ENVD Native Bee "Forgotten Hive" Praxis Studio

This studio course is an interactive design project that allows our Environmental Design students to work within the Boulder community, making a direct impact on the population and diversity of bees. 

Much of the current momentum behind ‘saving the bees’ focuses on honey bees; they are the poster child for the bee movement. But honey bees, not native to the US, only represent seven out of 3600+ bee species in the US alone. These bee species are broadly known as native bees, what we call “The Forgotten Hive”. Native bees are often more efficient and cost significantly less than honey bees, live in the ground and wood instead of hives, and many will not sting! 

This program supports our students in actively re-designing University of Colorado parking lot habitats to support native bees while improving their visual and ecological function. We partner with the Entomology Department and the Environmental Center, and our design students perform weekly studies to ensure our research is recorded and transferable to other cities and campuses. 

Your contribution will have a small but powerful effect on local bee habitat, helping to offset the negative impacts of urban development. With your help, we can change parks and parking lots across the country to support the forgotten hive and work towards a more sustainable, diverse future.