Pollinator Projects
HSC Beehives Live-Stream
Feed a Bee Habitats
Feed a Bee is an initiative of the Bayer Bee Care Program focused on planting pollinator forage across the nation with the help of communities, individuals, and organizational partners. Feed a Bee has helped pollinators since 2015 by providing financial assistance to communities that want to do their part to feed pollinators. Check out the video below to learn about ECU’s efforts:
Bee Campus USA 
On July 12, 2019, ECU earned the designation of Bee Campus USA. As you can see below, there are 6 requirements that have been fulfilled (or are in the process of being fulfilled) in order to qualify for Bee Campus USA.
1. Establish a committee and develop a Habitat Plan:
- Griffin Avin – HSC Facilities Director
- John Gill – Campus Landscape Architect
- Chad Carwein – University Sustainability Manager
- Karen Mulcahy – Geography Professor, Certified Beekeeper
- Claudia Jolls – Biology Professor, Feed a Bee Pollinator Habitat Grant Recipient
- Ashley Dow – Student Interested in Beekeeping or Pollinator Plants
- Dale Aycock – Retired ECU Employee, Certified Beekeeper
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program
2. Host awareness event(s):
May 20, 2019 is declared “World Bee Day” by the United Nations and, on this day, ECU hosted a beehive setup event that had about 50 students, staff, faculty, and community members in attendance. We kicked off this event by discussing the importance of honeybees and other pollinators and talked about how the university has been establishing pollinator-friendly habitats on campus. Next, our two certified beekeepers, with help from the owner of All American Bee Company who we purchased two nucs from, setup the two beehives that we now have installed on our Health Sciences Campus. In addition, the 3rd Annual ECU Sustainability Film and Discussion Series hosted a screening of “More Than Honey” at the new Main Campus Student Center on March 12. We had nearly 60 students, staff, faculty, and community members in attendance at this event as well. Since this is an annual requirement of the Bee Campus USA program, we will continue to seek additional opportunities to host awareness events each year.
3. Sponsor and track student service-learning projects to enhance pollinator habitats
The first service-learning project was completed by a graduate student in the Biology Department. Ashley Dow created a Pollinator-Friendly Native Plant List that can be accessed and utilized by anyone in our local community to enhance their own landscapes and help expand the pollinator-friendly habitats available in Greenville, North Carolina. Since this is an annual requirement of the Bee Campus USA program, we will continue to seek additional opportunities for students to work on service-learning projects that will enhance pollinator habitats on- and off-campus such as: building bee hotels, planting pollinator gardens, conducting research about pollinator habitats on and off campus, and many more!
4. Offer pollinator focused courses and/or workshops
We have yet to fulfill this requirement, but intend to do the following within the next year:
“At least biennially offer a course and/or workshop on Pollinator Ecology and/or Integrated Pest Management and/or Landscaping for Pollinators and/or Native Plants. Workshops may provide continuing education credits for professional pesticide applicators and/or landscape designers.”
5. Post signage to educate campus and broader community
As you can see, this sign was installed next to a pollinator-friendly native plant habitat that ECU Grounds Services planted just on the other side of the fence from our two beehives on Health Sciences Campus. It provides information on the following: the importance of pollinators like honeybees, the severity of colony collapse disorder, how to protect pollinators, and different types of pollinator-friendly native plant species.
6. Maintain a web presence to share your Bee Campus USA news and activities
In addition to this webpage, we will share Bee Campus USA news and activities on our social media accounts. Search for @SustainECU or click on these links to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.