awareness for the plight of bees
By Timothy Schafer
The scholastic spelling bee notwithstanding, the keeping of domestic bees in the city has been forbidden for many years.
However, a plea for the keeping of bees is now being made for Nelson schools, launched by a Slocan Valley-based non-profit society that is requesting a change to the city's bylaws concerning the keeping of honeybee hives within the city limits.
The Bee Awareness Society's Linda Martin, the West Kootenay Beekeepers and the kindergarten class from the Wildflower School presented as a group to council recently on the prospect of placing observation bee hives in schools.
"The bylaw as it stands prevents us from placing our glass observation bee hives in the schools in Nelson, to educate the children on the life cycle of the honeybees and their importance in the food chain," said Martin, the secretary treasurer of the society.
The city’s Animal Control Bylaw currently prohibits beekeeping in Nelson and, therefore, placing observation bee hives in schools around Nelson would contravene the bylaw.
Wildflower School is requesting special permission to install the observation beehive for one year, from June, 2017 to June, 2018.
In April last year the society was incorporated as a non-profit society, with the first school bee pilot project taking place one year earlier at W.E. Graham School in Slocan.
During 2016 the society attended a festival in Nelson and Castlegar and received 14 requests for observation hives for spring 2017. In May, 2016 observation hives were placed in Columbia Park Elementary in Revelstoke, W.E. Graham, WInlaw Elementary and the Winlaw Whole School.
The kindergarten to Grade 2 class at Wildflower School — which has made the request for bees in Nelson — refers to itself as the Seedlings class.
"Seedlings, parents and teachers love to learn through inquiry projects, inviting the community into our classroom, and in this case, the colony into our classroom," said K-2 teacher at Wildflower, Laurryn Asbell, to council.
"We propose to install a single observation hive near a window, to include an access tunnel to the window, so that the bees can be free to pollinate our school garden and surrounding area while also educating our students, families, community members and other schools."
With the observation hive installed with one hive of bees and a queen all year round, Asbell felt the students and the Nelson community would benefit from the constant buzz, observations and, in particular, the learning that happens over time.
Since the request was made at a committee-of-the-whole meeting, a decision could not be made by council. A forthcoming decision is expected at the council regular meeting early next month.
Almost 90 per cent of the world's plants rely on pollinators like bees and butterflies for fertilization and reproduction, including over 70 per cent of the major crops that feed humanity — everything from apples, tomatoes, raspberries and peppers to chocolate, coffee and almonds.
However, pollinators are currently in trouble. Worldwide honeybee populations are in serious decline. Canada's over 800 species of wild bees are experiencing similar problems, as are species like monarch butterflies.
This is due to a variety of reasons, including loss of habitat, neonicotinoid pesticide use and mites.
"The good news is that we can all play an important role in bringing back and protecting these important pollinators, through initiatives like: installing the observation beehive at Wildflower School and educating children about bees and the importance that they play around our food security, planting bee and butterfly gardens, avoiding using pesticides and herbicides on our home lawns and gardens, taking action to encourage Health Canada to ban neonicotinoids," said Asbell in her report to council.
"We propose to be guardians of bees for educational and community awareness purposes and ... we hope to be pioneers in our community in raising awareness about the health and safety of bee populations. The observation beehive is a year round visual learning tool."
This week marks the provincial "Day of the Honeybee" on April 29 as the Ministry of Education recognizes the plight and importance of the honeybee, and is supporting bee health in the province.
"Bee populations are declining here in British Columbia and around the world; this is due to loss of habitat and food sources for bees," said Dave Byng, deputy minister for Education.
The provincial Ministry of Agriculture and B.C. Landscape and Nursery Association are working together to combat the issue and raise awareness.
As part of the effort, the province supports healthy bee populations by planting bee-friendly plants and, where possible, placing beehives at appropriate government buildings.
For more information on the province's Food for Bees program, go to www.gov.ca/foodforbees.