In celebration of National Pollinator Week in June, LEAD for Pollinators will be a featured speaker at the Northeast Ohio Pollinator Symposium & Summer Festival, Gateway Elementary School Auditorium & Outdoor Learning Center, 229 Gateway Avenue, Conneaut, Ohio 44030.

Join us from 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. for a day of pollinator education and celebration with speakers, tours, and vendors.  For more information select HERE

In January we gave a virtual presentation to the Lewis County Beekeepers Association in Washington state. Thanks for inviting us to speak about Pesticides and Beekeeping. It was great to see so many beekeepers online.

Email us today to schedule a speaker, virtually or on-site.

It has been an intensive work schedule for LEAD for Pollinators staff.  Staff have worked with nonprofits to develop their financial policies and procedures, operational systems, fiscal officer policies and procedures, and strategic plans. This work was provided to a new national nonprofit, an eight year old national nonprofit, and a Council of Governments.

In addition LEAD for Pollinators has advised a new urban farmer in pollinator habitat development as part of his agroforestry.

Currently, we are working with a beekeeper on their product development. In addition this year we worked to secure a revision of each of the noxious weed ordinances in Akron, Ohio and Summit County, Ohio making pollinator supportive plants legal.

Email us today to schedule a speaker, discuss a collaboration, or support the development of your nonprofit virtually or on-site.

LEAD for Pollinators and the Summit Food Coalition collaborated in revising the Noxious Weed ordinance 94.29 based on science. This change allows the Akron community to legally plant native plants, goldenrod, milkweed, and daisies to support migratory Monarch butterflies and other pollinators. During the March 21, 2022 Akron City Council meeting the revised ordinance passed unanimously. The revised ordinance aligns Akron’s noxious weed criteria with the State of Ohio list of noxious plants.

A coalition led by LEAD for Pollinators and the Summit Food Coalition is working to modernize ordinances concerning noxious weeds, pollinator habitat, beekeeping, and farming. The Coalitions’ focus is to support and improve the Akron community through cleaner water, reduced storm water run-off, small business development, reduced carbon emissions, increased natural pest control, beautification of our landscape, support of backyard and community gardens, urban farming, beekeeping, honey production, and a healthier ecosystem for all.  Our efforts involve breaking down the outdated ordinances into science-based, land and farm sustainability practices addressing beekeeping, farming, pollinator habitat, and noxious weeds. Sixty individuals, as well as local, state, and national groups expressed their support of changes to Akron’s farming, beekeeping, and plant species ordinances.

Councilwoman Nancy Holland moved the noxious weed revised ordinance along and was the Council sponsor supportive in working with the Coalition to ensure homeowners, retail nurseries, County Extension, and landscape designers can support customers and landowners in creating beautiful landscapes which also support pollinators. Under the old City Ordinance it was illegal to plant and grow goldenrod, milkweed, and daisies: all vital food and habitat for honey bees and native pollinators. The Coalition encouraged the City of Akron to align their Noxious Weed Ordinance with the State of Ohio’s noxious weeds list in ORC 901:5-37-01

Thank you to Councilwoman Holland and the unanimous vote of members of Akron City Council for their support of science, pollinators, and native plants in passing the revision to the noxious weed ordinance #94.29.

Another modernized ordinance to support pollinators, and join a state-wide effort to protect native plants from invasive weeds was passed at the County level in April. Michele Colopy, Executive Director of LEAD for Pollinators, testified to County Council in April seeking support of County Ordinance 2022-121. Thank you to County Councilwoman Veronica Sims, Council President Elizabeth Walters, and County Executive Ilene Shapiro and the unanimous vote of members of Summit County Rules Committee and Council for their support of science, pollinators, and native plants in passing the revision to the noxious weed ordinance. The modernized ordinance is HERE.

It is now legal to plant daisies, milkweed, and goldenrod across Summit County which will support the migration of Monarch butterflies as they fly to Canada in the spring, and to Mexico in the fall, and provide pollen and nectar for hundreds of Ohio’s native pollinators.

Our Beekeeping & Urban Farming Coalition will continue to support community gardens, urban farming, beekeeping, honey production, native pollinators, cleaner water, reduced storm water run-off, less carbon emissions, and a healthier ecosystem for the community.https://youtu.be/2bNtQyrfKnA

Providing Member Education in the 21^st Century

LEAD for Pollinators is a member of the MASSQuito Coalition. The MASSQuito Coalition is comprised of 15 local, regional, state, and national advocates working to protect public health and the environment.  For a healthy Massachusetts, citizens want a science-based, ecologically focused mosquito control plan that protects human health and sustainable, vibrant wetlands and rivers. Through science-based actions Massachusetts can institute practices to eliminate mosquito breeding areas created by building codes and storm-water systems. The public wants their tax dollars used effectively, and legislation would evaluate the effectiveness of education, personal protection, and source reduction versus spraying toxic chemicals across the state. Massachusetts residents want protection from mosquito borne diseases, but are deeply concerned about the impact of these toxic chemicals and the synergistic effects, lack of data on “inert” ingredients and their toxicities, and PFAS comprising these community-wide aerial chemical sprays.

Districts and municipalities want to protect the health of their communities for all residents including the soil, water, and air and all living organisms that comprise a healthy, sustainable, economically and biologically diverse Massachusetts.

Learn more about the work of the MASSQuito Coalition

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Abbe Hamilton

Agrichemical giant Bayer helped fund a study by university academics, then pressured them to omit photos that implicated a defective insecticide-treated seed product as a threat to bees, according to communications obtained by U.S. Right to Know.

Several seed and insecticide companies, including Bayer, paid Ohio State University researchers to determine how much their insecticide-coated seed products affected bees during corn planting season in 2014 and 2015. After the researchers presented their preliminary results to “stakeholders,” which included funders, a Bayer official asked that their final report exclude photos of insecticide-coated corn seeds in which the product appeared defective. He also urged the researchers to qualify statements in the final report that discussed threats to bee health in ways that benefited Bayer’s corporate interests.

The health demise of honey bees and native pollinators began before varroa mites. It began with mono-agriculture. It began with the love affair with lawns. It began with the unaware, over-use of pesticides. It began with the lack of concern about global pest and disease transmission through the introduction, intentional and non-intentional, of species from across oceans.

The media, who did not understand the factors impacting pollinator health, adopted the use of “three letters: CCD” to explain the unseasonal death of honey bee colonies. The pesticide industry, and policy makers, adopted the promotion of the “three letters,” even though the pesticide product labels clearly state the products are toxic to bees, and other invertebrates . . . and birds and fish . . . and humans, depending on the product. READ MORE

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