Mayor’s Minute By Stewart Welch III - April 2023

The birds and bees … and butterflies? 

Spring has sprung in our beautiful city and new life is everywhere! 

While on a recent jog, council member Graham Smith noticed little dirt mounds in a neighbor’s yard. She commented to her fellow jogger, “Wow! These guys must have lots of ants!” It turns out they weren’t ants, but an  extremely important type of bee called Miner bees. 

Miner bees are solitary bees who create underground galleries, with queens living individually and raising their own young. These bees don’t sting but do need our protection. Bees, in general, are a major source of pollination, which is vitally important to our own self-interest. No pollination, no food!

Shanda Williams, director of our Parks & Recreation, found some of these mounds at one of our parks and took the initiative to cordon off the area to protect the bees. I had noticed them as well and wondered what they were. I was shocked to learn a bee was nesting underground. Check out your own yard. If you find them, please protect them.

Dana Hazen, director of Planning, Building and Sustainability, spearheaded the initiative to make the City of Mountain Brook the first city in Alabama to be designated a Bee City, USA affiliate. One of the most noticeable projects we will undertake is to install a “see-through bee hotel”! We are considering installing this on city hall grounds and you will be able to see live bees nesting. These “hotel rooms” do not attract bees that sting, so no need to fear.

This Bee City initiative dovetails nicely with our Tree City USA program that has been such a success for decades.

Next on the list are butterflies. Mayors across the country are joining together for the Mayor’s Monarch Pledge. This is a program through the National Wildlife Federation with the goal of saving the monarch butterfly, whose populations have dwindled by more than 90% across America. You’ll soon notice us planting native milkweed and nectar plants on city property.  We will be the second city in Alabama to join this nationwide program, after Fairhope.

I am proud that our city continues to lead the way in so many areas that focus on making Mountain Brook a unique and fun place to live, work and raise a family.