City Council Study Session Agenda and Packet 2009 05 12

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In Summary: The restriction of bee keeping in 1962 was certainly considered a logical step as we changed from an agriculturally based community to a suburban town. There, were plenty of farms with hives and feral hives scattered between areas of growth so that bee populations and local pollination were never in deficit. Today farms and agricultural land are almost gone from our area and the trend to convert more land to homes continues all around us. No one could foresee the catastrophic decline in bee populations occurring these past few years. No one could foresee that commercial beekeepers would decide to close up their honey making businesses and thereby leave our gardens devoid of this important pollinator. No one could foresee walking the Linden tree lined streets of Louisville and not hearing the buzz of hundreds of honey bees as happened this year. No one ever considered that there could actually be too fevv zucchini growing in my garden! New awareness of the huge problem in bee health, a new Focus on "green" living, a better understanding of the overstated dangers of bees by sting and bee swarms have lead to what we are witnessing in many towns around us... changes in regulations concerning urban and suburban beekeeping. Denver (2008), Windsor (2008), Fort Collins (1989), have eliminated bans on beekeeping in urban suburban areas replacing them with qualifications on bee keeping activities based on thoughtful, responsible legislation. In conclusion: with • Increased understanding of the actual threat of Xnsect stings and the small role honey bees play in this concern • Increased understanding in the problem (or lack thereof) of honey bee swarms from managed hives in terms of cost to the city • Concern for drastically reduced numbers of honey bees locally • Increased awareness of the enormous role honey bees play in our ecology • The ability to effect regulations that take advanl:age of our understanding of bee activity and act to disperse bees as they leave the hive thus reducing bee/human interaction We believe that it is time to change our law to allow regulated beekeeping in our town. On a personal level, I have had the privilege to work with bee hives and taken a class in managed beekeeping. Opening up a hive and actively interacting with bees was a~ scary thought. The reality was that the bees did not act aggressively or swarm around us as we worked. They stayed on their comb even as we took the entire hive apart. Within ten minutes of reconstructing the hive the bees were back to normal activities. Sitting feet from the hive no one would know that they were there. But I did have an extremely scary summer -there were few bees in my gardens. The garden that typically produced all our summer and a quarter of our winter food produced less this year than in any other year in our 12 years gardening in Louisville. The Linden trees behind my house were silent. THAT IS SCARY! We are very happy to field any questions the council may leave or offer suggestions for sources of information. We welcome a dialog on this topic. Thank you. Michele Pelanne Joseph Alper 741 Wildrose Way Louisville, CO 80027 303 661 0110 16