ENVIRONMENT
Bees Here Are Doing Fine But I’m Planting Wildflower Seeds Anyway
Because other pollinators may not be
Yesterday we went shopping for herbs and some potted plants. The young woman who helped us was very knowledgable, so much so that my wife made a point of saying “I hope you’ll be here when we come back next month.” The answer was unexpected and delightful.
“In the summer, I work as a scientist at a Brockton lab. We’re studying bees, so I won’t be here during that.”
I asked, “How are the bees doing?”
“Here in Plymouth County, the population is stable.”
I was surprised. You may have read concerns about bee die-offs, and so have I.
I would have loved to find out more, but my wife wanted to get going, so we wished our helper luck and headed home with our pots.
When we got back, I asked ChatGPT and learned that 40% of invertebrate pollinator species world-wide, including bees, are threatened by extinction. In the United States, the situation is not good in the West and Midwest but locally, where we live, the bees seem to be fine.
Coincidentally, I had already planted wildflower seeds in a raised garden in our backyard. I gave up trying to grow food there…
