No Mow May

Trinity Episcopal Church is participating in “No Mow May”.  This was brought to our attention by our association with LETUS, Lawrence Ecology Teams United in Sustainability. LETUS is an association of all the church affiliated Ecology teams in Lawrence.  No Mow May is a program coordinated by the Oregon-based Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.  First the residents of Appleton, Wisconsin (one of 157 Bee City USA and 296 City/Campus affiliates in 45 States) became energized about No Mow May, a program that began in England.  No Mow May has spread to more than 30 cities, mostly in the Midwest where May is considered a key time for pollinators to come out of hibernation. Lawrence and KU are not Bee City affiliates. Kansas is one of the 5 states with no affiliates.

In 2020, Researchers Israel Del Toro and Relena Ribbons from Lawrence University partnered with Appleton and 435 residents to study the impact of No Mow May on pollinators. From the website No Mow May - Bee City USA. “They then compared those numbers to the abundance and richness of flowers and bees found in nearby urban parks that are regularly mowed. The findings were impressive! Not only were the abundance and richness of bees higher in the yards of properties participating in No Mow May, but they were way higher. Participating yards had three-times higher bee species richness and five-times higher bee abundance than nearby parks that had been mowed. This study was published in 2020 and is available for free download online.”