Today, we’re thrilled to launch Wild Bee ID — a groundbreaking new website and app available on iPhones and Androids to help you protect our rapidly-dwindling pollinator populations right in your own backyard. Wild Bee ID identifies wild bees native to North America with striking photographs, the scientific and common names of the bee, where they’re typically found, what behaviors they exhibit, and which flowers will best allow different types of bees to thrive. If you don’t have an iPhone or Android, you can still identify bees and their favorite flowers with the Wild Bee ID website.
Seventy percent of the food we eat requires pollinators to survive. Several types of wild bees, like the Patagonia and rusty patched bumblebees, have gone extinct in the last few years in part due to the decreasing diversity of our agricultural landscape and increased use of pesticides. As natural areas are steadily diminished, our residential gardens can provide valuable habitat for many bees. We hope gardeners across the country will use the Wild Bee ID app to actively participate in the conservation of these vital pollinators. The website also features guides on how to start a wild bee garden, bee nesting habits, and bee anatomy to help you get started.
It’s not often that the average citizen can play such an important role in the conservation of a critical species. Help protect our rapidly-dwindling pollinator populations. Get the Wild Bee ID app on your phone now!
Protecting our rapidly-dwindling pollinator populations is a battle that also must be fought in Congress and in court. Wild Bee ID offers opportunities to write your legislators and urge them to strengthen pollinator protections. The website currently features an action component to urge Congressional representatives to support the Save America’s Pollinators Act, which would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take immediate action to protect bees from neonicotinoid insecticides.
Center for Food Safety (CFS) has been fighting for bees in court for over a decade, and we recently received a victorious decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California when the judge ruled that the EPA systematically violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) when it approved bee-killing insecticides known as neonicotinoids. As a result of our lawsuit, EPA will be required to address the impacts of two dangerous pesticides on endangered species and the industry will also withdraw 12 different neonic pesticides from the market.
Getting neonics off the market will do a lot to help our precious pollinators survive, but we need your help, too.
Download the Wild Bee ID to help bees survive and thrive while we still can.
Save The Bees Concert 