ROCKLAND, Maine — The lone bumblebee hovered over dandelions in Rockland’s Snow Marine Park, presumably collecting pollen or nectar for nourishment.
There were lots of the little yellow flowers to choose from.
The park is one of two where the city has cut back its usual mowing for the month, after adopting No Mow May, a national effort to reduce the mowing of early spring flowers in order to help bees thrive.
Rockland City Councilor Nathan Davis said the council approved the No Mow plan after requests from several residents, including devoted bee advocate Susan Beebe.
Dandelions, she said, are a critical food source for the bees in early spring.
“Very important, because they bloom just when the queens are coming out of hibernation,” Beebe said Thursday as she watched a bee in the park.
“The more flowers you have, the more bees there will be," she said.
No Mow May, she said, is timed when there are few flower choices for the bees — primarily dandelions and violets — making it more important to preserve the ones in bloom and not cut them down. After May, she said, the bee colonies will be better established and there will be a greater variety and number of flowers and other plants for the pollinators to visit.
When the City Council passed the No Mow May proposal last month, the initial plan was to apply it to most of the city’s parks. But City Manager Tom Luttrell says they scaled it back, and are now using two parks and two other city properties, including land around the city hall.
“At first, we were talking about not mowing any city parks or just the roadway, and then there were concerns about ticks and other animals being in the grass,” he said.
Luttrell said the parks are used by lots of people, meaning a compromise was needed.
“So we decided to just do certain areas,” he said.
Rockland isn’t the only Maine community following the No Mow guideline. Portland is also letting what it calls park meadows grow into flowers … not cutting them until the fall. The city’s parks department says those wildflowers help bees, birds, and other species.
Luttrell says the idea of helping bees seems to have caught on, and mentioned several areas of town where homeowners appear to be letting their own grass and dandelions grow to help the bees.
For Rockland, there is also an aspect to No Mow May beyond helping the bees. There is also history.
The city was officially formed more than 150 years ago, and that included creation of a city seal. Appropriately, the seal features the words, “God Gives A Reward To Industry.”
They surround the familiar symbol of diligent work: a beehive.
