7 MAY 8-14, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | Seven years ago, Andrea Montoya took her grandson to play in Boulder Creek — and her life changed forever. “My husband said, ‘Did you see that structure over there? That’s called a bee house,’” Montoya recalls. Built by local group BeeChicas, it looked like a slanted bookshelf on a pedestal. But instead of books, it was fi lled with wooden logs drilled with small holes. Montoya had recently retired from her career as a physician assistant because of a rare infl ammatory disease, and the bee house sparked her curiosity. “I got immediately drawn to it,” she says. “So I went home that day, sat down and started reading.” She read about native bees, their impor- tance to the environment, and the threats they face. “And as soon as I learned about that, I realized that all they needed was more habitat. That seemed like such a simple fi x,” Montoya says. She began to plant native fl owers — fi rst in her own backyard, then in her neighbor- hood. She raised money, enlisted volunteers and led planting workshops. And then she contracted with the City of Boulder to start a program in which community members could become pollinator advocates. Montoya has now spent more than a half- dozen years advocating for pollinators and urging Boulder to save its bees. But not the kind of bees that usually get all the atten- tion. While environmentalists around the world rally support for apis mellifera, the domesticated honey bee, the other 20,000 species of bees are going largely ignored. In fact, native bee populations, which play crucial ecological roles, are undergoing a steep decline that is only aggravated by the presence of honey bees. “Honey bees don’t need to be saved,” Montoya insists. The Sweet Reputation of Honey Bees Honey bees have been cultivated in the Americas since European settlers brought them in the seventeenth century. Today, it’s estimated that around one-third of the planet’s current food supply relies on bee pollination, mainly by honey bees. How did humans survive before do- mesticating honey bees? Some native food sources, such as cherries, blueberries and cranberries, were pollinated by native bee species. Other species, like cereal grains, were wind-pollinated. But cultivating non-native crops for large- scale agriculture has always gone hand in hand with cultivating non-native honey bees to pollinate them. And to make matters more delicious, those bees produce honey. The public has been concerned with the decline in honey bees since 2006, when one beekeeper raised the alarm about a mysteri- ous illness killing his hives. The phenomenon, dubbed colony collapse disorder, became a mainstream issue for environmentalists. Now, honey beekeepers across North America are reporting that severe and widespread colony losses last year are continuing in 2025. One solution? Take up beekeeping. The more honey bees, the better. Dawn Server is a beekeeper from Niwot who keeps honey bees as a retirement hobby. She and her husband started a small busi- ness to sell honey and lavender produced on their land. Server is a beekeeper for pleasure, not for a living, “but it certainly helps when your hobby doesn’t cost you money,” she says. “You’re always learning something new.” While Server didn’t start keeping bees for environmental reasons, it has made her more concerned about pesticide use in her neighborhood. She likes how selling honey connects her with the community. She didn’t realize that her hobby could impact native bees. But beekeeping might do more environmental harm than good. Native Truths About Other Bees Of the 20,000 species of bees worldwide, at least 1,000 live in the state, according to the Colorado Native Pollinating Insect Health Study, which was authorized by the state and released last year. JULIE KITZES continued on page 8
