NJIT Designated as a Bee Campus USA Affiliate

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has been officially recognized as an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program, joining a growing network of colleges, universities and communities committed to creating healthy, sustainable habitats for pollinators.

"This certification speaks volumes of the work our NJIT community has put together to ensure that we become stewards of our natural habitat, and develop our campus as a living laboratory," said Prabhakar Shrestha, assistant director of sustainability at NJIT. "I want to thank all the members of our NJIT community for their commitment towards this cause and for sustainability in general."

NJIT is the first university in New Jersey to receive this designation, and as part of its recognition, has formed a Bee Campus USA committee comprising students, researchers and staff. In collaboration with the university's Urban Ecology Lab (UEL) and other academic departments, the committee is working to:

• Design and install informative signage around campus green spaces featuring native species and their roles as pollinators.
• Implement an integrated pest management plan (IPM) to minimize pesticide use.
• Monitor existing bee communities at native planting sites with the help of UEL researchers and student groups.
• Create new bee nesting habitats, such as bee hotels, that will also serve as research and teaching tools.
• Promote pollinator conservation through outreach events, including NJIT's annual Earth Day celebration.

A 'Green College'

NJIT already integrates pollinator conservation into its curriculum. Courses such as Conservation Biology, taught by Maria Stanko, senior university lecturer in biological sciences and co-director of the UEL, emphasize the ecological importance of pollinators. The Albert Dorman Honors College also runs an annual biodiversity project in which incoming students design themed native planting sites to support pollinators - currently totaling at least five across campus, with a new site added each year. "Insect Isle," was the winning project announced earlier this year.

Other recent sustainability efforts include a community garden on the Campus Center terrace. The leafy green garden has five plots, each tended by students, staffers or professors with ample light and water. The output will be vegetables and herbs, with a portion donated to NJIT's food pantry.

Together, these efforts have helped NJIT earn a score of 91/99 in The Princeton Review's Guide to Green Colleges.

"Recent studies show that many populations of bees are declining globally due to habitat loss and pesticide use among other threats," said Caroline DeVan, senior university lecturer in biological sciences and co-director of UEL. "The good news is that we can support bees and other beneficial insects through the ecological management of our work and living spaces.

"Annually, over the past five years, plantings have been designed and implemented by students in the Albert Dorman Honors College Freshman Seminar, significantly increasing the area of pollinator habitat on campus. The Urban Ecology Lab is working to help survey and monitor these areas to document the benefits to bees and other wildlife - but positive impacts have already been observed."

Bee Campus USA and its sister initiative, Bee City USA, are programs of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon. Their mission is to galvanize communities and campuses to sustain pollinators by increasing native plant abundance, reducing pesticide use and providing nesting habitat. Pollinators - including bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, wasps and hummingbirds - are essential for the reproduction of nearly 90% of flowering plant species and one in every three bites of food humans consume.

"New Bee Campus USA affiliates have a full calendar year to get up and running before meeting the commitments of certification, but NJIT has already implemented many of our requirements," said Laura Rost, Bee Campus USA coordinator. "With its IPM plan, native pollinator gardens and pollinator-focused curriculum, NJIT is off to a strong start. We're excited to see how the Bee Campus committee builds on this foundation."