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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Identifying Opportunities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Considerations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Pollinator Programs on Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26680.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Identifying Opportunities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Considerations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Pollinator Programs on Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26680.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Identifying Opportunities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Considerations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Pollinator Programs on Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26680.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Identifying Opportunities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Considerations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Pollinator Programs on Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26680.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Identifying Opportunities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Considerations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Pollinator Programs on Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26680.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Identifying Opportunities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Considerations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Pollinator Programs on Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26680.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Identifying Opportunities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Considerations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Pollinator Programs on Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26680.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Identifying Opportunities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Considerations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Pollinator Programs on Airports. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26680.
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46 Beekeeping and pollinator-friendly habitat programs can provide a wide range of benefits to airports and to their surrounding communities. This chapter discusses the numerous benefits asso ciated with pollinator-friendly programs, including opportunities for community and stake- holder engagement, operational efficiencies, financial benefits, and environmental and public health opportunities. 7.1 Community and Stakeholder Engagement Pollinator-friendly programs can provide new avenues for community and stakeholder engage- ment. The airports that participated in this study have taken advantage of several opportunities for community and stakeholder engagement, including the following: • Enhancing public relations through media publicity, educational tours, events, and exhibitions • Building on institutional and community partnerships • Acknowledging efforts through awards and recognition This section expands on these and provides examples from the survey responses, interviews, and additional research to illustrate the community and stakeholder engagement opportunities that pollinator-friendly programs can provide. 7.1.1 Public Relations As large landowners, employment hubs, and economic drivers, it is crucial for airports to build positive relationships with their surrounding communities, which serve as both customers and stakeholders in airport activities and sometimes bear the negative effects of airport operations. Pollinator-friendly programs have created new opportunities for enhancing relations between airports, the public, and affected communities. Several of this study’s participating airports have utilized honey produced by their apiaries as a way to engage with passengers, airport employees, and their surrounding communities. Honey produced at Olympia Regional Airport has either been sold commercially to the public or donated to the airport’s annual employee auction, the proceeds of which are donated to charitable causes that directly benefit the local community. Indianapolis International Airport has gifted samples of honey produced by the airport’s apiaries to members of the neighboring town of Plainfield and to the airport’s board of directors as gestures of goodwill; it has even exchanged its honey for honey produced at Iwami Airport in Japan as part of an international honey display. Pittsburgh International Airport, Centennial Airport in Colorado, Indianapolis International Airport, and Olympia Regional Airport shared the positive effects of their programs through a range of other methods, including creating educational videos that were picked up by local C H A P T E R 7 Identifying Opportunities

Identifying Opportunities 47   news channels, hosting tours of airport pollinator programs for local politicians and community groups, and engaging with their passengers through social media outreach. ODOT designed creative posters about pollinator habitat health and mowing practices to educate the public about its pollinator program. Orlando International Airport hosted a successful Earth Day event in 2019 that celebrated the airport’s beekeeping operation and bolstered awareness of its other sustainability initia- tives. Similarly, students joined the Wayne County Airport Authority for an Arbor Day event in 2019 that featured a bee hotel and educational activities about environmental stewardship and pollinator protection. In 2014, Seattle–Tacoma International Airport hosted an art exhibition within one of the airport’s terminals to draw attention to the plight of pollinators, in partnership with The Common Acre. Education is one of the most powerful tools available for enhancing the public’s understanding of airport sustainability efforts. Atlanta Taps into Innovation Challenges to Build its Beekeeping Program To build its beekeeping program, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is tapping the innovative minds of Metro Atlanta’s talented people and companies through their ATL Thinks! program. This program attracts four divisions of participants who work to solve problems faced by airports. The winning team from each division deploys its project with the airport and retains the intellectual property for future use. The airport identified “Greening ATL Apiary” as one of the challenge areas. This challenge seeks to establish an apiary and a mobile net-zero carbon emission commercial-grade honey house on unused airport property. Through its beekeeping program and collaborative partnership with the ATL Thinks! winning team, the airport plans to increase community involvement and seek revenue through a portion of commercial honey sales. 7.1.2 Community and Institutional Partnerships Hosting a pollinator-friendly program can provide new opportunities for partnerships with local institutions such as colleges, universities, and hospitals, as well as with community-based orga- nizations and nonprofits. Of the airports that participated in this study, Chicago O’Hare Inter- national Airport and Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport have established unique partnerships that have had a direct impact on the well-being of vulnerable populations in the surrounding community. Chicago O’Hare partners with Sweet Beginnings, a beekeeping operation that is a subsidiary to the North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN). Sweet Beginnings teaches formerly incar- cerated individuals how to run the airport’s apiaries, and harvest, manufacture, and sell the honey in a variety of skincare products (Bee Love by Sweet Beginnings LLC, 2021). The partnerships of Chicago O’Hare with Sweet Beginnings and Minneapolis–Saint Paul with the Bee Squad demonstrate how airports can be community and environmental stewards through the provision of land for pollinator-friendly programs. By partnering with other organiza- tions that have beekeeping experience and expertise, beekeeping equipment, and available labor to maintain the hives, airport staff are not solely responsible for running the pollinator-friendly programs but are still able to contribute toward causes that improve relationships between the airport and local institutions, community organizations, and the public.

