UW Oshkosh’s Sustainable Beekeeping Club was formed to generate student interest in ecosystem sustainability in beekeeping.
The club began as a capstone project and it turned into a club. This year was a milestone for the group, as was the first time that the hive survived the winter. As well, the club has begun to make an excess of honey, which it is using to collaborate with local partners.
Sarah Vandersee is the vice president of the club and said that the end goal of the club isn’t to harvest honey, but to promote environmental sustainability through bees.
“We care about honey as a secondary,” she said. “We focus more on the sustainability of bees, as they serve as advocates for natural bees in the ecosystem.”
Beyond using bees as a lens for environmental sustainability, Vandersee said that the club has a plethora of other advocacy focuses; both internally and collaboratively with other organizations.
“What our club does is to use honey bees as a way to actively participate in the ecosystem that we don’t see,” she said. “On top of bees we advocate for wildflowers, natural landscapes, and planting. We also try to participate in sustainable things on campus in partnerships with other clubs.”
Mackenzie Gresbach is a Psychology major who found that the club, despite not falling under her academic field, fit her in other ways.
“I do it because it goes with my personality,” she said. “I like to be out in nature and it’s really fun. It’s about sustainability, you get to talk to different presenters and they tell us about pollinators and the importance of our work.”
Originally, she was apprehensive to participate in the club but she realized that it didn’t require a lot of work for the benefits.
“I was nervous to go at first but it’s really chill,” Gresbach said. “It’s a fun club and it’s different. I dont like a lot of clubs on campus, but it’s very low commitment and I like the vibes.”
Gresbach said that the club constantly attracts new members throughout their sessions.
“It’s always fresh faces that come,” she said. “So it’s doing something right.”
The club will be featuring their honey cyser on Oct. 20 at Oblio’s Lounge in Oshkosh. Vandersee said that this collaboration works towards the club’s goals of sustainability with local partners.
“We had a lot of extra honey and an older club member visited a brewer who decided to help us,” she said. “It’s awesome getting to work with people so close by and it’s awesome to say that we made that and it’s just down the road from here. It’s tangible and it’s local.”
Vandersee said that she gets mistaken as an environmental science major, due to her advocacy, but she believes that it’s important for everyone to be mindful of environmental sustainability
“It’s weird as an art major to decide I want to be with bees,” she said. “A lot of people assume I’m in environmental sciences. The earth belongs to everybody, around us on campus we have a sustainable campus. Getting to know this stuff counts, even if you’re just keeping a flower pot in your backyard. It’s about mindfulness.”
