Ecology & Habitat Restoration
Beehives & Pollinator Gardens
Our pollinator gardens offer an opportunity to directly interact with nature’s systems! Keeping bees allows us to ensure the pollination of our food forest and permaculture community gardens. Our pollinator gardens provide needed habitat for different animals while supporting biodiversity. Our hives allow us to pass on the skills of managing a hive so we can continue to support honeybees and the food systems that depend on them!
Feed the bees, feed our earth, feed ourselves!
Pollinator gardens support and attract pollinators by supplying them with food (pollen and nectar). Pollinating animals travel between plants, carrying pollen on their bodies, and transferring genetic materials that are essential for most flowering plants. A third of all the food we eat exists because of the work of pollinators. Our pollinator gardens exemplify the mutually beneficial relationship between plants and animals, providing a real-life example of the interdependent nature of our food ecosystems.
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Protect the Pollinators
Pollinators face many challenges in today’s society. Habitat loss, pesticide use, parasites disease and increased stress from climate change all create extra hardships for these essential animals. Pollinator gardens create pocket safe havens for them so they may continue to live alongside us.
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Support Biodiversity
Over 80% of flowering plants need pollinators to reproduce! We need pollinators to keep doing their job so we can keep our diverse ecosystems alive!
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Sequester Carbon
Pollinator gardens help maintain soil health. By planting a variety of different plants we support the microbes and other life in the soil. This helps the soil sequester, or capture, more carbon from the air and store it in the ground!
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Support Ourselves
Our pollinator gardens help bring in all the animal partners we need to pollinate our food forest and let us grow different plants year round!
REAP currently has a 500 square foot dedicated pollinator garden. We have planted over 20 different species of pollinator plants and used over 200 lbs of compost to support life below and above ground!
More to Come
We are also continuing our efforts as we create our integrated food forest, edible park, and pollinator habitat! We will also continue placing pollinator plants and California native plants all over our campus!
Where we are now
We are currently partnered with the Bay Beehives to support our Beehives and Pollinator Garden. We are eager to share our vision and ideas with you as a community member, contributor, or possible partner. To learn more about how to contribute, check out our Get Involved tab and our Partners page.
