Guest Editorial: Berkshire Bee and Butterfly Boxes Support Businesses and Sustainability

By Emma Smith, Newark Valley Senior High School —

With hopes of bringing color and life to Berkshire, Berkshire Bee and Butterfly boxes have been planted in Berkshire Creekside Park. I have been working on the NYS Civics Readiness Seal for my studies at Newark Valley Senior High School. For this, I organized the implementation of the garden in the park with help from George and Nancy Lohmann and Penny Magnus.

With bees and butterflies being the backbone of Berkshire businesses, it is important that their population is supported locally and sustainably. Pollinator populations have been on a steady decline.

According to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection service, honey bee colonies have dropped in numbers from 5 million to 2.68 million in 2023, and monarch overwintering loss rates have risen to 58%.

A cut in half of all pollinators worldwide causes damage to ecosystems and damages everyday life. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, inadequate pollination can lead to a 3-5% loss of fruit, vegetable, and nut production. This leads to higher death rates due to a lack of healthy food production. 

Pollinator populations are decreasing for many reasons. Some of those reasons include habitat loss, non-native and invasive species, and the use of pesticides and pathogens. Tackling the pollinator population may seem like a daunting challenge, but we can start small.

The Berkshire Bee and Butterfly Garden was planted using all native plants to this area of New York, sourced from local gardens and seeds from Prairie Moon Nursery, and all are great pollinator plants that will attract bees and butterflies to the area. Some of the plants include Butterfly Milkweed, Sundial Lupine, New England Aster, and Bee Balm. 

Bees and butterflies are an integral part of Berkshire and the businesses that run here. Howland’s Honey is a successful local business that relies on pollinators for its products, as is the Berkshire Hills Honey Bee Farm, another local honey business.

Our local businesses, Darlene’s Flowers and The Vintage Flower Stand, are businesses that rely on proper pollination of their products to bring color and celebration to our homes. We rely on these businesses, and these businesses rely on the pollinators. 

Creating your own garden, maintaining an existing one, or supporting these local businesses are all great ways to support the pollinator population in our community, which helps to benefit the climate overall. Keeping bees and butterflies in our gardens keeps the community spirit alive.