Two years ago, a native plant garden was planted by the tennis courts at Pascack Valley to appeal to butterfly and honey bee pollinators. Now, Pascack Valley is currently in the process of becoming a Bee Campus.

The Bee Campus program aims to transform educational institutions to more sustainable environments for our pollinators. Bee Campuses must have a landscaping plan, use safe pesticides, and educate the surrounding community. In June of 2012, Bee City USA took off, and it was given the title of a non-profit organization in 2016. There are currently 31 Bee Campuses in the United States, and PV intends to be the next school on this list.

The idea came about after Kristen Lindstrom, a biology teacher at PV, discovered the importance of pollinators through her parents.

“Both my parents are retired and they keep bees in their backyard,” Lindstrom said. “It kind of opens up the doors to people in the field of beekeeping.”

From here, Lindstrom became active in this bee community and in September of 2017 when she attended the Honey Cup at Ramapo College. This is a family-oriented event where local beekeepers from Bergen County come together and sell products with honey or beeswax. Participating in this event made Lindstrom wonder how she could bring the idea back to the school.

“How can we continue to establish a safe and welcoming environment for these pollinators to do exactly what nature intends for them to do?” Lindstrom said.

As a first step in getting the PV Community involved with this mission, Lindstrom’s parents recommended she reach out to Frank Mortimer, the president of the Northeast New Jersey Beekeepers Association, and John Gout, a former member of the association. When Lindstrom discovered that Gout had helped Ridgewood become a Bee City, she knew the next step was to make Hillsdale and Pascack Valley one, too.

After filling out an online application to become a Bee Campus, Pascack Valley is still waiting to reach the final step.

As part of the process to becoming certified, just this past April, Lindstrom arranged Frank Mortimer to visit our school and teach students about bees and their importance in the environment.

In the meantime, while the application process continues to pend, Lindstrom has considered the potential misconceptions that could arise when students, or even teachers, hear the words, “Bee Campus.” Though the name may be alarming to some, she points out that “we don’t actually keep bees on the campus.” Rather, Bee Campuses are meant to be a place that has pollinator-friendly plants as well as a well-educated community.

Lindstrom believes that becoming a Bee Campus could lead to a better understanding of our environmental footprint and it could even be beneficial to small businesses such as chemical free lawn care, seed suppliers, and landscapers. DeMaio feels that becoming a Bee Campus adds to the concept of Pascack Valley adopting diverse ideas that come from all different fields of interest.

Beyond just our pollinators, DeMaio finds that the ability for Pascack Valley to “connect classroom education to something real and physical helps tie the campus together.”