BEE SAFE BOULDER. Annual. Report

Transcription

1 BEE SAFE BOULDER Annual 2014 Report The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors, but because she labors for others. - Saint John Chrysostom

2 Organizational Information Founders: David Wheeler Molly Greacen Executive Director: David Wheeler Community Outreach Coordinator: Kristin Reynolds Advisory Board Members: Michael Brawner: Owner, Harlequin's Garden Molly Greacen: Co-Founder of Bee Safe Boulder Cosima Krueger-Cunningham: Sierra Club Activist Bill Melvin: Owner, Ecoscape Landscaping Design Mike Merritt: Bee Safe Neighborhood Coordinator Chad Street: Owner, Bees and Trees Drew Toher: Beyond Pesticides (Washington, DC) Mike Wade: Owner, BBB Organic Seed Company Address: 3550 Catalpa Way Boulder, CO (303) Phone: Bee Safe Boulder holds 501(c)(3) nonprofit status through the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, a Boulder nonprofit 501c organization.

3 Letter From Our Co-Founders We at Bee Safe Boulder are encouraged, excited, and inspired by all that we have accomplished in this past year. David Wheeler, Co-Founder We have become known nationally and even internationally for our work, and have created a national conversation about changing pesticide use on lawns and gardens. We now find ourselves at a point in our evolution where we need to expand in order to continue to address the increasingly urgent, toxic chemical pesticide-free, safehabitat needs of bees in Boulder County, Colorado and beyond. With this annual report, we extend a big "thank you" to our supportersfrom us and pollinators alike! We are beyond gracious for the many volunteers, contributors, and experts who have aided us in the past year, and look forward to seeing what this next year has in store for all of us. With Gratitude, Molly Greacen, Co-Founder David Wheeler & Molly Greacen BSB MISSION STATEMENT The mission of Bee Safe Boulder is to create cleaner, healthier, and more biologically diverse environments- one neighborhood at a time- that are safe for bees and other pollinators. community To achieve our mission, we use a three-pronged approach of community, education, and collaboration. education collaboration

4 May May 2015: Year In Review 918 people living in cities across the United 8 bee safe pledges from States, effectively preventing the use of nationwide. We assembled an Advisory Board made up of local and national experts and enthusiasts to assist in making big decisions and implementing projects. We hired a staff member to manage volunteer coordination, community devo, & social media. BSB Co-Founder Molly Greacen speaking at city council on may 5, 2015 We worked with the City of Boulder to pass a resolution prohibiting the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on city property. We provided educational materials to 5 schools in Boulder County to celebrate bees on earth day. We created a website, BeeSafeBoulder.com, that contains resources and information for gardeners, homeowners, community organizers, & educators. We presented at Beyond Pesticide s 33rd National Pesticide Forum in Orlando, Florida Financial Expenses T-Shirts, Yard Signs, & Yard Flags Web/Graphic Design Advertising Misc. Costs Printing Website Hosting/URL TOTAL $1467 $1025 $800 $600 $400 $160 $4452 We did all of this while spending less than $4500 We reached 500 "likes" on Facebook! 38.5 liters of residential neonicotinoids,, Collected We assisted in creating 8 Bee Safe Neighborhoods and Communities & campaigned 18 local plant retailers to pledge to offer neonic-free plants. Bee Safe Boulder has been more effective in creating positive change in this past year than decades of advocacy by the big money environmental groups. The only effective way to change is from the bottom up,,, one neighborhood at a time. David Braden Executive Director, Living Systems Institute

5 This Year's Biggest Accomplishments from BSB's Co-Founder, Molly Greacen Canvassing our neighborhood, Melody Catalpa, and becoming the 1. first bee safe neighborhood in the world. We got close to 200 residential bee safe pledges in three weeks with 20 neighborhood volunteers. Organizing volunteers to campaign 130 businesses in Boulder 2. County asking for bee safe pledges. These efforts resulted in 26 businesses pledging and has, furthermore, forced commercial growers in Colorado to change their growing practices to meet consumer demand for neonic-free plants. Collaborating with City of Boulder officials to pass a bee safe 3. resolution, banning the use of neonicotinoids on city property. The resolution was introduced on May 5th, Drastically increasing public knowledge about bee decline and 4. pesticide dangers. BSB has become known all over Boulder county in just one year. Neighborhoods, businesses, and even neighboring cities are reaching out to us to replicate what we ve done! "The Boulder Bee Safe Neighborhood group has, in the space of only nine months, catapulted Boulder into the realm of international leadership in reversing the falling domino pattern of species decline caused by these persistent, systemic poisons. We now need to put our best efforts behind the Bee Safe Neighborhoods movement. If top-down regulatory controls remain outside of our ability to influence... then supporting the rapid spread of the Bee Safe Neighborhoods movement and related bottom-up consumer boycott movements, is arguably the best use of our time, money and energy. -Cosima Krueger-Cunningham, Sierra Club Indian Peaks Group