Partners

Another Great Year!

Déc 21, 2018 | Entreprises des abeilles, Campus des abeilles, Villes des abeilles, Écoles des abeilles, Featured, News, Nos partenaires

Dear friends,

2018 proved to be another exciting and encouraging year at Bee City Canada, with an ever-expanding list of cities, towns, schools, businesses and other organizations stepping forward and committing to protect the health of our pollinators. By year’s end:

13 new cities and towns joined us bringing our current total to 22 Bee Cities, spanning from British Columbia to New Brunswick.
11 new businesses and other organizations, including Le zoo de Calgary, were designated Bee Businesses.
21 Bee Schools, such as The University of Guelph, Université Western and Fleming College, committed to educational activities, creating healthy habitats on school grounds and celebrating pollinators!

Looking Ahead

Early signs for things to come in 2019 have us further excited!

More Bee City Communities – We have been in contact with several new cities, businesses and schools that plan to join our growing Bee City family in the new year.
Free Webinars – Look out for our free, public webinars featuring experts on pollinators, plants and other subjects.

We close off by wholeheartedly thanking you, our friends across Canada and elsewhere, for your continued support and commitment to protecting our cherished pollinators. 2019 promises to be another busy year and we look forward to it with much anticipation.

Happy Holidays!

The Bee City Canada team

Please Support our Work

Bee City Canada depends on the generosity of our donors and sponsors. With your help, we can continue to support our school programs, educational activities and work towards creating a more pollinator-friendly Canada.

Make A Donation

Bee City Canada is a federally-recognized charity, registration number 745761692 RR0001.

Wild at Heart: Wild About Wildlife and Pollinators!

Juil 19, 2018 | Entreprises des abeilles, Gardens, News, Nos partenaires

Take a moment and think about a wildlife rehabilitation centre: do images of injured turtles, sick owls, and orphaned deer fawns and racoons come to mind? Probably! How about insects and pollinators? Maybe not, but Wild at Heart is hoping to change your mind about what wildlife centres do.

Who is Wild at Heart?

Located in Lively, Ontario, Refuge pour la vie sauvage Wild at Heart is a wildlife rehabilitation centre focused on providing quality veterinary care to northern Ontario’s injured, sick, and orphaned wildlife. Our goal is to release all admitted animals back into the wild, helping to ensure the health of the habitats that these animals call home. We also focus on protecting nature through our educational and outreach programming.

Child completing a turtle shell repair craft at Wild at Heart’s Pollinator Garden “Grand Opening” event, held June 24, 2017

Healthy Ecosystems for All

We also firmly believe that a healthy ecosystem means everything is healthy: people, animals, insects, vegetation, and water systems. Pollinators, like bumblebees, hummingbirds, bats, and butterflies, are critical to maintaining biodiversity by ensuring that plants can reproduce through pollination. We are very excited about our partnership with Bee City Canada through the Bee City Business Program and looking forward to working together to bring greater awareness about how individuals and communities can make positive changes to help these incredible and essential insects and animals.

Wild Lupin found in Wild at Heart’s pollinator garden being pollinated by solitary wild bee.

Pollinator Garden Celebration

In June 2017, Wild at Heart celebrated the “Grand Opening” of our pollinator garden during National Pollinator Week, thanks to a grant from BEAN. The event, which drew families and others from nearby communities, featured an expert gardener, tomato and milkweed plant giveaways, and fun activities for all. Our guests learned about the native plants in our garden, as well as healthy gardening practices, like using a rain barrel, compost, natural mulch, and weeding techniques. We were very pleased by the positive comments from our visitors, and since this event, our new garden had been recognized through the Canadian Wildlife Federation’s Backyard Habitat Certification program!

Road sign for Wild at Heart’s pollinator garden “Grand Opening” event, held June 24, 2017.

Watering our pollinator garden with water collected in our rain barrel.

Get Involved and Learn with Wild at Heart!

We invite you to join one of Wild at Heart’s education workshops, which are available for classrooms, seniors’ and community groups, and birthday celebrations. Check out http://wahrefugecentre.org for more information.

