The dwindling population of wild bees has prompted a plea to the Waitaki District Council to make it easier for people to have hives in residential areas.
The Waitaki Community Garden has started a bee project, which includes a plan for bee corridors - strips of plantings on roads, waterways and cycleways which attract and support bees but also wants to encourage people to keep bees.
It also wants to set up hives at the garden on the south end of the Oamaru Public Gardens.
However, a member of the gardens group, Marian Shore, said under the Waitaki district plan a resource consent was needed to keep bees in residential areas. People wanting only one or two hives could not afford the resource consents process.
Ms Shore asked the council at its meeting yesterday to consider making a change to its district plan during the present financial year to allow hives to be kept in residential areas without needing a resource consent.
She had researched other councils and was unable to find one which required that.
Ms Shore predicted that within three years there could be no wild bees left in residential areas of the district, because of the varroa mite and other effects, including insecticides.
Bees were vital for food production and needed to be encouraged, she said.
Part of the bee programme planned by the community gardens included encouraging planting bee corridors, similar to the English hedgerows projects. Using plants attractive to bees, corridors would be 7m wide along "natural corridors" such as roads, streams and rivers and cycleways.
The bee project had the support of beekeepers, Ngai Tahu, Waitaha and the New Zealand Transport Agency, she said.
