By Olivia Borgula

The University of Maryland is now a bee-certified campus, a designation from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a nonprofit aiming to protect nature through the conservation of invertebrates and their habit.This means the university will create initiatives to support biodiversity and sustainable ecosystems on campus. 

Efforts to earn the bee campus certification were spearheaded by PollinaTerps, a collaborative group of university students, staff, local scientists and community members that has been working to build a bee and pollinator-friendly campus for more than 10 years. 

The creation of PollinaTerps completed the first step toward becoming a bee-certified campus, fulfilling the requirement of having a committee of staff, administrators and students. The group also had to complete an online application, pay an application fee and gain approval from university President Darryll Pines. 

Logan Martin, a sophomore environmental horticulture major who volunteered to help achieve the Bee Campus certification, said university officials were very receptive of the group’s goals, and that their quick response and support allowed them to become certified before their goal of April 29 — Maryland day. 

“Collaborating with community members and multiple campus departments to support important species is a worthy endeavor for the university,” Pines said in a letter to the Bee Campus USA review committee. “I enthusiastically endorse UMD’s application as a Bee Campus USA affiliate.” 

In addition to the necessary application steps, PollinaTerps have also installed more pollinator gardens, devised an integrated pest management plan to reduce pesticides, formed a recommended native plant list and offered service learning projects. A new class on sustainability will also be added to the university’s course offerings as part of the initiatives. 

Pollinator gardens are created to attract pollinators, which often means planting native plants because non-native plants don’t provide enough nectar for pollinators. The university’s Arboretum and Botanical Garden provide an interactive Arboretum Explorer map that labels all the on-campus gardens. 

“A lot of our native bees, I think 20 to 40% of them are specialist feeders, which means that they can only take nectar and pollen from one type of plant or one genus of plants,” Martin said. “It’s very important that you prioritize these plants.” 

Michael Ellis, a horticulturist at the university Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, said bees play a vital role in the ecosystem, which is why the bee-campus certification emphasizes the insect.

“Bees are an indicator species, meaning that their health and population levels can help us understand the health of the overall environment,” he said. “By promoting the health and well-being of bees and other pollinators, we are also promoting the health and well-being of our campus and the surrounding environment.”

Efforts of bee-certified campuses come amid a substantial decline in bee populations across the United States. Since 2006, beekeepers have reported honey bee colony loss rates averaging 30% each winter, largely caused by human activity and urbanization, Ohio State University found. Native bees, while much less documented, have also declined. Nearly 1 in 4 native bee species is imperiled and at risk of extinction, according to a study from the Center for Biological Diversity. 

Martin said it’s especially important to thwart the declining native bee population, especially because bees don’t get as much public support as other pollinators such as butterflies and hummingbirds. 

“It’s not really intuitive for people to support these kinds of bee conservation projects,” he said. “One of the important things about the bee campus certification is that it gives us an opportunity to really educate people about bees, and to show that these are really cool and really important insects.”

Featured Image: The Maryland Natives Shade Garden on April 17 2023, located along McKeldin Mall, features native ferns, sedges, grasses, wildflowers and shrubs from Maryland’s forests. Photo by Olivia Borgula.