Carson City Bee Hotel now open for business thanks to Chamber students

At the ribbon cutting ceremony held on Friday, quite a number of bees were seen buzzing around the new bee hotel soon to choose their future accommodation.

Released behind the Carson Tahoe Health Cancer Center at the trailhead of the one-mile long Serenity Trail on Thursday, 150 Mason bees couldn’t wait to be freed from their boxes by their foster mother, Debra Conrad, a member of the class who kept the bees until they could be released.

City officials were on hand to cut the ribbon and congratulate the Carson City Chamber Leadership Class of 2019 on the successful completion of their class project. Mayor Robert Crowell told the over 125 in attendance, “One-third of everything we eat is because of bee pollinators.” He further cited how proud he was that Carson City had been selected by the Xerces Society as the 76th Bee City USA this year.

The application to become a Bee City USA was submitted by the Great Basin Beekeepers of Nevada and Carson City Park, Recreation & Open Space with the pledge to provide healthy habitats for pollinators and to teach the community the importance of sustaining pollinators. Great Basin Beekeepers must report annually to the Xerces Society of their efforts to celebrate pollinators to be allowed to keep the designation as a Bee City USA.

Because of the Bee City USA designation, the Leadership class agreed to undertake the building of a bee habitat as their class project. They raised over $7,000, enlisted support from outside vendors, and oversaw the project from completion to the ribbon cutting ceremony. Class member Stephen Jones, Manager, District Operations for Southwest Gas was a part of the class and brought the concept back to Southwest Gas and their affiliate Arizona Pipeline Blue team to consider building a bee habitat as a volunteer project that fell within their stated scope “of enriching the quality of life of those around us.” It is estimated the volunteers of the Blue team donated about $40,000 in labor and materials for not only the actual structure, but for the improvement of the entire site.

There is much local public interest in bee preservation as seen by the number of hits received when the Chamber posted “bee updates” on their Facebook page. Some posts received more than 11,000 hits.

The new bee hotel is set up to be a teaching moment to those who pause to watch the bee activity. On the backside of the structure, a poster of the importance of pollinators was installed. On each of the sides are dedication plaques honoring those who made cash donations and those who participated in the Leadership Class of 2019.

It is the hope of the Class of 2019 that Carsonites acknowledge and learn of the importance of our friendly pollinators and limit the use of pesticides to provide a welcoming habitat to allow bees to do what they do best - pollinate for our future. They further encourage all to hike or bike the beautiful and shady Serenity Trail and to visit the Bee Hotel.

Carson City Leadership Institute is a legacy program of the Carson City Chamber of Commerce now in its 30th year. The nine-month program invites current and future leaders to better understand the community in which they live and work to be instrumental in leading Carson City into the future. The Class of 2019 will graduate on Thursday, June 13th. Applications for the Class of 2020 will begin in July.