Hamline Midway Coalition and Frogtown Green, two non-profit organizations in Saint Paul, are heading into their second year of work on the Bee Line, a community initiative to rebuild the pollinator population in Minnesota.
Rusty patched bumblebees, the primary pollinator the Bee Line is aiming to serve, have been endangered since 2017. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the cause of the decline of this species’ population is largely unknown but is often attributed to the use of pesticides, loss of habitat and habitat degradation and the effects of climate change, among other causes.
Residents from both the Hamline-Midway and Frogtown communities have been working over the past six years to plant Minnesota-native pollinator plants, such as butterfly weed, swamp milkweed and coneflowers. However, it was not until 2022, when the Hamline Midway Coalition and Frogtown Green received a Lawns to Legumes grant from the state of Minnesota, that the Bee Line started to gain traction.
Steve Mitrione, a former member of the Hamline Midway Coalition, has been involved in the Bee Line since day one.
“I was working on the transportation committee at that time and basically pulled one of the engineers in that project aside … and asked if we could turn [Pierce Butler Route] into a prairie restoration,” Mitrione said.
The work that the Hamline Midway Coalition and Frogtown Green have been doing is very intentional; that is to say, the Bee Line is being designed with pollinators in mind.
“One of the things that’s important is: pollinators only fly a certain distance. Having food sources in range of their flights is important,” Mitrione said.
Mitrione is not alone in this work. According to Stephanie Hankerson, one of the co-chairs of the environment subcommittee within Hamline Midway Coalition, volunteers have been one of the biggest branches of support for this project.
Over the past three months, 138 volunteers have been working hard to collect and plant seeds, plant native pollinator plants and spread the word about the Bee Line, clocking in around 500 volunteer hours.
To learn more about the Bee Line and to get involved, visit the Hamline Midway Coalition website at hamlinemidway.org/beeline.