RVCC Recertified as a Bee Campus USA Affiliate
In recognition of Raritan Valley Community College’s ongoing commitment to raise awareness and enhance a habitat for pollinators, Bee City USA has renewed the College’s certification as a Bee Campus USA affiliate. In fall 2016 RVCC was the first New Jersey college, and the 15th in the country, to receive this designation.
The Bee Campus USA designation recognizes educational campuses that commit to a set of practices that support pollinators, including bees, butterflies, birds and bats, among thousands of other species.
Bee City USA is a national nonprofit organization that galvanizes communities and institutions of higher education to sustain pollinators by providing them with healthy habitat, rich in a variety of native plants and free to nearly free of pesticides. In 2016 the United Nations reported that 40 percent of the world’s 350,000 pollinator species were at risk of extinction. Imperiled pollinators like honey bees, bumble bees, butterflies, moths, bats, hummingbirds, and others are responsible for the reproduction of 90 percent of the world's wild plant species and one in every three bites of food that people consume.
The Bee Campus USA affiliation is an example of the College’s ongoing commitment to sustainability. RVCC adopted integrated pest management as part of its 2009 environmental stewardship agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency—the first such agreement the agency signed with a community college. The College is committed to planting only native vegetation and has planted milkweed and other pollinator-friendly plants to support the monarch butterfly and other pollinators. The campus also has been certified as a Colossal Monarch Waystation by Monarch Watch. RVCC’s Environmental Club maintains an organic garden, which relies on bees for pollination.
In 2017 RVCC added a new, accessible enabling garden to the pollinator gardens on campus. The garden is part of an enabling garden program led by Rotary International District 7510 (Central New Jersey) and Rutgers University.
For more information about Bee City USA, visit www.beecityusa.org or email Director Phyllis Stiles at beecityusa@gmail.com. Click here to read RVCC’s Bee City USA annual report.
Raritan Valley Community College’s main campus is located at 118 Lamington Road in Branchburg, NJ. For further information, visit www.raritanval.edu.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 28, 2018
Media contacts: (RVCC) Donna Stolzer, 908-526-1200, ext. 8383; (Bee City USA) Phyllis Stiles, Executive Director, 828-545-4282
PR #106
