To Bee a City Environmentalist
Those of you who always wanted to be environmentalists when you grew up, here’s your chance. You won’t even have to leave Brooklyn.
You may already be aware of the phenomena called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that is wiping out bee colonies in North America.
It’s not something that we usually give much thought to, here in Sheepshead Bay, where we’re usually more concerned about our favorite fish. But around the rest of New York, others are interested in bees and not just for their honey. While the disappearing bees phenomena grows, so does the phenomena of concrete jungle beekeeping meeetup groups.
They’re generally called Urban beekeepers, NYC Rooftop beekepers, or Keepers of the Hidden Hives. But, whatever you call them, they are dedicated to doing their part to encourage an ecologically balanced horticultural system and they understand the part that bees play in that delicate system.
The Flatbush Gardener tells us that there is an opportunity for every city dweller to get involved in the effort to understand the plight to help stop the blight of bees. The site lists the call for public awareness and volunteers as follows (some links added):
The Great Pollinator Project, a joint effort of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center and the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, is recruiting volunteers for 2009 to record and report observations of native bee species in New York City. They are conducting orientations over the next week from 6-8pm at the following locations:
Brooklyn: Monday, June 8th at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1000 Washington Avenue
Staten Island: Tuesday, June 9th at Greenbelt Nature Center, 700 Rockland Avenue
Bronx: Tuesday, June 9th at Van Cortlandt House Museum, Van Cortlandt Park
Queens: Wednesday, June 10th at Alley Pond Environmental Center (APEC) 228-06 Northern Blvd.
Manhattan: Tuesday, June 16th at Central Park, North Meadow Recreation Center (Off of 97th St. Transverse Road)
You can RSVP online , by emailing beewatchers [at] gmail [dot] com or by calling 718-370-9044.
So, let’s get bee-zy and watch the bay bees — before digital animations are the only ones we have left.