Sandy Wine with Bee City Phoenix helped plant a pollinator garden at Blue Heron Park in Phoenix.

As the 10th anniversary of Talent becoming the second Bee City USA in the nation approaches, a number of organizations are working to boost healthy habitat for pollinators in the Rogue Valley.

Ashland, Gold Hill, Medford and Phoenix also became Bee City USA affiliates. Southern Oregon University is a Bee Campus USA. Other organizations are working to help the pollinators.

After a year of work, Talent was granted Bee City USA status in 2014. Among requirements for the designation is the annual celebration of National Pollinator Week, adopting a Bee City resolution, posting pollinator information on the city website and formation of a pollinator subcommittee

“I think there is a lot of action happening by a lot groups. It’s amazing to see the strength that has been put into it all,” said Kristina Lefever, president of the nonprofit Pollinator Project Rogue Valley. Efforts by garden clubs and other groups are also helping efforts.

Work by Jackson County and other agencies that are doing a lot to return native plants as part of the Almeda Fire restoration deserve a shout-out, Lefever said. Their actions aid pollinators as well as waterways and fish.

PPRV has created 11 From Fire to Flowers pollinator gardens over the past year and a half. The project plants gardens when new homes are established to replace ones lost in the fire. Four gardens have gone into Bear Creek Mobile Home Park, just north of Ashland, where most of the 68 units were destroyed. The most recent garden was created in Phoenix.

“I know from observing pollinators that the gardens we have helped to put in are making a difference,” Lefever said. Oregon has over 700 species of native bees, 125 butterflies, beetles, wasps, humming birds and more that all serve as pollinators.

A wealth of information and links to services for helping pollinators are on the group’s website, pollinatorprojectroguevalley.org. The site also has a Rogue Buzzway interactive map where gardens can be self-certified for display.

Cascade Girl promotes pollinator efforts while also focusing on beekeeping. Group founder Sharon Schmidt and others work regularly on Bee City Phoenix undertakings. They helped put together this year’s Earth Day celebration in the town and help with certification of bee-friendly gardens.

“We are focusing the certification work with our team to certify their gardens as being bee-friendly,” Schmidt said. That includes having forage for all seasons, using non-neonicotinoid-raised flowers and seeds, and generally avoiding pesticide and herbicides.

Cascade Girl is also creating a pollinator garden with veterans at the Veterans Administration’s Rehabilitation Center & Clinics in White City. They have been holding classes on bee keeping at the facility and have an apiary there.

Cascade Girl’s Oregon Honey Festival will return next year after a hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic and Almeda Fire. The organization has signed a contract to hold it at EdenVale Winery next September.

Bee City USA, which is based in Portland, created 44 kits with 22 pollinator-friendly native plants in each and has awarded them to affiliates in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Medford, Talent and Phoenix affiliates were awarded kits, which came with a sign denoting the status.

Bee City Medford planted kits in pollinator gardens by the Santos Community Center, another by the Coyote Trails School of Nature and in Oregon Hills Park over the past several weeks, said Brooke Nuckles, a committee member.

“We collaborate with the city of Medford Parks and Recreation Department. The pollinator sites have all been established for at least three or four years,” Nuckles said. Medford’s group maintains the sites and also does education on the importance of native plants for pollinators.

Bee City Talent received an award of 44 plants. One of the kits was planted by the Community Center. The second kit will be planted at the intersection of Colver Road and Talent Avenue where the Oregon Department of Transportation recently turned over the land to the city.

“It makes a statement and is also of educational value,” said Gerlinde Smith, president of Bee City Talent. “People can learn about native plants.”

Talent now has 82 certified pollinator gardens.

Bee City Phoenix received three kits and recently completed planting 22 plants in the pollinator garden and another 22 in the community garden, both in Blue Heron Park. Another 22 plants will be installed next to the hives that Cascade Girl has at the VA in White City, said Sandy Wine, president of Bee City Phoenix.

About 10 home gardens were certified as pollinator gardens over the past year, Wine said. The Rotary Club of Bear Creek Valley has provided signs showing the status that can be installed.

Bee City Phoenix has also just been given approval by the city for use of Blue Heron Park for an Earth Day celebration April 20. The city waived the usual usage fee.

“It’s all about grassroots efforts where you want to get something done,” Wine said. “There’s a lot of people that are motivated when they want to make change.”

Lefever said, “I think we are very fortunate to be where we are in the Rogue Valley. There is so much interest and concern to help our many native pollinators. With the native plants, they make Southern Oregon what it is.”