Don’t live in Sudbury? You can support Wild at Heart by purchasing a yearly membership, or symbolically adopting an animal, like a moose, snowy owl, Blanding’s turtle, or red fox.

Connect with Wild at Heart:

Website: http://wahrefugecentre.org
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter: @WAHRefugeCentre
YouTube: @babooshka152

Monica Seidel

This featured post was written by Monica Seidel, an Environmental Science graduate from Queen’s University who began working at Wild at Heart after completing their volunteer animal care internship. She has a passion for creating online educational content, and empowering children to learn about wildlife and the environment, and how they can make a positive, and often local, impact.

Bee City School Garden Project Breaks Ground

Mai 15, 2018 | Écoles des abeilles, Gardens, News, Nos partenaires, School Garden

Planting and tending to a garden teaches us many important things about nature, pollinators and where our food comes from, which is why we’re extremely excited about Bee City Canada’s School Gardens project, which kicked-off this spring.

Bee City Canada founder Shelly Candel speaks with students and teachers at North Bendale Public School. The Bee City team visited all participating schools during the winter to talk about plants, pollinators and begin the garden planning process.

This initiative, which is being generously supported by the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation et l'outil de sélection des plantes Patagonia, is bringing pollinator, herb and edible gardens to several Toronto-area schools including Tredway Woodsworth and North Bendale Public Schools in Scarborough, Valley Park Middle School and Marc Garneau Collegiate in Thorncliffe as well as Cottingham Junior Public School in Summerhill.

Students learned that an essential step of establishing a garden is creating a good design and plan.

Why Gardens?

Through the simple task of gardening, children and communities can become more connected with nature, especially those in highly urbanized environments. looking after a garden also promotes physical activity, self-sufficiency and encourages healthier eating that includes more fruit and vegetables. In addition, there have been studies which suggest that students who are exposed to outdoor learning activities can perform better academically.

Building the Gardens

As I write this, the first and most laborious phase of the project is taking place. Truckloads of compost, which will serve as the base for the gardens, have started arriving at the schools and the students have taken up shovels, rakes and wheelbarrows to begin shaping the planting areas. Seed for hardier, cold-tolerant varieties of plants, like kale, swiss chard and lettuce, are being sown directly into the beds, while more tender varieties will be planted as the risk of frost passes. Several other plants have been started by the students in their classrooms. These are providing an excellent opportunity to observe the growing process up-close and will eventually find their way into the gardens.

Starting seeds.

Next Steps

By mid-June, all planting will be completed and focus will shift to the maintenance phase of the project, which will include tasks like watering, weeding and looking after any potential problems. Our hope is that the students will have learned a great deal through their work in the garden and, with good fortune and the right weather, can harvest, enjoy and share the fruits of their labour throughout the summer months.

We’ll “bee” updating our blog with more photos and our latest school garden news throughout the growing season so, please make sure to check back to see what’s “growing” on!

A Great Year at Bee City Canada!

Déc 20, 2017 | Entreprises des abeilles, Campus des abeilles, Villes des abeilles, Écoles des abeilles, News, Nos partenaires

With the end of the year approaching, we share with you Bee City Canada’s highlights for 2017 and plans for the future.

Bee Cities from coast to coast! Eight new cities joined us, bringing our current total to 10 Bee Cities, spanning from British Columbia to New Brunswick.

Businesses are helping pollinators! Businesses and organizations, like West Queen West BIA et l'outil de sélection des plantes The Bee Shop, have partnered with us through our new Bee Business program. Also, generous support from A. Vogel et l'outil de sélection des plantes Movieposter.com helped us to continue to advocate for pollinators.

Schools are buzzing! Gardens were planted, seeds were saved and young minds at our six Bee Schools et l'outil de sélection des plantes one Bee Campus learned many important things about bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

Much Anticipation for 2018

Our plans for the new year include some exciting, new initiatives.

More Bee Communities – Keep Bee City growing by adding:

10 new Bee Cities
50 Bee Businesses and organizations, and
20 new Bee Schools and Campuses.