48 Considerations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Pollinator Programs on Airports 7.1.3 Award Recognition In addition to improving public relations and providing new opportunities for community and institutional partnerships, several airports have received environmental awards as a result of their pollinator-friendly programs. Indianapolis International Airport was recognized with an Airports Council International–North America 2020 Environmental Achievement Award in August 2020, to which the airport’s pollinator program contributed. Pittsburgh International Airport won Pennsylvania’s Governor’s Award for Excellence in October 2020 for its beekeeping program. These awards have not only drawn attention to ongoing sustainability initiatives but have also enhanced public perception of the airports as community and environmental stewards. 7.2 Operational Opportunities In addition to improving public relations, pollinator-friendly programs provide opportunities to enhance airport and DOT operations by reducing operational hazards, maintenance costs, and required labor. This section evaluates how pollinator-friendly programs can reduce swarms on airfields and often lessen the required labor and costs associated with maintaining airport property and DOT highway rights-of-way. Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport Hosts Bee Program for Veterans Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) has partnered with the University of Minnesota’s Bee Squad (the Bee Squad), to manage the airport’s apiaries and provide free beekeeping education for Minnesota veterans through their Bee Veterans program (University of Minnesota Bee Squad 2021; University of Minnesota Bee Veterans Program 2021). The program began in 2015 after the late Mike Roche, a military veteran, became connected with the Bee Squad and found tranquility tending to bees. Mike wished to offer fellow veterans the same sense of peace that he found, so he asked the Bee Squad to establish a program in support of veterans. The Bee Veterans program was subsequently founded and later expanded thanks to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission’s decision to provide land for apiaries at the airport. At the time of this study, the apiary hosted 20 hives located in a grassy area away from the airfield on approximately 5,000 square feet of pollinator gardens managed by the Bee Squad. As of June 2020, the Bee Veterans Program had supported and trained over 100 veterans (Masterman 2020). Hives at MSP (Source: Kari Jo Skogquist, used with permission). Pollinator gardens at MSP (Source: Kari Jo Skogquist, used with permission).

