By Brett Yates
According to the Weybridge-based environmental organization Bee the Change, there are 17 species of bumblebees native to Vermont. Over the last 25 years, seven of them became endangered, and of those, four have now disappeared altogether.
“Our species has begun to crowd out others, and the race against extinction on our planet is more and more a contest for limited space,” the organization contends. “There are other important threats that butterflies, bees, beetles and other pollinators face — parasites, diseases and pesticides — but the principal and universal stress is the loss of critical habitat.”
The town of Pittsfield could soon become a small part of the solution, thanks to a prospective partnership approved by the Pittsfield Select Board on Feb. 17. Following correspondence that began last summer, board members agreed to invite Bee the Change to turn the former Abrams property on Lower Michigan Road into a habitat for pollinators by planting wildflowers this spring.
Should the project come to fruition, Bee the Change will cover the cost of the seeds and the labor, while Pittsfield will supply land already under municipal ownership.
Bee the Change’s website asserts that it has planted pollinator habitats in 25 towns and aims to expand to every municipality in Vermont, with a particular focus on targeting unused space on solar farms.
