How to participate
Plant your own BEE-SAFE sanctuary, get it certified and pinned in a national sanctuaries map. *Your grounds or lawn can be designated as BEE-SAFE.
Any size planting area will be certified as long as few requirements are met:
Follow these 6 steps:
- Register With NY Bee Sanctuary below. Choose your participation status: CORPORATIONS
- Plant Your Own Bee Sanctuary and/or certify your grounds or lawn. Choose any size planting area availableand follow the criteria required.
- Submit Your Annual Survey Photos
- Post to Your Social Media Accounts & Use the #Hashtags #BEESAFECERTIFIED #MYOWNBEESANCTUARY #NYBEESANCTUARYCERTIFIED
- Receive Your Stamp of Certification, supporting resources and materials. Your sanctuary will be include in the map.
- Watch your Sanctuary grow. WATER OFTEN!
Corporations
REQUIRED CRITERIA
+ Use of flowers or flowering plants beneficial to pollinators over a substantial portion of your sanctuary or certify your grounds or lawn as safe for bees and other insects.
+ No pesticide, herbicide (such as Roundup), or fungicide treatments. Make sure there are no flowers or plants that are pre-treated with pesticides or other chemicals.
+ No synthetic fertilizers.
+ No genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
+ Communicate about your BEE-SAFE Sanctuary initiative with your employees and clients.
ENCOURAGED CRITERIA
+ Purchase a HUI to monitor your sanctuary
+ Book an employee BEE-SAFE awareness workshop
+ Invite employees to participate in a volunteer program
+ Honey bee hives
+ Bumblebee houses or Solitary bee houses.
+ Recommended minimum size of 100 square feet (But if all you have is a small garden area, go for it!)
+ Monthly photo of pollinators and flowers posted to NYBS social media (during active seasons).
OPTIONAL CRITERIA
+ Sponsor a planting area in the NY Bee Sanctuary.
+ Milkweed planting / monarch butterfly station.
+ Honey Bee hives.
+ Permaculture design.
+ Herbs, fruits, and vegetables.
+ Compost station.
+ Native birdhouses. Natural
lawn / prairie.
+ Water station for pollinators
