Tyler Bees Committee back together to brainstorm pollinator events, education

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - For the first time since the pandemic the Tyler Bees Committee got together to brainstorm outreach and educational material for the Tyler community.

Gardeners, a librarian, and just those interested in promoting a more bee friendly city were at the quarterly meeting tonight. Keep Tyler Beautiful Community Coordinator Erin Garner said Tyler has been a Bee City USA affiliate since 2019. Their goal is to sustain pollinators.

“There are a lot of pollinators out there, not just bees. There are bats, there are birds, beetles,” she said.

Bees are one of the largest groups of pollinators.

“They pollinate the most species of fruits, vegetables, different things like that. So they’re really important, not only to Texas, but to the world,” Garner said.

Tonight they brainstormed ideas for their upcoming events, Bee Day in the Garden and National Pollinator week. Education and outreach are two of their main goals.

“It’s really important to get pesticides that are dangerous to bees out of our maintenance plans across the city. It’s really important as homeowners, as people who have lawns, to think about that sort of thing,” she said. “Planting pollinator friendly gardens, just really getting that information out there so that we can be a more bee friendly city.”

Last year was their first Bee Day in the Garden event and they hope to invite out more people to learn about pollinators, how to help them, and possibly join their committee, as it’s still growing.

“We hosted a community outreach meeting a couple of weeks ago and we had 22 people show up. So it is a smaller group but that’s really exciting that we had that many people who were that interested to just come and learn,” Garner said.

Bee Day in the Garden is happening June 23 at the Tyler Rose Garden from 4-6 p.m. That week is also National Pollinator Week, June 20-26.

To learn more or get involved with their committee visit, Keep Tyler Beautiful.

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