Bee City USA Initiative Embraced By Manassas City Council

MANASSAS, VA — The city of Manassas will be a haven for bees and other pollinators. Earlier this month, the Manassas City Council voted unanimously to participate in the Bee City USA initiative, a nationwide program designed to improve landscapes for pollinators.

Bee City USA is an initiative of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. The program intends to encourage communities across the county to protect pollinators by protecting their natural habitats.

The Manassas City Council embraced the initiative after months of encouragement by the city's Beautification Committee, according to a news release.

Communities that participate in Bee City USA are encouraged to provide a healthy and native natural habitat, without the use of insecticides. The program is designed to protect bees, moths, beetles, flies, and hummingbirds.

The Xerces Society claims that these pollinating animals are responsible for the reproduction of 90 percent of the planet's flowering plants. They also note that pollinators help create a third of all food consumed by humans.

As a Bee City USA affiliate, the City of Manassas will create an annual report on habitat enhancement activities, and hold regular public awareness activities.

Their first public awareness event will be a Bee Festival, held on June 26. The Bee Festival will be hosted at the Liberia House and Gardens at 8601 Portner Ave, and will feature live music, arts and crafts, and food and beer. The event will be free to the public.

"The City of Manassas Beautification Committee is honored to take part in saving this natural resource," Beautification Committee Chair Mark Olsen said. "Bees are very important to the ecosystem and keeping plants growing."

Scott Hoffman Black is the executive direct for Xerces. "The program aspires to make people more PC—pollinator conscious, that is," he said. "If lots of individuals and communities begin planting native, pesticide-free flowering trees, shrubs and perennials, it will create large-scale change for many, many species of pollinators."