New initiatives:

Launch a free regional native seed giveaway program for all Bee Cities and other members.
Establish six edible and pollinator gardens at schools.
Organize workshops and field trips to connect students with how food is grown.
Host free public webinars featuring experts on pollinators and other subjects.

Support our Work

As a charitable organization, our work depends on the generosity of our donors and sponsors. We are confident that, with your help, we can continue to support these initiatives and advocate for the protection of pollinators across Canada.

Make a donation!

We close off by wholeheartedly thanking you, our friends across Canada and elsewhere, for your continued support and commitment to our cherished pollinators. 2018 promises to be another busy year and we look forward to it with much anticipation.

Happy holidays to you and your families!

The Bee City Canada team

West Queen West Becomes First Bee City Business in Canada

Nov 8, 2017 | Entreprises des abeilles, Events, News, Nos partenaires

Bee City Canada is very excited to announce the launch of the Bee City Business program along with a partnership with the West Queen West Business Improvement Association (WQW BIA), the first participant in this new initiative!

The Bee City Business program opens the door to businesses and non-profit organizations wishing to join the growing Bee City family. More importantly, it provides an opportunity for businesses to show that they are socially responsible and committed to taking actions that will help our troubled pollinators.

West Queen West recently introduced their “Pollinator Paradise” project, creating Toronto’s first bee-friendly streetscape. The strip of Queen street between Bathurst Street and Gladstone Avenue has been lined with large, artfully decorated, concrete planters seeded with a mix of pollinator, edible, and medicinal plants. Several bee hotels have also been installed on 10-foot-high birch poles that have been set in the planters. Work for this project was done with the help of Restorative Landscapes and has received positive reviews from area residents, visitors, local businesses and, quite certainly, Toronto’s pollinators!

Rob Sysak, the Executive Director of the WQW BIA explained why the project became a priority for this community.

“The bee population loss is such a big problem and sometimes it seems overwhelming. People ask themselves; what can I do, I’m just one person? Well, WQW believe that even though we are only a 2-kilometre strip in a large city, if we take care of our area and become a “Pollinator’s Paradise”, we will not only help pollinators but also become an example to others.”

Planter and bee hotel. Photo by Nick Savva.

Shelly Candel, the founder of Bee City Canada, agrees and points to this initiative as an example of how businesses can act to help our troubled pollinators. “There’s an opportunity for businesses to take a leadership role to make things better for pollinators. The WQW BIA has found a clever way to do this. They’ve beautified their neighbourhood, making it more attractive to visitors and residents, while also helping pollinators in the city. Visitors to the area love how great everything looks, the business owners fully support the initiative and the bees are happy. It’s truly a win-win scenario!”

Planters and seating at the corner of Queen and Tecumseth are inviting for area visitors, the local community and pollinators. Photo by Nick Savva.

Saving the Bees at Stirling Public School

Juin 7, 2017 | Écoles des abeilles, Events, News, Nos partenaires, Pollinator Week

Stirling Public School’s super exciting actions to save the bees.

They recently become a Bee City Canada School and their garden is already growing!

Mrs. Mossman-Cross' Grade 1 Class

At Fun Fairs selling Wildflower Seed Paper and A. Vogel Echinacea seeds, using QR codes to explain pollinator decline, Stirling has shown what a lot of love and collective effort can achieve. Seeds are the very life that bees bring us, they keep ecologies healthy and diverse.

The seed paper allows them to make their pollinator garden even more beautiful and it is perfect for sharing with others who want to help feed pollinators too.

As you can see, the students in Miss Lee-Cook’s class make habitat creation for bees and butterflies a super fun event.

Makes you want to jump out and plant a garden!

Many hands dug into the earth, and together this delightful community of students and teachers created a place of beauty and bounty.

We are so thrilled that Mrs. Mossman-Cross and her class connected us with their fellow nature lovers at Stirling P.S., we can’t wait to meet them all!

Meeting the pollinators in their garden is going to be great too! Hello Bees!