Riverside Park Adds Bee Hives In Two Spots to Boost Population Through Hibernation Season

Conservancy gardener Ryan Mahoney. Photos via Riverside Park Conservancy.

The Riverside Park Conservancy put special “houses” in two parts of the park to give extra shelter to native bees, which help keep the park pollinated. Native bees are different from honey bees and their hives look different too — they’re designed to look more like tree cavities that bees naturally shelter in rather than the geometric nests that produce honey.

But even if they don’t get the same attention, native bees are key players in parks, and the conservancy wants to help them through the winter and increase their numbers in the years ahead. Native bees are losing habitat as cities and suburbs expand, and dying from pesticide use, the conservancy says.

The new hives are located in Riverside Park South (59th-71st) and at the “pollinator meadow” at 119th. If you like the flowers you see in the park, remember to thank a bee.