Three years after starting the Bee Friendly Reno campaign with a small but mighty “pollinator posse,” Melissa Gilbert with the Reno Food Systems has been working on the state version Bee Friendly Nevada, with a new website, a big campaign kickoff, a press release urging people to sign a pledge and new blue and yellow signs now being sent across the state.
In Gilbert’s own front yard in Midtown, where she’s created a healthy habitat for pollinators, bees happily buzz around.
The campaign sponsored by the Help Save the Bees Foundation supports residents who without any pesticides plant pollinator gardens with water sources for bees and other pollinators.
“This campaign was created to create dialogue between neighbors and says, you know, take the pledge. We have a pledge that says we won't use pesticides. You'll leave water out and you'll plant organic plants,” Gilbert explained.
The new statewide expansion comes after the 2023 passage of AB 162 banning the non-agricultural use of neonicotinoids, making Nevada one of a handful of states to ban outdoor, non-agricultural uses of neurotoxic neonic pesticides.
“There is what is called insect apocalypse and 40% of species are going extinct,” Gilbert said of the importance of attracting bees, who enjoy sweet smelling blue, purple and yellow flowers. “And so by creating a garden in your front yard, you create habitat. And the good news is that insects are really resilient and they respond well. So when you do go down this path of having pollinator plants in your garden, you get the joy of seeing all the insects.”
It’s not just about bees, Gilbert says, but all pollinators, such as flies, butterflies, moths and beetles to name a few. “They pollinate our food. So without pollination, food crops decline and it has a very serious impact. So if all of us get together, it's one of those things that I feel like when people feel helpless about a situation, it's so nice to have a concrete thing that you can do.”
Getting away from lawns is a first step in the process, Gilbert explains. “I was the first house on the block to go woodchip,” she remembers. “I had a lawn when we bought the house and I killed it almost immediately with a good couple of feet of woodchips. Especially in a desert state like Nevada, the sort of a green lawn paradise was, you know, bad for many reasons. A couple of years it just sat like that. I watered it. It kind of turned into beautiful dirt. And then I got to plant plants.”
For those who want to keep some lawn, she says they can start a pollinator patch or switch out their lawn for a clover one, or even just mow less often.
“Nevada is interesting because we actually have 25% of all native bees species. So out of 4000 we have a thousand…The more habitat and the more native plants that we can plant, the better chance we have of creating a safe place for these very important species,” she concluded.
“We think of them as tiny. But the reality is that our fate is completely interconnected with the bees. And I think more and more people are realizing that. And this campaign really tries to support people to do something. You know, we are coming into a time where everybody needs to do their part.”