SOURCE:
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/environment/grant-pollinators-bees-mi9mqtmj
By Dylan Murphy - June 18, 2025
Seven Long Island environmental organizations are receiving a combined $659,000 in grants to support pollinator conservation efforts, grow thousands of native plants and create new community gardens, according to the state Office of the Attorney General.
The announcement comes as New York fights the growing percentage of native pollinator species that are at risk of disappearing from the state, found in a 2022 report of the Empire State Native Pollinator Survey.
"Last year, there was a record number of bee colony failures [in New York State]," said Adrienne Esposito, the executive director of Citizens Campaign Fund for the Environment. "The bee is considered the most important species on the planet, because without bees we wouldn’t have fruits and vegetables, flowers, trees."
The Citizens Campaign Fund is planning to use its $200,000 to build pollinator gardens in three different municipalities: the Village of Port Jefferson, the Town of Brookhaven and the Village of Patchogue.
The $3.75 million in grant funding, which was awarded to 33 other organizations across New York State, uses proceeds from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ settlement in 2023 with Monsanto — the company that sold the herbicide Roundup before it was bought by Bayer — and Monsanto's parent company, Bayer CropScience LP.
An additional $573,000 was added to the fund by The New York Community Trust, a grantmaking community foundation that partners with donors to support charity acts around the state.
"A pollinator garden uses bee-friendly flowers and plants that will help promote the reproduction and survivability of our [bee] colonies," Esposito said. "Each municipality identified between a half-acre and one acre of property that they would like to turn into a pollinator garden."
Although the gardens are in the early planning stages, Esposito said there would be "community meetings, where the public can come and look at the designs and get their input, because we want them to be engaged."
Another grant recipient is the Padoquohan Medicine Lodge of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, which will use the funds to create "two new community pollinator gardens ... and foster youth career development in horticulture," according to the full list of awardees from James' office.
The other grant recipients that will use their funds for environmental causes on the Island are the Long Island Native Plant Initiative, Nassau Land Trust, ReWild Long Island, National Audubon Society and Sisters of Saint Joseph of Brentwood.
"Pollinators are the unsung heroes of our environment, yet their very existence has been threatened by the harmful impacts of pesticides, habitat destruction, and climate change," James said in a statement.
"By investing in grassroots initiatives and community-led conservation, we are laying the groundwork for long-term environmental health so that future generations may live in a healthy, green, and vibrant New York," she said.