Identifying Opportunities 49   7.2.1 Swarm Reduction Pollinator-friendly programs provide opportunities for airports from an operations stand- point. The risk of bee swarms landing on airplanes or elsewhere within an AOA is a particular safety concern for both passengers and airport staff and may deter some airports from imple- menting on-site beekeeping operations (see Chapter 4 and Chapter 6 for more detail). However, the majority of the airports with beekeeping programs that participated in this study reported not only that their beekeeping programs had not led to an increase in swarm activity but also, in most cases, had actually reduced previously existing issues with swarms. This was primarily because having a connection with a beekeeper through an airport’s beekeeping program pro- vided a resource to airports that enabled the removal of swarms in a faster, more responsible way. In several instances, beekeepers set up swarm traps near the airfields and subsequently relocated captured swarms into the beekeeping program’s apiaries. These experiences indicate that pollinator-friendly programs can relieve airports of the operational stress that arises when flights must be delayed because of swarms and the occupational hazards associated with untrained airport staff responding to them. 7.2.2 Reduced Operations and Maintenance Pollinator-friendly land management and reduced mowing practices can reduce operations and maintenance costs and decrease the workload of maintenance staff so that they have greater bandwidth to focus on other work or projects that they previously did not have time to complete (see Chapter 5 for more detail). For example, ODOT reported that reducing mowing to once per year opened up 80,000 acres of land that had not previously been available as pollinator habitat, saved the agency and Ohio taxpayers nearly $2 million in annual maintenance costs, and enabled maintenance workers to redirect the effort previously expended on frequent mowing to other tasks. However, the long-term maintenance of pollinator habitat may require heavy-duty equipment for mowing and limiting growth of invasive species. 7.3 Financial Considerations Airports need to consider funding sources to support the creation of pollinator-friendly pro- grams, revenue generation associated with honey production, and revenue creation from land leases associated with third-party apiary enterprises. This section explores financial consider- ations that airports must take into account when implementing pollinator-friendly programs. 7.3.1 Funding Sources Most of the participating airports and DOTs that responded to the survey indicated that the primary source of funding for their pollinator-friendly programs came from their operating budgets. However, additional funding sources were identified, including the following: • Airport revenue • Grant funding • Leveraged environmental remediation projects 7.3.2 Land Lease Airports implement land-lease contracts for various types of non-aeronautical revenue, including commercial businesses. Airports can use land leases as opportunities to install apiaries or pollinator habitat on lands that might otherwise be undesirable or unusable for commercial real estate or airport infrastructure. This provides the airport an opportunity to receive revenue from lands that are otherwise unused (see Chapter 8 for more detail).

50 Considerations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Pollinator Programs on Airports 7.3.3 Commercial Sales Pollinator-friendly programs provide an opportunity for funding through commercial sales. Some airports have produced honey through beekeeping operations and have subsequently donated or exchanged the honey as a gesture of goodwill or sold the honey commercially to draw attention to the airport’s pollinator-friendly programs (see Section 7.1.1 for more detail). Although airports such as Montréal–Mirabel International Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, and Pittsburgh International Airport had not yet generated enough honey to sell, these airports engaged passengers and airport staff through formal and informal honey- tasting events. Respondents from these airports also expressed interest in someday selling honey to bring attention to their airports’ beekeeping operations and generate revenue to support the programs. The sale of such products could potentially take place within the confines of an airport’s terminals, as well as externally at community events or markets. It is unlikely that the sale of honey or honey-containing products would generate enough revenue to be considered a new funding stream for the airport, but the funds generated could offset or cover costs asso- ciated with running or expanding an existing pollinator-friendly program. Virginia Department of Transportation Generates Revenue for its Pollinator Habitat Management Practices through the Sale of State License Plates To fund its pollinator-friendly program, Virginia’s Department of Transportation (VDOT) identified an innovative funding opportunity. Through the sale of two specialty license plates, VDOT has raised money for its program as well as awareness of pollinator conservation. The plates feature pollinator-themed artwork with “Protect Pollinators” or “Wildflowers” prominently displayed at the bottom. These license plates are sold through the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, which provides car owners with dozens of license plate options. According to VDOT, the sale of the license plates generates approximately $240,000 to $270,000 per year. These funds cover the majority—if not all—of the maintenance costs associated with managing pollinator habitats throughout Virginia’s highway rights-of-way. 7.3.4 Grant Funding There are several federal and state pollinator-friendly grant programs that offer financial assis- tance specifically to restore or create pollinator habitat. Chicago O’Hare’s pollinator-friendly pro- gram is a unique example of a grant-funded partnership between the airport, the City of Chicago, and NLEN that enabled NLEN’s subsidiary, Sweet Beginnings, to lease airport property from O’Hare and use the land to host apiaries, as described further in the case example. See Appendix F for a sample list of grant funding available to establish pollinator-friendly programs. 7.3.5 Leveraging Environmental Remediation Projects The creation of new pollinator habitat can also be funded as a part of larger environmental remediation efforts at no additional cost to an airport or DOT. Brownfield remediation, wetlands restoration, highway or airport runway enhancements, ground-mounted solar installations (see Section 7.4.2 for more detail), and other environmental projects can include the provision of pollinator habitat in their scopes of work. Grants, public or private financing, and philanthropic donations are common sources of funding for such projects.

