The City of Calgary has been doing its part to make city landscaping more attractive to bees, and a recent discovery shows that the plan may be working.
The city recently created a pollinator-friendly corridor on Canyon Meadows Drive between MacLeod Trail and Bow Bottom Trail.
According to the city, the section of landscaping known as the Bee Boulevard is meant to reduce infrastructure and create a good environment for pollinators. It features native flowers, grasses and shrubs, and includes a park where people can look inside bee houses, and see the inner workings of a hive.
The idea for the Bee Boulevard came from David Misfeldt, boulevard maintenance technician from Calgary Roads.
“There are a lot of talented people at the city and when you tap into that it’s amazing what can get done,” the said in a city release. “By getting everyone involved and organized upfront we were able to get a lot more accomplished.”
The site uses re-purposed and recycled materials. Landscapers used logs from a Calgary golf course to make a bee nest. Concrete and sandstone boulders from road construction were recycled and used as well.
In 2018, researchers found a Gypsy Cuckoo Bumble Bee (Bombus Bohemicus) at the site, although it was not positively identified until the winter.
The Gypsy Cuckoo’s numbers have been in decline for the past 30 years, and it was added to the endangered species list in 2014.
