Hive of activity: UW-Oshkosh students help lead first Bee Campus USA report

Hannah Bott, co-president of the UW-Oshkosh Sustainable Beekeeping Club, checks a hive frame covered with honey bees behind the Student Recreation and Wellness Center. The club helps maintain campus hives while supporting pollinator education and sustainability efforts tied to UW-Oshkosh's Bee Campus USA certification.

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh students are tracking pollinator plantings, documenting campus events and mapping habitats across university grounds this spring, all part of the university's first official report as a certified Bee Campus USA affiliate.

The report, due this year to Bee Campus USA, documents UW-Oshkosh's efforts to support pollinators through education, habitat expansion, sustainable land management and community outreach. The work includes tracking pollinator-focused events, maintaining native plantings and measuring habitat areas across campus, including roughly 2.3 acres of pollinator-friendly plantings identified through new GIS mapping efforts.

For members of the Sustainable Beekeeping Club (SBC), the reporting process has highlighted just how much work already has been happening behind the scenes.

"The SBC is a huge part of the report," said Hannah Bott, co-president of the Sustainable Beekeeping Club and a senior accounting and finance major from Pewaukee. "Alyssa (Bohn) and I have been keeping track of every event on campus that could be related to native pollinators or plants and the attendance of those events all year."

Students and staff collaborate on Bee Campus certification efforts

UW-Oshkosh earned its Bee Campus USA certification in 2024, recognizing the university's commitment to supporting pollinators through habitat, education and sustainable land practices. The certification requires participating campuses to maintain pollinator habitats, reduce pesticide use, provide educational opportunities and involve students, faculty and staff in ongoing conservation efforts.

"The application process was complicated," Bott said. "There was a lot of information that was requested like square footage of pollinator habitats on campus and how many courses have a mention of pollinators that was just not common knowledge."

Shannon Davis-Foust, senior lecturer in biology and environmental studies and adviser to the Sustainable Beekeeping Club, said one of the biggest benefits of the certification has been improving communication and collaboration across campus.

"We have a committee to advocate for pollinators," Davis-Foust said. "The committee has to consist of faculty, teaching staff, students, grounds staff and the sustainability office."

The committee meets regularly during the academic year to discuss pollinator habitat, campus land use and sustainability efforts.

"One of the biggest benefits that we've been getting from being Bee Campus USA is improving communication," Davis-Foust said. "We're talking to each other regularly."

GIS mapping tracks pollinator habitats across campus

This year's reporting effort also led to new GIS mapping work documenting pollinator habitats across campus. Working with faculty and staff, student Brady Pomplun helped calculate roughly 2.3 acres of pollinator-friendly plantings at UW-Oshkosh, including nearly half an acre added in 2025.

The mapping project helps the university track pollinator-friendly spaces and document new habitat growth as part of the annual Bee Campus USA reporting process.

"Shannon Davis-Foust and Lisa Mick (a member of the grounds crew) spent days this year creating a map of all the pollinator habitats that we have on campus and a list of all the native plants that we host," Bott said. "That's just for one section of this report."

Sustainable Beekeeping Club gives students hands-on experience

On a recent spring afternoon behind the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, Bott prepared one of the club's hives for the season ahead. The hive box contains 10 frames, each holding roughly 2,500 bees, about 25,000 bees in total.

Club members typically meet every other week during the semester and conduct weekly hive checks during the summer, monitoring brood production, honey stores and overall hive health.

"There's so much more every single time that I go out to the hives," Bott said. "I'm learning something new."

Bott said what began as curiosity after discovering the club during Fall Titan Fest evolved into a passion for sustainability and pollinator advocacy.

"It's more than just the bees also, because we're doing all these sustainability things and we're advocating for native pollinators and native plants beyond just honey bees," she said. "It's just something that I can start to get really passionate about."

Beyond maintaining hives, students also are helping educate the broader community about pollinators and habitat conservation. Last year, the club hosted a native planting event near the campus hives that brought together students, staff, community members and local Girl Scouts.

"It was such a great experience to see people of all ages working together to enhance pollinator habitats on campus," Bott said. "We also got to do a little demo with the girls and show them a hive box with honeycomb and some old brood and let them try on parts of the suits and work with the hive tools."

For Davis-Foust, the work goes far beyond honey production or beekeeping as a hobby.

"Pollinators are a very important part of the web of life," Davis-Foust said. "When you remove the pollinators, you limit the reproductive capacity of a lot of flowering plant species."

She said pollinators support ecosystems by helping flowering plants reproduce and by sustaining food sources for birds and other wildlife. Habitat loss, pesticide use and declining insect populations have made conservation efforts increasingly important, especially in urban areas.

While the Sustainable Beekeeping Club focuses on honey bees, members say the broader mission is to create healthier habitats for all pollinators.

"Pollinators are essential to our ecosystem," Bott said. 'Without pollinators, we wouldn't have plants. No plants means no clean air and no food. Bringing awareness of the work we have to do for pollinators - honey bees and otherwise - is just the first step to keeping our world and ourselves healthy."

Students plan future pollinator projects and bee hotels

Students already are looking ahead to future projects, including improving and expanding bee hotels installed along the WIOUWASH Trail near campus.

"This year we are going to be replacing and improving the bee hotels and will be working with members in the SBC to set up a schedule to gather data on the usage and potential impact that these hotels are having on the population of native bees in the area," Bott said.

For Bott, the Bee Campus USA certification reflects both the university's progress and its continued commitment to sustainability.

"Bee Campus USA is evidence that we are doing something right," she said. "UWO strives to become more sustainable as we continue, and I think that's a great quality for a university to have."

Learn more:

Oshkosh provides habitat for butterflies and pollinators, is recognized monarch waystation

All the buzz: Honey bees taking residence at UW Oshkosh