Terry Traver
Scandia Reporter
Members of the Friends of Scandia Parks and Trails are trying to make the city more desirable for pollinating bugs, such as butterflies and bees.
At the Feb. 3 Scandia City Council work session, Cristina de Sobrino and Karen Schik, members of the Friends group, spoke in support of a resolution de Sobrino had created and sent to City Administrator Neil Soltis recommending that Scandia become a pollinator-friendly city.
The women said that currently there are 10 such cities in Minnesota, including close neighbor Stillwater, St. Paul and Minneapolis. After viewing the last item of the resolution draft from de Sobrino asking the city to publish an annual pollinator-friendly city progress report, Mayor Randall Simonson was concerned about there being more work for Scandia staff, but de Sobrino insisted, “The resolution won’t cost the city any money or their employees any work.”
If the resolution to become a pollinator-friendly city is passed, Scandia would encourage a conducive atmosphere to pollination by attempting to avoid the use of pesticides that would harm pollinating bugs, installing pollinator-friendly and native plants and educating the community about how residents and businesses can be friendlier to pollinating bugs.
Honeybees, butterflies, bumble bees and native bees are examples of pollinators. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, pollination promotes well-balanced diets and healthy eco systems. Almost 90 percent of the world’s flowering plant species rely on animal pollinators.
Scandia is already a member of the Minnesota Green Step Cities, a state program started in 2010. A collaboration between public agencies and private partners, the goal of the program is to create a sustainable cities program that is free to cities and promotes sustainable practices for cities of any size. One of the many best practice actions recommended for parks and trails on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency website (where information on Green Step Cities is located) is creating bee- and monarch-butterfly-safe policies.
This also fits with support of a regional National Park Service initiative to establish a monarch butterfly corridor. The Obama administration announced the plan in 2015 to help the dwindling honeybee and monarch butterfly populations. The plan includes a 1,500-mile butterfly corridor along U.S. Interstate 35 that runs between Minnesota and Texas.
“Bee populations have declined over the last decade,” Schik said. “The benefits of pollination are numerous and include stimulating healthy and nutritious food growth of many of the vegetables we enjoy eating such as squash and peppers.”
No decision was made at the work session. Soltis said staff would prepare the resolution for the council’s next meeting.
“We only request that the city will take pollination into account as projects come along,” Schik said.