Identifying Opportunities 51   Habitat Conversion through Wildlife Hazard Management Funding at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA) The Port of Seattle owned an active 50-acre golf course that was plagued with hazards from birds and other wildlife. This led to the golf course being shut down because of concerns over aviation safety. In response to the golf course’s closure, Sea-Tac was granted $280,000 from the Port of Seattle’s budget for wildlife hazard management and to convert a portion of the golf course into pollinator habitat. Approximately 8 to 10 acres were designated as pollinator- friendly habitat (see Figure 16). The golf course’s conversion successfully reduced the prevalence of hazardous wildlife, and the pollinator habitat thrived. 7.4 Environmental and Public Health Opportunities Pollinator-friendly programs can be designed to improve the health of pollinators, but the benefits are not limited only to pollinators; such habitats can also be developed in tandem with projects designed to achieve other environmental goals. This section discusses how projects that aim to address issues such as climate change, environmental degradation, and public health can include the restoration or creation of pollinator habitat, specifically through wetland mitiga- tion banking, ground-mounted solar installations, green roofs, and pollinator gardens. 7.4.1 Wetland Mitigation Banking For airports and DOTs with land near wetlands, pollinator habitats can offer ecosystem services beyond supporting the health of pollinators through wetland mitigation banking. Healthy wetlands offer a variety of ecosystem services, such as filtering pollutants out of water bodies, sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, reducing soil erosion, and providing habitat for wildlife—including pollinators. The USDA’s Wetland Mitigation Banking Program provides funding to states, local governments, and other conservation partners to develop wetland mitigation banks; these help agricultural producers to meet the USDA’s Conservation Compli- ance requirements for wetlands; doing so is mandatory in order to be eligible to participate in USDA-funded programs (USDA 2020). Wetland mitigation banks work by providing credits Figure 16. Pollinator habitat created through wildlife hazard management funding at Sea-Tac (Source: SEA, used with permission).

52 Considerations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Pollinator Programs on Airports Nonprofit Partnership Leads to Grant Funding Opportunities for Chicago O’Hare International Airport Chicago O’Hare International Airport partners with the North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN), a nonprofit that helps formerly incarcerated individuals overcome employment barriers through job training and financial literacy education. The North Lawndale community is located to the west of O’Hare’s property, an area that has struggled to overcome economic disadvantages. Approximately 45% of households in North Lawndale live below the federal poverty line, and approximately 57% of its adults have a history with the criminal justice system (North Lawndale Employment Network 2021). Incarcerated individuals often struggle to find work once they are released, and many find themselves without the proper skill set needed to succeed in today’s workforce. As a result, high recidivism rates continue to be an issue for those who have been involved with the criminal justice system. NLEN partners with the City of Chicago’s Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) to transition formerly incarcerated individuals into the workforce. In 2013, O’Hare airport connected with Sweet Beginnings, a subsidiary to NLEN that focuses on running apiaries, producing honey, and selling the honey through a variety of skincare products, such as body lotion and lip balm. The airport and DFSS entered into a Memorandum of Understanding in which DFSS would provide funding through a grant issued to NLEN for workforce development, O’Hare would provide land on airport property, and NLEN would provide labor so that Sweet Beginnings could host apiaries at the airport. Since O’Hare could not legally lease airport-owned land at no cost, NLEN pays to rent 1,500 square feet of the airport’s property for apiaries. A professional beekeeper from Sweet Beginnings manages all of the hives and trains participants enrolled in the workforce development program. Approximately 500 people have gone through the program and have emerged with increased financial literacy, technical capabilities with computers, a new skill set in beekeeping, and, most importantly, a support system to guide them in their pursuit of a better future. This unique partnership between the City of Chicago, NLEN, and O’Hare airport is a prime example of a win-win-win situation in which all parties benefit. The City of Chicago can work toward its recidivism and economic development goals, NLEN has access to grant-funded land that has enabled the organization to grow its workforce development program through Sweet Beginnings, and O’Hare builds on its extensive sustainability program by putting underutilized land to use for a community benefit. Members of NLEN’s beekeeping operation, Sweet Beginnings, with apiaries hosted at ORD (Source: Chicago Department of Aviation/Sweet Beginnings, LLC, used with permission). ORD sells small batches of honey and other goods produced by Sweet Beginnings at the airport (Source: Chicago Department of Aviation/Sweet Beginnings, LLC, used with permission).

