Lake Oswego is a bee city — so what does that entail?

Did you know that Lake Oswego is a bee city?

The Lake Oswego City Council adopted a resolution for the town to join 201 others across the nation in the Bee City USA program last September.

Affiliates within the program must commit to protecting pollinators. Some of Lake Oswego’s commitments include hosting at least one celebration or pollinator planting event every year, developing a program to foster pollinator-friendly habitats, adopting an integrated pest management plan and reorienting other city planning to include the protection of pollinators.

Lake Oswego has an integrated pest plan and will raise awareness about pollinator protection at its upcoming Farmers Market starting this spring. The city is also hosting a Trees for Pollinators Workshop at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 13 at Iron Mountain Park and has ongoing stewardship opportunities to protect native species and pollinators.

As the city website notes, pollinators are not limited to bees and can also include ants, bats, beetles, birds, butterflies, flies, moths, wasps, reptiles, small animals and spiders. Further, the city website states that pollinators “are responsible for the reproduction of over 85% of all flowering plants and over three-quarters of agricultural crops.”

The Bee City program was created by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Some of its goals are to reduce the use of pesticides that can harm pollinators and to create and enhance pollinator habitats.

“Bee City USA provides a framework for communities to work together to conserve native pollinators by increasing the abundance of native plants, providing nest sites, and reducing the use of pesticides,” the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation website reads.

For more information about Lake Oswego’s program, visit www.ci.oswego.or.us/parksrec/bee-city-0.