Think bees, not beer

The idea of turning the side of Interstate 90 into a living wall is a fantastic idea (“City prepares ground for hops along the highway”). The thought of people consuming anything that grew so close to I-90 horrifies me, particularly when the crop is a heavy feeder like hops. While it seems that there was plenty of bureaucracy involved in approving the plan to plant hops along the freeway downtown, there was no mention in the March 4th article about any sort of preliminary soil testing. This is a huge oversight which could impact the health of the local craft beer drinking community, and it displays negligence and a lack of foresight.

It would be great to see the living wall covered in pollinator-friendly plants instead of hops which may or may not be safe for human consumption. Beer is a luxury item for humans, but pollen and nectar are survival for our many native pollinators (hops are wind-pollinated and not of much value to pollinators). We shouldn’t overlook the huge role that our city’s pollinators play in the Spokane Edible Tree Project and in sustaining life in general.

It would be wonderful to see Spokane become the second Bee City USA in Washington. If anyone is interested in helping to get that project started, please join the Facebook group, “Spokane Pollinator Allies.” Once we get a few members of the community interested, maybe we can meet up at Bellwether to drink gruit and come up with a game plan.

Melody Getman

Spokane