Identifying Opportunities 53   in exchange for the restoration, creation, or enhancement of wetlands in one location to com- pensate for adverse impacts on wetlands in another location, usually caused by development. Landowners, including airports and DOTs, can benefit from selling wetland habitats on their property to parties (including developers) that require off-site wetland mitigation. Doing so generates income, permanently protects large swaths of wetland, and provides potential habitat for native bees and other pollinators. 7.4.2 Ground-Mounted Solar Installations Many airports and DOTs, such as Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin (Misbrener 2020) and the Georgia Department of Transportation (Cullen 2018), have constructed ground-mounted solar installations on suitable airport property or DOT highway rights-of- way as a way to repurpose underutilized land for energy production and pollinator habitat. Pollinator-friendly land management practices can go hand-in-hand with ground-mounted solar installations, simultaneously providing benefits in support of renewable energy produc- tion for the health of the planet and available habitat for the health of pollinators. The areas beneath ground-mounted solar arrays are often cleared of plantings to reduce main- tenance and associated costs. However, establishing pollinator habitat beneath ground-mounted solar installations and implementing reduced mowing practices can support pollinator health while simultaneously reducing maintenance demands associated with solar arrays (DeBerry et al. 2019). A number of states, including Minnesota, Vermont, and Colorado, have promoted pollinator-friendly ground-mounted solar installations through legislation and incentives, and the demand for such projects is projected to increase (Terry 2020). Another solution in the fight against climate change is to increase tree canopy and other native plantings that sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide. Pollinator habitat beneath ground-mounted solar installa- tions promotes absorption and storage of carbon dioxide as well as the production of clean and renewable energy (Environmental and Energy Study Institute 2020). 7.4.3 Green Roofs and Pollinator Gardens Many airports install green roofs and pollinator gardens as a way to improve the airport expe- rience for passengers and the efficiency of their buildings, as well to foster stronger community relations. Green roofs are able to provide several benefits to airports, including improved storm- water management, a reduced heat island effect, improved air quality, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions (Chicago Department of Aviation n.d.). Economic benefits are derived from building insulation, equipment efficiency, and extended roof life. Airports can use green roofs as a method of implementing pollinator habitat by installing plantings that will support pollinators. If proper plants are installed, airports can successfully provide a space for pollinators, improve building efficiency, and reduce wildlife attractants. Airports can also implement pollinator gardens at other locations on the airport to provide a space for passengers and employees to experience the outdoors while also providing a place for local pollinator species. Pollinator gardens benefit airports by providing connections to their surrounding communities. Both pollinator gardens and green roofs can be included as part of an airport’s sustainability initiatives.

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Global reports of bee declines have fueled efforts to reduce threats to pollinators and raise public awareness of bees as pollinators of our food crops and native plants. Some airports have implemented pollinator-friendly practices and programs that restore habitat for bees and bring public awareness and appreciation to these fascinating insects.

The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP Synthesis 119: Considerations for Establishing and Maintaining Successful Pollinator Programs on Airports summarizes experiences and best management practices of pollinator-friendly programs at airports, particularly beekeeping programs and pollinator habitat management programs.

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