TAFE Queensland building on sustainable work practices in partnership with Syngenta’s Operation Pollinator® Program

Operation Pollinator® is a global initiative from Syngenta that aims to counteract pollinator diversity decline, by supporting the development of pollinator habitats in a variety of commercial landscapes through partnerships with key stakeholders. Operation Pollinator® provides professional turf managers with the tools and information to successfully establish and manage attractive wildflower resources that are crucial for bees and other pollinating insects.  

In 2024, TAFE Queensland Sports Turf Management have partnered with Syngenta for the Operation Pollinator® program, having recently shared some exciting updates on their ‘Bee Hotels’ project and how it has helped not only on pollinating the native plants, but also the contribution to the whole food web ecosystem in the local environment and the ‘Integrated Pest Management (IPM)’ development. 

Eddie Bennet, teacher at TAFE Queensland, has been successfully coordinating the Operation Pollinator® site at Grovely Campus with a great engagement from the students. 

Eddie’s report on their work practices is below.

“The 2024 Sports Turf Management Apprentices have been ‘Busy Bees’ building native bee hotels as part of their ‘Apply Environmentally Sustainable Work Practices’ unit.

There’s over 1600 species of native bees in Australia, with an estimated possible 2000 species! The main aim for these ‘Bee Hotels’ is to give a home to the native solitary bees, but not limited to just bees. These hotels are also habitat opportunities for all types of insects, spiders and lizards.

This not only helps pollinate the native plants that we have as part of our native flower wilding project, it also contributes to the whole ‘Food Web ecosystem’ that is in the local environment. This in turn helps with our ‘Integrated Pest Management (IPM)’, reducing the population of the unwanted pests around the campus – “Good Bugs for Bad Bugs”.

Keeping in theme with the ‘environmentally sustainable’ unit, the ‘Bee Hotels’ were built out of recycled materials from around the campus. Leftover bits of timber, pallets, bricks and we use the onsite large Bamboo clumps planted many moons ago. Using the Bamboo also helps manage the clumps keeping them under control.

For the apprentices, building these ‘Bee Hotels’ was like creating works of art. Each hotel having its own identity from each of the group’s collaboration. It was a great team building activity for them. Plus, giving them an opportunity to develop some carpentry skills with hand-tools whilst learning the importance of sustainability”.

The work with the students constructing the ‘Bees Hotels’ is playing an important role in learning for the apprentices and students of TAFE Queensland. Additionally native plantings are encouraging additional pollinator numbers.    

^{Constructing Bee Hotels which provide a home to native solitary bees as well as all types of insects, spiders and lizards.}

For more information on Syngenta’s Operation Pollinator® program visit syngentaturf.com.au/operation-pollinator, or follow our social media pages:

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