Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds were abuzz last month at an event that celebrated the dedication of the Panorama Retirement Community's new "Pollinator Garden" and the signing of a multi-jurisdictional agreement banning the use of certain pesticides on local government properties that are known to be harmful to bees and other beneficial insects.

The garden features a wide variety of flowering shrubs and plants that are favored by bees, hummingbirds, and other insects and animals that are key to the environment and to sustaining local agriculture. The demonstration garden will be a chemical-free safe haven for pollinators and other wildlife.

Thurston County also took this opportunity to recognize our partnering jurisdictions who signed on to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) last Spring. Through the MOU, the cities of Olympia and Tumwater, the LOTT Clean Water Alliance, the Nisqually Land Trust and the County all banned the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on their public properties and facilities.

The agreement protects nearly 13,000 acres of land throughout Thurston County from these types of systemic pesticides that make pollen and nectar poisonous to pollinators and have been linked to the decimation of bee colonies in North America and around the world.

In 2013, the European Union instituted a two-year moratorium on the use of the harmful chemicals, while in the United States the cities of Seattle, WA; Spokane, WA; Eugene, OR; and Sherwood, MN have all instituted bans against municipal use.

To learn more about the local effort to help protect pollinators click here.