Members of the Village of New Paltz Environmental Policy Board want to pollinate the parched grass and cracked-concrete sidewalk in front of Village Hall into a vibrant garden that attracts the eyes and the bees to its flora and fauna. To this end, they teamed up with Future Fruits of Kingston and Hudson Valley Bee Habitat (HVBH) this past Saturday to hatch ideas for a pollinator garden there.
“Bees are responsible for one-third of every bite of food we take,” said Emily Puthoff of HVBH (www.hvbeehabitat.org), a grassroots organization created by three women who wanted to utilize their expertise as artists, designers and educators to “pollinate public engagement with bees, the environment and each other” to help both humans and bees thrive.
Apples, blueberries, avocados, coffee, oranges, chocolate and alfalfa are all examples of food that requires pollinating bees to grow to fruition. Their habitats are being compromised by development, creating “food deserts” where people cannot get access to fresh, healthy food because they are surrounded by pavement, concrete, lack of transportation and the absence of fertile soil.
Bees and other pollinator populations are also being depleted by pesticides, which impair their immune systems and neurological functions, leaving them less resistant to be able to fight off mites and viruses. One of the other grave dangers to bees is the loss of foraging due to monocultural crop production, where industrial farms are mass-producing only one item, such as almonds or oranges, and not allowing the bees to be able to gather pollen from multiple sources, causing the soil to be weakened and strained.
“Albert Einstein and Rudolph Steiner said that if the bee disappears from the surface of the earth man would have no more than four years to live,” said Puthoff. “But creating bee-friendly habitat is not hard. You can do it by planting flowers and plants in pots to start, if you don’t have access to a garden.”
While honeybees are critical, so are the wide variety of other bees, many of them native, solitary creatures who thrive on smaller habitats and nesting sites. “Many of these bees nest in the ground or hollow reeds,” she explained. “Many of these bees only travel 250 yards to get their food, so they’re hyperlocal and require safe places to nest and have food supplies.” Honeybees can travel upwards of three miles to find food.
The idea to turn the barren patch of dirt outside of Village Hall into a miniature eco-landscape was first hatched in the mind of the youngest member of the Village’s Environmental Policy Board, Riley Corzine. “I was first inspired by my mom [Martha Cheo], who has a huge garden,” said Corzine. He organized pollinator information, as well as assuring paper and crayons for a visual brainstorming of what residents would like to see flourish outside the brick-and-mortar government offices.
“I was involved in a tree-planting project with the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance,” he said, “and as the project manager for the Bee City Village landscaping I reached out to Future Fruits in Kingston to see what we could do here at Village Hall to support bees.”
Jared Williams of Future Fruits said that he was excited to work with the Village EPB to help create a pollinator-friendly, edible and educational municipal garden. His organization’s mission is to help activate public spaces into places that grow food. Such spaces can be a combination of wild flowers, native perennials, shrubs and grasses, and various edible fruits and berries.
Though the project is now only in its design stage, Williams said winter was an excellent time to start to build the soil. Composting from waste materials like leaves, wood chips, coffee grounds and food scraps helped make the soil nitrogen-rich, while basic cardboard could serve as a protective layer that keeps nutrients from eroding and weeds from spreading.
Local beekeeper and expert Chris Harp stopped by to answer questions and provide a list of pollinator-friendly plantings.
“This is a small project, but so are our pollinators, and it’s one that we can do in a short amount of time for little cost,” said village trustee and liaison to the EPB Alexandra Wojcik, who helped organize the input session and also livestreamed it over Zoom. “I’m really excited to do whatever soil-building work we can do now and get my hands dirty. I think, for those of us who live right around the neighborhood, we’re looking forward to this project. And it’s small enough that we can do it in a relatively short period of time and have it be visually attractive and eco-friendly.”
The EPB’s modest budget can use as seed money/ They’re hoping to keep the scope of the project within “the $250 to $350 mark.”
“This seems like a great opportunity to turn that space into something much nicer,” said Mayor Tim Rogers, who noted that there was approximately 120 square feet area of unplanted space. “I think it’s great that we have a group of enthusiastic volunteers who want to help make this happen.”
Wojcik said that the next step was to get everyone who turned out, either in person or virtually, on an e-mail list, so that they can begin planning the soil-development portion of the project and lay out the planting design in order that “we have something flowering or blooming throughout the year that is more visually attractive than what we have now, and that helps support our pollinators.”
Anyone interested in joining the effort should reach out to the trustee at the EPB e-mail: environment@villageofnewpaltz.org.
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