Residents Asked to ‘Bee Alert’ for Native Bees

A Woodinville group aimed at supporting sustainable living is pairing with a local business to improve native bee pollination in the Sammamish Valley and surrounding areas.

Transition Woodinville, a part of the Sammamish Valley Grange, and Crown Bees are launching what they’re calling a “Summer Bee Alert” research project aimed at boosting the population of native bees such as mason bees.

“Honey bees and bumble bees are ‘social’ bees that live in hives. These non-native bees are in decline nationwide,” they said in a notice about the project. “Solitary, native bees are much gentler, with many using holes to nest in. The spring mason bee is a great example.

“This summer, residents of the Sammamish Valley and plateau are invited to set out nesting bee tubes and be on the lookout for “cavity nesting” bees that use holes or the inside of old blackberry canes.”

The Sammamish Valley, of course, is just east of Rose Hill and Kirkland, where native bees are also increasingly important pollinators.

To learn more about the project, click here.