Bees’ pollinating presence helps to ensure the vitality of our food systems. 

The work of bees isn’t just happening in fields of wildflowers or quiet suburban gardens. Bees in urban neighborhoods also have an important role to play.

The nonprofit Detroit Hives has turned vacant lots into thriving pollinator habitats and community green spaces. That work includes planting pollinator-friendly trees in neighborhoods that need canopy, beauty and biodiversity. One of the group’s recent projects was at the Finney Community Arboretum and Botanical Garden, which they hope to transform into a thriving community space for pollinators and residents alike.

Detroit Hives Co-founders Tim Paule Jackson and Nicole Lindsey joined The Metro on Monday to discuss their work. 

–Segment produced by WDET’s Amanda Le Claire.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

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The city of Detroit has a lot of concrete streets, slabs of road and old industrial buildings. 

But green spaces like Palmer Park provide an outlet to connect with nature. The park is home to one of the city’s old growth forests with diverse plant and animal life. 

And it’s just one of many spaces in Detroit hosting Earth Day celebrations and events this week to inspire environmental awareness and encourage community involvement.

On Sunday, the park will host Art in the Trees, an outdoor art exhibition among the trees in Palmer Park’s old growth forest featuring large-scale sculptures, music, activities and more.

Event organizer Mark Loeb joined The Metro on Earth Day to share more about the event.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Tuesday, April 22:

• Detroit’s Pope Francis Center leader reflects on late pontiff’s legacy
• WDET is ‘rooting’ itself in local environmental reporting with tree canopy project
• Detroit Public Library is ready to help in many ways
• Michigan ends mandatory life sentences for 19 and 20-year-olds convicted of murder

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

More stories from The Metro

A once-forgotten cluster of vacant lots on Detroit’s west side is now home to Circle Forest, a community-led reforestation project created by the nonprofit Arboretum Detroit. Co-director Andrew “Birch” Kemp says the space, made up of 12 formerly vacant lots, was transformed from illegal dumping grounds into an accessible public green space.

“We cleared out like 60 yards of garbage and did a tree assessment, pulled out invasives, planted 200 native trees,” Kemp said. “It’s a park where there wasn’t a park.”

Now, neighbors and visitors can walk more than a mile through a continuous green corridor woven through backyards and hidden blocks that were once overgrown and avoided.

Kemp says the group’s philosophy is about honoring what already exists, rather than starting from scratch.

“I’m not mad at any tree out here because they’ve been providing shade for decades before I got here,” he said. “So who am I to come through and just decide you have to go?”

The project, which includes programming, nature walks, and a tree nursery, is one example of ongoing grassroots movements to restore native ecosystems and increase access to nature in Detroit’s neighborhoods and beyond. 

More from WDET:

• Local nonprofit aims to plant Detroit’s first-ever forest of giant sequoia trees
• Detroit’s tree canopy is growing, despite federal funding cuts
• Massive flooding in Southwest Detroit may have affected trees