PLANTS & POLLINATORS. Across the street from the Phoenix Park pavilion, a project years in the works is in bloom: the Bee Haven. Created and cared for by local volunteers part of the Chippewa Valley Biodiversity Partnership, it will be officially 'unveiled' Aug. 24.

Last summer, Volume One heard cross-community concerns from local enthusiasts and experts regarding a nationwide decline in pollinators like honey bees. While that issue is still present today, at least one in-progress effort to support those pollinators has been nurtured to life: the Eau Claire “Bee Haven.”

The Chippewa Valley Biodiversity Partnership (CVBP), a local initiative born in 2022 and now supported by nearly two dozen area organizations, took the lead on developing the pollinator sanctuary, dubbed the Bee Haven.

Located at the corner of Madison and Forest streets in downtown Eau Claire – the same site formerly known as the “edible garden” – just down the road from a vibrant community garden, the Bee Haven will be a focal point of the CVBP’s inaugural Bee Haven Biodiversity Celebration event on Aug. 24.

Biodiversity, as described by the CVBP, “refers to the variety of all living things and their interactions in the web of life.”

While that event will serve a number of purposes – offering the community a spread of “nature tables” with hands-on learning opportunities, face painting and arts activities, food trucks and free Olson’s Ice Cream scoops, among other things – it will also serve as the Bee Haven’s official unveiling.

Clean-up efforts at that corner have been underway since at least 2024, thanks to those local volunteers part of the CVBP, with assistance from the City of Eau Claire.

A number of Eau Claire Area Master Gardeners Association (ECAMGA) have spent many hours on the Bee Haven; months of prep and planning efforts went into the space – "it had become overgrown with invasive weeds and the fruit trees and bushes were not cared for," ECAMGA member Ellen Terwilliger recalled – before any new planting took place.

Today, the Bee Haven features an array of native flowers, grasses, berry bushes and more – many of those plants purchased with grant funds, donations – tended by volunteers part of the CVBP.

Looking ahead, the new Bee Haven will serve as yet another physical reminder of the seemingly small acts that contribute to creating pollinator-friendly spaces in urban settings.

Learn more about the forthcoming Bee Haven Biodiversity Celebration event, slated for Aug. 24 from 5pm-7:30pm at Eau Claire's Phoenix Park (330 Riverfront Terrace), online. For more information on the Chippewa Valley Biodiversity Partnership, visit www.cvbiodiversitypartnership.org.