To Celebrate National Pollinator Week, Our Park Ecologist Collaborated With Local Girl Scouts To Promote Bees!

Happy National Pollinator Week (June 22-28)! This is a special time where our park goes above and beyond to celebrate pollinators; the admirable organisms (bees, butterflies, bats etc.) that while foraging, transfer pollen from one flower to the next! This behavior allows plants to generate seeds, fruits and new flowers for the future. To commemorate this holiday, our staff typically hosts community educational programs and conservation projects. This year was no different except that we took the pollinator party to Zoom!

First we kicked it off with Girl Scout Troop 3632! Troop mom Melissa and I (Bethpage State Park's ecologist) had been discussing the best way for her scouts to complete an environmental project that would give back to our park. After some consideration we agreed that scout-provided bee homes would be the perfect addition to our Picnic Pollinator Garden. As a thank you, I virtually taught a lesson about the two types of bees that would use their new gift: spring-nesting Mason Bees (left) and summer-nesting Leafcutter Bees (right).

I documented/photographed both of these bees at Bethpage State Park. Fun Fact: the names of these bees originate from their nesting behavior! Mason Bees seal their nests with mud while Leafcutter Bees seal theirs with leaves they cut with their mandibles! 

During this webinar, scouts were surprised to learn that these bees do not live in hives or complex colonies like honey bees! In fact, Mason and Leafcutter Bees are solitary and make up some of the 70% of native North American bees that nest in the ground. Often these two bees will also utilize above-ground bee boxes with similar conditions. 

Using an interactive arts-and-crafts project, I was able to teach the scouts all the ways Mason and Leafcutter Bees are unique, yet also similar to each other!

The webinar bee lesson was a great success and the Troop learned about each bee's life-cycle, behavior and ecological importance. The next day Troop 3632's bee homes were delivered looking beautiful! Before I received them, the scouts arranged nesting tubes (reeds) inside the boxes and also engraved the homes on the outside. 

Nesting tubes are where adult female bees store pollen, lay eggs, and create shelter for their young. The young will actually overwinter in these tubes and emerge as the next generation of bees the following season!

Installation was simple; park employee Pat secured the boxes to 7-feet stakes and placed them where I knew they would be near outstanding host plants and in south-facing, sunny locations. Beyond these boxes providing for our bees, the homes really add style and interest to our Pollinator Garden.

    If you are looking to support the native bees in your park or backyard I highly recommend Crown Bees!

Inspired by this project, Francine (a new troop leader) reached out to see if I would provide similar educational outreach...this time to Brownie Troop 3221. I happily agreed to teach more about the wonder of bees! Using different activities and crafts, this group learned bee anatomy, how to identify Honey Bees, Bumble Bees and Leafcutter Bees as well as different adaptations each type of bee has to be effective pollinators.

By the end of this webinar, the scouts could also tell me the different roles of bees that live in a hive, which species are solitary and the function of pollen baskets on the Bumble Bee legs (see left photo)! Overall, teaching virtually this year was a huge hit! I want to give a big thanks to Troop 3632 for donating these charming bee homes to our park and for also spreading the word to other troops about the pollinator education programs I offer! I would also like to give a shout out to Troop 3221 for being so engaged and having me guest host their last                                               scout meeting for the year. 

It truly was a pleasure meeting and collaborating with young members of the local community! Thank you all for caring so much about bees and choosing to celebrate pollinators with Bethpage State Park!