Lake City Is First City to Become Certified Bee City USA Community in South Carolina

Community and Rentals Manager for the Community Museum Society, Hunter Deas, had been assisting with hive management for the past two years at Moore Farms Botanical Garden in Lake City. While this was the first year Hunter had his own hives, he spent a great deal of his childhood assisting his great uncle with his dozen hives on the family farm. Hunter attended a Bee School in Asheville earlier this year and heard about the Bee City USA program. Already passionate about bees, agriculture, and pollinators at large, he was immediately excited by the thought of Lake City becoming a Bee City USA.

It was not a tough sale. Lake City’s municipal leadership and community members, as well as its non-profit organizations, shared in Hunter’s passion for pollinators. Says Hunter, “I think it is wonderful to be able to highlight the plight of the honeybee, and that Bee City USA has created a vehicle to not only address the issues facing honeybees, but all pollinators, and that the program’s approach is such an inclusive, community-based initiative.”

With its rich agricultural history and firm commitment to the benefits of local production of crops and produce, Lake City remains an active agricultural community that allows local farmers to produce and sell their wares, including local honey, at weekly Farmers Markets and festivals. Lake City’s consistent planting of native, pollinator-friendly plants and flowers through partnerships with Moore Farms Botanical Garden and the Lake City Beautification Committee demonstrates the community’s dedication to nurturing pollinators.

Moore Farms has hosted workshops and a summer day camp for local students called “Positively Awesome Pollinators,” and hosts weekly garden tours and regularly posts educational information about pollinators on their blog. They also host quarterly social events.

Many thanks to Mayor Anderson and the Lake City Council for voting unanimously on November 10 to endorse Lake City’s application for certification making Lake City the 15th certified city in the nation and the first in South Carolina

Share this post

Help us empower communities to protect the life that sustains us! DONATE