[1]Prince Edward County Council will meet at the end of next month to discuss changing a grass cutting by-law to benefit bees.
By Dylan O’Hagan [2]
BELLEVILLE – Prince Edward County council is considering a change to its grass-cutting by-law that would benefit bees and beekeepers alike.
The proposed change is to encourage the pollination of honey bees and other pollinators through designated nature zones or pollinator friendly zones.
The by-law would exempt landowners with over one acre of vacant property from cutting down vegetation. They would only have to cut a 2.5 metre buffer zone around the property.
Prince Edward County Council received a complaint in August of 2013 about the current grass cutting by-law. Pierre Klein, an owner of over 10 acres made the complaint, saying the by-law conflicted with efforts to increase greenspace and habitat for bees. He said, the old by-law did not take the environment into account.
“The difficulty was that I have a very large property with a lot of acreage and fields. The issue was that municipal by-law required the fields to be cut based on a very old by-law that didn’t take into account any environmental considerations and was only geared to when everybody wanted ten acres of green golf type lawns,” he said.
These pollinator friendly zones creates a habitat for pollinating insects that contribute to fruits and vegetable crops, he said.
“It’s habitat. It’s habitat for bees, for wildflowers, milkweed for butterflies and just a whole host of insects we need on a daily basis to pollinate our fruit trees and vegetable gardens,” he said.
The proposed by-law will come to Prince Edward County council at the end of April.