{"id":7617,"date":"2025-09-11T13:57:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T13:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/11\/columbia-becomes-a-bee-city-usa-affiliate\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T13:57:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T13:57:49","slug":"columbia-becomes-a-bee-city-usa-affiliate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/11\/columbia-becomes-a-bee-city-usa-affiliate\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbia Becomes a Bee City USA Affiliate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"114\" data-end=\"311\"><strong data-start=\"114\" data-end=\"128\">COLUMBIA &mdash;<\/strong> The City of Columbia has officially joined the growing list of communities across the nation dedicated to supporting pollinator health by becoming an affiliate of <strong data-start=\"292\" data-end=\"308\">Bee City USA<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"313\" data-end=\"587\">Bee City USA, an initiative of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, provides a framework for communities to conserve native pollinators through habitat creation, increased use of native plants, reduced reliance on pesticides, and education about biodiversity.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"589\" data-end=\"760\">On <strong data-start=\"592\" data-end=\"604\">August 5<\/strong>, Columbia City Council unanimously voted in favor of the designation following a presentation to the Health, Social, and Environmental Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"762\" data-end=\"1097\">&ldquo;City Council&rsquo;s unanimous vote to become a Bee City USA is evidence we understand the importance of sustaining pollinators, and we want to make Columbia even more pollinator friendly,&rdquo; said Mayor <strong data-start=\"958\" data-end=\"979\">Daniel Rickenmann<\/strong>. &ldquo;We are grateful to CPAC members for bringing this opportunity to our attention; it is something to bee proud of.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1099\" data-end=\"1402\">Native bees and pollinators play a critical role in the reproduction of more than <strong data-start=\"1181\" data-end=\"1215\">85 percent of flowering plants<\/strong> and <strong data-start=\"1220\" data-end=\"1256\">67 percent of agricultural crops<\/strong>. By joining Bee City USA, Columbia commits to creating native habitats, protecting pollinators, and educating residents about their importance.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1404\" data-end=\"1777\">&ldquo;We are thrilled to have Columbia join the Bee City USA community,&rdquo; said <strong data-start=\"1477\" data-end=\"1491\">Laura Rost<\/strong>, National Coordinator of Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA. &ldquo;There are so many creative ways to integrate quality native pollinator habitat into the city&rsquo;s landscape&mdash;from street trees to green roofs&mdash;and I am excited to see how Columbia carries out its pollinator conservation efforts.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1779\" data-end=\"1868\">Columbia becomes <strong data-start=\"1796\" data-end=\"1836\">the fifth Bee City in South Carolina<\/strong> and the <strong data-start=\"1845\" data-end=\"1865\">240th nationwide<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1779\" data-end=\"1868\">For more information about Bee City USA, visit <a class=\"decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beecityusa.org\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\" data-start=\"1917\" data-end=\"1965\">www.beecityusa.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COLUMBIA &mdash; The City of Columbia has officially joined the growing list of communities across the nation dedicated to supporting pollinator health by becoming an affiliate of Bee City USA. Bee City USA, an initiative of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, provides a framework for communities to conserve native<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/11\/columbia-becomes-a-bee-city-usa-affiliate\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[1146,463],"class_list":["entry","author-john-griggs","post-7617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-community-news","tag-bee-city","tag-recognition"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gpstrianglenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Bee-City-sign_2025_630x350.jpg?fit=630%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7619,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7617\/revisions\/7619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}