How Gardeners can support Bees and Pollinators in Niagara

George Scott
President,
Niagara Beekeepers & Pollinators Association

An environmental and agricultural entrepreneur, George is a committed advocate for farmers, livestock producers, and independent family businesses.

George has been a Niagara resident all his life and has run a series of successful environmental-focused businesses including chemical and soil remediation, irrigation systems, wind and solar generation, and most recently bee keeping.

A registered beekeeper for more than 25 years, George is a passionate advocate for beekeeping as a crucial component for Ontario’s agricultural success, now and in the future. He is a member of the Niagara Beekeepers Association. In 2001, he founded the Niagara Beeway, dedicated to the protection and preservation of Niagara’s honey bee populations. George believes that the survival and health of the beekeeping industry is pivotal and is totally aligned to the mandate and concerns of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) at many levels. An expert on chemical pesticides, George is an active liaison with industry and agriculture in exploring new and alternative pesticide strategies and is a frequent lobbyist to industry and government to promote dialogue and understanding.

In his presentation, George will cover what is happening within the beekeeping and pollinator industries in Niagara and Canada. The industry is facing critical times with unprecedented die off of honeybees and wild pollinators as well as the ongoing fight to ban counterfeit honey from entering Canada. He will speak to the problems and then offer solutions we can do at the community level. He will explain how to support the Host A Hive initiative from Niagara Beeway. This is being initiated this Spring to preserve honey bee populations by hosting hives and planting pollinator friendly gardens that will provide safe haven for our pollinators.

With a degree from the University of Western Ontario in economics and a background in chemical product development, sales and global distribution, George has experience in business development, global trade and contract negotiation, customs brokerage and world-wide sales strategy.

An award-winning researcher with the University of Guelph, George is a patent holder of advanced root management growth media for the production of cucumbers, tomatoes and bell peppers; and a patent holder for the vertical axis wind turbine. Together with the UoG this research won the highest Ontario Centres of Excellence award in 2007. In 2000 George founded L3K, a not-for-profit corporation focused on environmental preservation, nutraceutical crop production and native species protection. Integrated pest management is key to the extensive work and research in these specific areas.

George is an avid outdoorsman and maintains a 50-acre farm producing biodiversity-based crops, honey bees, woodlot, nursery crops and continued ag based research.