One of every three bites of food eaten worldwide depends on pollinators, especially bees, for a successful harvest. But for decades, global bee populations have declined due to biodiversity losses and habitat destruction. Furthermore, pesticide use is particularly dangerous for honeybees and wild pollinators. Local schools and community members of Hopewell Valley were scheduled to build new bee habitat in collaborative, in-person workshops. With the pandemic leading to the cancellation of these workshops, FoHVOS partnered with the schools and created the Bee Abode Project, to provide bee abode kits for students to build at home with their families.

These kits comprised of repurposed industrial pallets to be filled with up-cycled invasive phragmites. The build-at-home kits were a tremendous success as families were happy to help with conservation projects.

The at-home kits inspired a member of the Pennington Boy Scouts Troop 44 to focus his service project on constructing a larger bee hotel to support a larger population of pollinators. The hotel is permanently house at Nayfield Preserve featuring an interpretive sign detailing the types of bees that will use the hotel, how to maintain bees in your area, the importance of biodiversity, and the story behind the project. The bee hotel was filled with combinations of individual bee abodes — some made from our original kits and others to be made from repurposed ash trees prepared by volunteers.