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Urban Pollinators:
Meet the Urban Pollinator Team!
Meet the Urban Pollinator Team!
Ashley Carver
Ashley Carver
Ashley is an Environmental and Sustainability Studies major and an Applied Statistics minor.
Kaitlin Escobar
Kaitlin Escobar
Kaitlin is an Environmental and Sustainability Studies major and a Natural Resource Management minor.
Jonathan Rankins-James
Jonathan Rankins-James
Jonathan is an Environmental and Sustainability Studies major.
Macey Mikesell
Macey Mikesell
Macey is an Environmental and Sustainability Studies major with a focus on sustainable food systems.
Rebecca Damuth
Rebecca Damuth
Rebecca is a Writing major and a double minor in Digital Studies and Advertising and Public Relations
Pollinators... Why Do We Need Them?
Pollinators... Why Do We Need Them?
Pollinators help many plants throughout the world reproduce by carrying and transferring pollen from and to plants. Pollinators provide societal benefits, including food security improvement, biodiversity promotion, and ecosystem stability (Potts, 2016). Some species of pollinators include:
butterflies
beetles
moths
birds
most importantly... bees!
Approximately 1/3 of the U.S’s food supply comes from bee pollination, considering bees play a role in producing fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, and a wide variety of crops (Blaylock & Richards, 2009). Without the help of these pollinators, many plants around the world will not grow, and we would not have the variety of produce we have available to us at grocery stores today.
What's The Problem?
What's The Problem?
Bee species are important socially, economically, and environmentally, but studies have shown that bee populations have been struggling to survive and maintain healthy hives due to increasing threats and stressors. According to Oldroyd, multiple compounding influences have been identified as threatening and stressing bee populations such as:
diseases, parasites
chemical exposure/ingestion
changes in landscapes (affect their availability of food sources and habitat)
climate change
low genetic diversity
Specifically, bees rely on a diversity of flowering plants as their food source for survival. With the growing development of monocultures and urbanization, bees are losing the vast landscapes that they once had to forage.
Dr. Marla Spivak: Why Bees are Disappearing
Dr. Marla Spivak: Why Bees are Disappearing
Dr. Spivak discusses and identifies four interacting factors that have devastated the survival and health of bee communities.
Our Brainstorming Process
Our group met together to hold a brainstorming session regarding our proposal. Through an activity where we all listed potential project ideas and stakeholders, we came up with a lengthy list of some of the best possibilities that our proposal could take. To help narrow down the list, our group members individually voted on what ideas most sparked their interest. Collectively, we noticed that green roofs were a top contender as all of our group members were captivated by the topic. Another top choice among our group was to focus on incorporating an educational aspect to our pollinator habitat. With this agreement, we began directing our habitat proposal towards green roofs with the inclusion of an educational sign pertaining to green roofs and their benefits to pollinator life.
How Can We Help?
How Can We Help?
One way to help out these important and threatened pollinators is by providing them with areas to find food sources and potential habitats to grow and maintain healthy colonies. Specifically, our group found that reincorporating green spaces into more urbanized landscapes is a great way to be pollinator friendly. Green roofs are typically used to reduce rainwater runoff in urban areas, but our idea is to use pollinator-friendly vegetation and transform these rainwater collection spaces into pollinator habitats. A primary location to start implementing these green roofs is across our home campus of Grand Valley State University.
Why Green Roofs?
Why Green Roofs?
benefits outweigh the initial costs of installation
they provide economic savings from lower heating and cooling bills
reduced greenhouse gas emissions as a result of lower energy use
reduce heat islands where buildings increase the absorption and re-emission of the suns heat, increasing temperatures in urban areas
improve air quality when plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen
aesthetic and visual appeal in urbanized settings
When a green roof serves as a pollinator habitat, the pollinators have a greater chance to survive in an inhospitable environment. Urban sprawl causes fragmentation of pollinator habitats, which is an increasing problem that threatens biodiversity of plant and animal species.
Green roofs satisfy the three criteria required to be considered sustainable. The triple-bottom line must be considered when measuring a project's viability, and green roofs used as pollinator habitat have a multitude of benefits for each category.
Some Existing Green Roofs
Some Existing Green Roofs
New York City
New York City
There are over 700 green roof gardens in the city of New York. New York City has approximately one million buildings which leaves opportunity to increase the number of green space in the sky!
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids
The Downtown Market in Grand Rapids has 1,200 square feet, and an extensive green roof. This green roof was designed by Live Roof, and is made up of three patterned plant mixes: yellow, green and pink, and red and purple.
GVSU's Allendale Campus
GVSU's Allendale Campus
This green roof is located on the top of Mackinac Hall and is believed to be extensive. Many students does not know it is there and how important it is.
Stakeholders
Amy McFarland
Amy McFarland
Amy McFarland is a director and associate professor in the Environmental and Sustainability Studies department at Grand Valley State University. Her research interests include urban greening as well as social and environmental impacts of food systems.
Suggestions: Amy suggested that we gain inspiration from the green roofs in New York City. She also recommended that we look into the difference between intensive and extensive green roofs given intensive green roofs require more infrastructure.
Michael Hinkle
Michael Hinkle
Michael Hinkle is the farm manager at the Sustainable Agriculture Project (SAP), and an educator within the Office of Sustainability Practices at Grand valley State University. He is very passionate about agriculture and one day hopes to operate an agro-tourism farm in Michigan.
