Girl Scout Gold Award recipient partners with MDC on pollinator project in Marceline

MARCELINE, Mo. – Conservation is a continuous, collective effort. Often, the first step is simply getting people to care. Marceline teenager Kenedi Newman, a long-time lover of bees, used her Girl Scout Gold Award project as an opportunity to do just that. Over the past two years, with mentorship from Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) staff, Newman installed a pollinator habitat and wooden bee house at a local golf course and led presentations to community groups of all ages reducing the stigma around the often-feared insects.

The Gold Award is the highest award granted by the Girl Scouts. Eligible scouts must create and implement a plan to help fix a problem in their community or make a lasting change in their world. Newman, a senior at Marceline High School, knew her love of bees would be at the center of her project from the very beginning.

“There just wasn’t any other choice,” she said. “I needed to BEE the solution.”

Newman started the process by pitching the idea of a pollinator garden to a committee at the Marceline Golf Club. She was met with enthusiasm, and the committee even asked if she could install gardens at every hole on the golf course. For the time being, Newman only had the funds for a single garden.

As Newman’s project advisor, MDC Community and Private Lands Field Chief Brent Vandeloecht helped Newman select a variety of brightly colored native wildflowers and installed a wooden house with hand-drilled holes, affectionately named the “Air Bee ‘n’ Bee,” to give bees an easy start to a hive. A sign explained the importance of a pollinator plot and included a QR code to direct visitors to MDC’s website on native pollinators such as bees.

“Anytime we can get young adults involved in the outdoors, it’s really important,” said Vandeloecht. “We have to have people who care.”

Once the physical project was completed, Newman knew the real work was just beginning. She didn’t just want to help a single population of native bees, but change the insects’ image in her community. She posted flyers about the project around Marceline, spoke to church groups and civic groups about the importance of native bees, and even taught two younger local Girl Scout troops how to start their own “bee hotels.”

“You may not like bees, but try to set that behind you and respect how important they are,” said Newman. “I always thought bees were cute, but now I understand they’re really needed. I can’t save the bees on my own if other people don’t care.”

Missouri is home to around 450 species of bees. They make up a powerful force of pollinators whose work is essential to support human food sources as well as habitats that many animals rely on for food and shelter.

Nationally, many bee species have seen notable decline in their population caused by loss of habitat, pests, pesticide use, diseases, drought, and in some cases, air pollution. This has drawn sharp attention about the need to protect native pollinators, such as bees.

“This project is a great example of a small-scale change having a big impact,” said Vandeloecht. “You don’t have to be a big landowner. Any homeowner could make something this size and help native pollinators.”

“I know my project helped spread the importance of bees to others in my community and surrounding towns,” said Newman. “I was contacted by many people about how they were inspired to make their own bee houses. The time and effort spent grew me as a person and I will never regret any of it. My love and passion for bees is what drove me, and I hope my gold award continues to inspire others like it already has.”

Visit MDC’s field guide at http://short.mdc.mo.gov/o4f to learn more about Missouri bee species.