Dogwood, Dwarf Bush and Bees

When you think about beehives, you may not think about planting trees and shrubs. But our Conservation Crew youth interns are seeing the big picture.

This week, 14 conservation interns met up at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary to plant 30 shrubs and trees. Plants included pagoda dogwood, dwarf bush honeysuckle and eastern redbud. These plants were put in to provide habitat and a windbreak around newly-installed beehives.

The hives are a part of an experiment being done by the U of M Bee Squad to see the viability of community apiaries (a collection of beehives). The soil was very rocky, which made for a lot of hard work. Our Conservation Crew persevered and accomplished a lot, especially considering this is only their first week of summer programming!