Junior Park Rangers Newsletter
Summer 2010
Nature News Looking after our Bees
Hello JPRs Welcome to our summer newsletter. The summer time is the busiest time in our parks; in addition to the fun you can have in your local park we’ve got loads of great JPR activities planned for you to enjoy. In this edition we will look at honey bees and what we can do to help them and find out how to have fun playing football this summer. To save our trees we are going to start reducing the number of newsletters we post out and will soon be asking you to read our cool version of the newsletter online. If you have any comments about our newsletter or would like to see us cover any particular issues please let us know.
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During the summer months you’ll see bees busily pollinating flowers in your garden and in parks. However, there are fewer and fewer bees about than previous years. Scientists are not sure what is causing the drop in bee numbers, but it could be for a number of reasons such as disease, the changing weather, loss of green spaces, and maybe even chemicals. There are a few things we can all do to help them. We can start by planting bee friendly plants.
Bee friendly plants Honey bees rely on garden flowers for their diet of nectar and pollen so you can help them by planting things in your garden like mint, beans and flowering herbs. Bees also like daisy shaped flowers such as asters and sunflowers, as well as tall plants like foxgloves.
Why are Bees so important? Bees are really important for everyone as they produce honey and make beeswax which is used in cosmetics, candles and furniture polish. We also rely on them for something essential… Bees pollinate around one-third of all the plants and foods we eat including fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Without bees many plant crops wouldn’t grow, so there would be no apples or strawberries to eat, no cotton t-shirts and a lot less for farm animals.