Bee houses are one of the ways to keep our pollinator friends safe. Kevin Kyle/CHAT News

By Adrian St.Onge

Brooks bee-coming a more pollinator friendly city

Jun 18, 2024 | 4:55 PM

Brooks has taken up the mantle of a Bee City.

The city is hosting workshops this week to plant gardens with plants local to the city, planting edible gardens on the shores of Lake Stafford to encourage community gardens and creating small pollinator houses.

City officials like Ray Juska, a councillor, have been working with the community to encourage sustainability.

Juska hopes more cities in southern alberta start to embrace local pollinators as it’s nearing a world-wide epidemic.

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“It really is a planetary issue. Insects and so many life forms are under threat,” Juska told CHAT News on Tuesday.

“Everybody thinks of the bees and the mammals and that. But insects constitute a huge part of the biomass on Earth, and a very important part of that biomass,” he added.

“At the end of the day, you don’t have pollination, you have no food. So that’s the big picture. But on the small picture, the reason we can enjoy this kind of environment is because of things like the pollinators.”

Juska said that most cities will have annual flowers, plants who’s life cycle is only one season, but that they offer limited pollination options.

Aside from planting more pollinator-friendly plants, Juska said that one of the biggest keys to keeping pollinators alive is using less insecticides, adding that he’s glad bee friendly cities are becoming more and more common.

“If you were to go online, look at some of the projects and resources that cities like Lethbridge have done, for example, they’ve got some very good work that you can access online. We’ve got links to that on our website as well,” Juska said.

“I just think that with the way that environment has become such a topic of discussion and a concern, that people are just generally becoming aware of it.”