Bee-utiful Port Barrington is a Bee City USA! Visit the Village Hall Raingardens and Bee Habitat! Buy “Bee Safe” Plants for your gardens!
The Village Board of Port Barrington voted in 2020 to accept certification as a Bee City USA. The Board’s action was is the culmination of months of effort by a committee dedicated to aid in the preservation of pollinators by providing them with a healthy habitat rich in a variety of native plants and free of insecticides. Pollinators such as bumble bees, honey bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, dragonflies, hummingbirds and many others are responsible for the production of almost ninety percent of the world’s flowering plant species and one in every three bites of food we consume! The Village is proud that these gardens support the mission to increase our pollinator population and to educate others on the ways they can also become engaged.
To learn more about Pollinator Preservation from the EPA, click here or from Bee City USA and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, click here
In 2020 Village received a $10,000 ComEd /Openlands Green Region grant for a project entitled “Village Hall Rain Garden and Bee Habitat.” This project helped install four mini “pocket gardens”, converting a patch of former asphalt and a swale of culvert into a bountiful bee & butterfly nectar bar! There are native plantings incorporated in the project that will help draw rainwater back into the ground quickly as it filters out pollutants such as oil and road salt residues from the parking lot. Formerly these pollutants would be captured by a storm sewer draining to Hermann Park Pond. In addition, two areas were planted for pollinators and are suited to catch rainwater from Village buildings. Supported by generous funding from ComEd and Openlands!! www.openlands.org
Educational signage was installed in these gardens in 2022. Come visit them!
Consider creating BEE habitat IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD! The more people and organizations that become involved, the sooner pollinator declines will BEE reversed! Check out these resources with more coming soon!
Native Plant List : Click below for a list of plants according to conditions
Dry Soil Mesic Prairies (medium or average soil moisture) Wetter soils
For Native Pollinator Plant Nurseries to purchase plants click >>here<<
For the Village of Port Barrington’s Integrated Pest Management Plan click >>here<<<
For information of buying “Bee Safe” plants click >>here<<