2023 is the year Colorado should act to Save the Bees

Today, we launched our statewide Save the Bees campaign to respond to the drop in population of pollinators by stopping the consumer sale of neonics, a bee-killing pesticide.

Nearly one in four native bee species is imperiled. Honeybee colonies throughout the country are collapsing. Everything in nature is connected, and bee die-offs are no exception. One in every three bites of food we eat depends on pollinators. Our world needs bees and so do we.

Here in Colorado, we have the 5th most bee diversity in the country.

Scientists point to a class of pesticides called “neonics” as one of the causes of bee die-offs.

Over the last few months, we’ve built broad support to ensure products containing these dangerous bee-killing neonic pesticides cannot be bought at everyday stores.

With this support, we’re calling on state legislators to amend the Pesticide Applicator Act, which is up for a Sunset Review in 2023, to stop the consumer sale of neonics.

Check out the support we’ve built up over the past three months.

Thousands of Coloradans across the state have joined our campaign

Since August, 1,263 people and counting have added their name to our Save the Bees petition, calling on state legislators to stop the sale to the general public of neonics. That’s in addition to the 22,717 that have signed our petitions over the past few years.

That’s 23,980 people from Durango to Fort Collins who agree – we must protect our pollinators.

322 people have also posed for photo petitions showing their support to Save the Bees.

141 businesses, farms, beekeepers, and health professionals have added their name to our support letter as well.

This fall, our team of volunteers from CU Boulder have spent many afternoons recruiting local businesses and are continuing to do outreach to other parts of the state.

Add you business or farm to our growing list of supporters.

141 businesses, farms, beekeepers, and health professions have signed our letter as of November 29, 2022Photo by Staff | TPIN

We’ve also taken to the opinion pages and generated letters-to-the-editor in Denver, Boulder and Glenwood Springs including:

• Keep Bees Healthy
• Reducing use of pesticides
• Colorado should ban neonics
• Ban neonics to save the bees
• Bees: We need to ban bee-killing pesticides

Engaging Coloradans at events across the state

Throughout the fall, we combined our advocacy with education events to not just build support to eliminate harmful neonics use in our urban areas but also plant wildflower seeds and build up bee-friendly habitats.

Activating people at a Denver River Clean-Up at Confluence Park, September 25

We had a great time educating people about our Save the Bees campaign and collecting petitions before they headed off to clean-up the South Platte River.

Environment Colorado staff gather petitions at Confluence Park in DenverPhoto by Staff | TPIN

Trick-or-Seeding in Boulder, October 30

A team of CU Boulder students delivered more than 100 seed balls the night before Halloween at their reverse trick-or-treating event, Trick-or-Seeding to Save the Bees. Students also asked residents to sign our petition.

Our event was covered by Denver’s CBS4.

“Trick-or-seed! We’re here to protect our bees.” 🎃

A team of CU Boulder students delivered more than 100 seed balls the night before Halloween at their reverse trick-or-treating event, Trick-or-Seeding to #SaveTheBees

Thanks @CBSNewsColorado https://t.co/YD1Xz47hFv pic.twitter.com/DQAiPtCdlV

— Environment Colorado (@EnvironmentCO) November 1, 2022

Activating people at the Mission Ballroom in Denver, November 4 and 5

We gathered support to Save the Bees at Mission Ballroom’s Mission Row over the weekend. Fittingly, we also reminded people to “Bee Grateful” as we were at the Grateful Dead’s lead guitarists concert, Bob Weir.

We gathered support from tons of people to #SaveTheBees at @missionballroom’s Mission Row over the weekend! Thank you Mission Ballroom & @BobWeir for having us & letting us remind people to #BeeGrateful https://t.co/sxiM9NqpDB pic.twitter.com/AzkdcZ6hcD

— Environment Colorado (@EnvironmentCO) November 8, 2022

Protect Our Pollinators in Edgewater, November 12
Late fall is actually one of the best times of the year to plant wildflower seeds. Tons of families stopped by at Edgewater Market to learn about the importance of bees, make pollinator-friendly seed balls and sign our petition.

Families made pollinator-friendly seed balls and signed petitions at our Edgewater Marketplace event.Photo by Staff | TPIN