Suggestions: Michael suggested that we contact companies who design green roofs. He encouraged us to consider the limited supply of soil available on green roofs, and recommends that our design incorporates staggered flowering in order to ensure equal forage throughout the growing season. Michael advised that we give thought to the plants we choose in order to allow them to exist in harmony rather than eventually turning into a monoculture.
Anne Marie Fauvel
Anne Marie Fauvel
Anne Marie Fauvel is an adjunct professor in the Environmental and Sustainability Studies department at Grand Valley State University. Her research interests include honey bees and beekeeping as well as environmental and food systems studies.
Suggestions: Anne Marie recommended that we include sedums into our habitat, as they act as suitable green roof and pollinator friendly plants. For more information on pollinator friendly plants, Anne Marie suggested that we check out a book titled "Pollinator Garden Plants" by Peter Lindtner. She points out that water supply may be our biggest challenge within our habitat design. She also suggested that we contact Hortech in Spring Lake, as they have a patent for a hybrid green roof design.
Our Design Plan
Our Design Plan
Rooftop Succulent Polyculture
Rooftop Succulent Polyculture
How our stakeholders guided our creative thinking...
Amy's suggestion regarding the practicality of extensive green roofs over intensive green roofs.
Michael's suggestion to consider the limited soil availability and to incorporate a variety of succulent species to promote staggered flowering.
Anne-Marie's suggestion to incorporate sedums into our habitat, as well as her advice to consider that water access may be our biggest challenge.
Our design plan is to create an extensive green roof pollinator habitat plan for use in urban areas. These green roofs are designed to supply continuous supplies of food to several species of pollinators throughout the Midwestern seasons.
We chose succulents as our pollinator plant species because they are drought resistant. Succulents absorb and retain moisture, require little soil, and include species that bloom at different times of the year. Succulents can attract various insect and bird species creating an inclusive habitat for biodiversity. Their leaves can be propagated, making them versatile and cost effective. Some hardy species can even withstand Michigan winters.
Habitat Species
Sedum Spurium
Summer Bloom
Sedum Album 'Coral Carpet'
Summer Bloom
Senecio Serpens
Summer Bloom
Autumn Joy Sedum
Late Summer Bloom
Sedum Autumn Fire
Late Summer / Fall Bloom
White Clover
Spring Bloom
Dandelion
Spring / Summer Bloom
Trevi Fountain Lungwort
Spring Bloom
Considerations and Features
Considerations and Features
Our green roofs will follow an extensive system that is shallower, lightweight, and usually requires less maintenance and water.
green roofs should be implemented on flat or low-sloping roofs
soil depth will be about 4 inches (succulents do not require deep soil for root development so they will thrive in 4-inch deep soil)
unlike other pollinator habitats, a primarily succulent/sedum-based spread will not require as much watering and maintenance
provide an educational sign near green roofs where readers can learn about the benefits of green roofs, the pollinator-related reason for the green roof, and what they can do to help the pollinators
What can you do to help?
Plant pollinator-friendly flowers
Avoid contaminating them with pesticides
Idea: design informational brochures that observers can take. They would include information that we have shared on this page and would also encourage people to grow their own succulents which are really simple to care for.
Left: an example of a brochure that informs people about the threats the bee population is dealing with, how they can help, and why they should care.
Potential Green Roof Location on GVSU's campus
Potential Green Roof Location on GVSU's campus
There are three traditional-style housing units located on the North end of GVSU's Allendale campus. These three buildings conform to the shape of the natural ravines area in that they were built. The flat top roofs of these buildings, along with their location near the ravines, make these a great location to implement some green roofs.
Left: The three curvy buildings represent the Kistler, Copeland, and Robinson Living Centers. These buildings are built along the edge of a naturally wooded area.
Right: In green, the roofs of the buildings where green roofs could be constructed are outlined. In red, to the left side of the photograph, are outlined two green roofs that are currently on the Mackinac Hall building (the larger of which is pictured above in our page).
Thank you for taking the time to view our proposal for green roof pollinator habitats!
Sources:
Sources:
Frazer, Kate. “Green Roofs in New York City.” Superheroes in the City, 12 Aug. 2022, https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united- states/new-york/stories-in-new-york/green-roofs-new-york-city/.
“Grand Rapids Downtown Market Green Roof.” Greenroofs.com, 2022, www.greenroofs.com/projects/grand-rapids-downtown-market-green- roof/.
“Green Roofs in New York City: Greenroofsnyc.com: United States.” Greenroofsnyc.com, 2018, www.greenroofsnyc.com/.
Oldroyd, Benjamin P. “What’s Killing American Honey Bees?” PLoS Biology, vol. 5, no. 6, 12 June 2007, p. e168, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050168.\
Potts, Simon G., et al. “Safeguarding Pollinators and Their Values to Human Well-Being.” Nature, vol. 540, no. 7632, 28 Nov. 2016, pp. 220– 229, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20588.
Richards, Terresa H., and Iris T. Blaylock. Honey Bees : Colony Collapse Disorder and Pollinator Role in Ecosystems. Nova Science Publishers, Inc, 2009. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,sso&db=nlebk&AN=358000&site=eds-live&scope=site.
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