By Stephen Smoot
With the scare in recent years concerning the demise of bee hives across the country due to parasitic mites, more attention has gone toward making the honey producers more resilient while boosting populations.
One of the tactics used has been picked up by First Energy as part of their support for local communities that they serve. Throughout a five state area, the company has invested in creating community pollinator gardens.
Their goal, according to a story from their website, lies in “transforming unused areas into new green spaces while creating food and habitat for insects and small animals that pollinate plants.” Teams fill the gardens with both nectar and pollen producing plants to spur the spread of needed and desired plant life in the area.
According to Gardening Know How, native plants make the best species to use. Pollinators in the area are more familiar, or perhaps even evolved alongside, native plants.
While most think of bees first, butterflies, bats, beetles, and hummingbirds also form part of the vital pollination chain that helps to produce vividly beautiful flowers, but also most of the fruits consumed by people. Pollination gardens provide a safe and accessible place for all to help strengthen the chain and keep the ecosystem healthy.
The Shinnston garden was constructed in front of the basketball courts at the Activities Park in Shinnston. Volunteers who put in the garden also plan to add berry bushes in the spring. First Energy green teams, as they are called, also installed similar gardens in Clarksburg and Fairmont.
The company is thinking bigger than small scale gardens, too According to First Energy, “electric utility industry is positioned to create habitats along transmission corridors that benefit a new generation of pollinators. Pollinators thrive in the open areas along transmission rights-of-way because they can find food, nectar and cover that is unavailable in the deep woods.”
In an effort to expand natural productive habitats as much as possible, First Energy “integrated vegetation management practices along approximately 24,500 miles of transmission lines to promote and protect pollinators. By replacing incompatible vegetation that could contact power lines with low-growing shrubs and wildflowers, the company is establishing habitats where pollinators can flourish.”