"With all the wildflowers, it was thought to promote pollination and help the re-vegetation process," the head of decommissioning and reclamation at Vale says. The initiative has been well received in the wider Sudbury mining area, it appears. "Bees are in trouble right now," says local bee-keeper Marnie Oystrick. "When a big company puts a little back into beekeeping, it makes people aware." Worldwide, bee numbers are seen as threatened by a mysterious effect called colony collapse disorder.