NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – New York City will soon have “bee hotels” and “bee bunkers” across select public plazas and open streets in an effort to provide nourishment for bees and other pollinators, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez announced on Thursday.
Rodriguez announced the Pollinator Port Project, a collaboration between the Horticultural Society of New York and Rutgers University, aimed at creating habitats for at-risk native bee populations.
“Our Open Streets and public plazas have always buzzed with activity, but this year they’re going to be the bee’s knees,” Rodriguez said. “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.”
The new installations will connect these spaces across the city, attracting tickle bees, a small native species that rarely sting. Bee hotels are similar to birdhouses where bees can nest and rest. Female bees lay eggs and provide food for the baby bees to grow.
Bee bunkers are protected spaces in soil where bees build nests and lay eggs. The larvae stay safe over winter and emerge in spring.
The Pollinator Port Project will include the following plazas and streets:
• Fordham Plaza, The Bronx
• Parkside Plaza, Brooklyn
• Cooper Square Plaza, Manhattan
• Quisqueya Plaza (Dyckman Plaza), Manhattan
• Water Street, Staten Island
• Gates Avenue, Brooklyn
• 34th Avenue, Queens
Last year, bee hotels and bunkers were tested in Parkside Plaza in Brooklyn and Fordham Plaza in the Bronx. The Hort currently has 30 plazas, 25 Open Streets, and other public spaces in underserved areas. They plan to expand this to 100 spaces.
Researchers from Rutgers University will study city bees, how they use new habitats, and their movement around the city. Bees will be marked with safe, biodegradable spots to track their numbers and movements.
“Through this work, we are creating living spaces for native bee pollinators in the city, including both flowers and appropriate nesting sites,” said Dr. Kimberly N. Russell, undergraduate program director/associate professor of teaching at the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
The Ittleson Foundation provided a $50,000 grant to Rutgers for the first three years of this study.
“Turning public plazas and open streets into habitat for at-risk bees is brilliant and exactly the type of innovative environmental model we love to support,” said Anthony C. Wood, executive director of the Ittleson Foundation. “Proving it works in New York City will mean it can happen in cities across the nation.”