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‘Bee hotels’ coming to select NYC plazas in effort to protect imperiled pollinators
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Apr 25, 2024
Modified Apr 25, 2024
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Courtesy of Nick Benson, NYC DOT
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Apr 25, 2024
Modified Apr 25, 2024
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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
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environment
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Catalina Gonella
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