Berea College Recognized For Supporting Pollination
By: Stu Johnson
Berea College is now officially certified as an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program. The southern Madison County College is the 85th educational institution in the country to earn this recognition for its efforts to create sustainable habitats for pollinators.
Berea College First Lady Laurie Roelofs chairs the school’s Bee Campus USA Committee. She said the idea is to be intentional about pollination.
“If we are being very determined about the kind of plants that we have, the native plants, the sources of food for them, that we are then supplying more of what the bees need,” explained Roelofs.
While this designation pertains to bees, Roelofs has raised monarch butterflies for more than two decades. She noted butterfly based pollination can’t be overlooked. “There are a lot of creatures that are pollinators. We mostly talk about the honey bees, because of how busy they are out there. But, all the other kinds of bees are also pollinators as our most butterflies,” said Roelofs.
The Bee Campus USA program is an initiative of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. It’s described as a non-profit with a mission to galvanize communities and campuses to sustain pollinators by providing them with healthy habitats rich in native plants and free of pesticides. Roelofs says Berea College manages the grounds without pesticides and herbicides.
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