Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
‘Bee hotels’ coming to select NYC plazas in effort to protect imperiled pollinators
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Apr 25, 2024
Modified Apr 25, 2024
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Courtesy of Nick Benson, NYC DOT
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Apr 25, 2024
Modified Apr 25, 2024
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
At-risk native bees will soon have new potential homes in the city thanks to the Pollinator Port Project, an initiative led by the city Department of Transportation in collaboration with the Horticultural Society of New York, also known as The Hort, and Rutgers University.
As part of the project, “bee hotels” and “bee bunkers” will be installed in select public plazas and open streets, along with vegetation to provide native bees and other pollinators with nutrition, the DOT said in a press release.
A 2022 report by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation found that anywhere from 38% to 60% of the New York’s native pollinators studied were at risk because their populations are declining. Native pollinators play an essential role in the pollination of flowering plants, wildflowers, garden plants and cultivated crops.
Sara Hobel is the executive director of The Hort, which provides maintenance and operations support at plazas, open streets and other public spaces in the city. She said the Pollinator Port Project is part of a larger effort to grow the city’s green space, especially in underserved areas, and especially on city streets.
“We're really lucky, we have 22,000 acres of parkland and we have wonderful botanic gardens. But we also have 220,000 acres of grid, and it's the grid that we feel it's very important to green,” Hobel told Gothamist. “Even our native bees are not immune to the structural inequities of our city — where there's greater poverty, there's also less green and therefore less habitat for our pollinators.”
Beyond creating habitats, researchers from Rutgers University will study the city bees, their use of the habitats and how they move throughout the region. Hobel said researchers will determine best practices in creating not only a nesting habitat for bees, but also a food source.
The “bee hotels'' look similar to bird houses filled with natural materials, such as reeds and bamboo that serve as “rooms” for solitary bees to nest their eggs and rest.
The "bee bunkers" will provide habitats for at-risk bee populations.
Courtesy of Nick Benson, NYC DOT
Meanwhile, the “bee bunkers” will provide protected soil environments where female bees can burrow and build nests for their eggs, serving as winter shelters for the developing larvae until they emerge in the spring. They’ll be placed in planters in public plazas and open streets, providing bees with accommodations as they move between boroughs.
Last year, the hotels and bunkers were tested in Parkside Plaza in Brooklyn and Fordham Plaza in the Bronx, the DOT said. Starting Tuesday, they’ll be installed in Parkside Plaza, Cooper Square Plaza in Manhattan, Quisqueya Plaza (Dyckman Plaza) in Upper Manhattan, Water Street in Manhattan, Staten Island, Gates Avenue in Brooklyn and 34th Avenue in Queens.
And for anyone who might be skittish at the thought of welcoming more bees into their borough, Hobel said there is no need to worry about bee stings — as bees native to the New York City area, like the “tickle bee,” are small, docile and rarely sting. They’re so hard to spot, in fact, that the bees will be spritzed with a biodegradable coloring to help monitor their movements.
“Our Open Streets and public plazas have always buzzed with activity, but this year they’re going to be the bee’s knees,” said DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez in a statement “Bees are essential for the health of our planet, and this initiative will create habitats for at-risk native bee populations and help facilitate important scientific research.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the borough where Quisqueya Plaza is located.
Tagged
new york city
environment
parks
Catalina Gonella
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .