Carrie Davis of Miller Place's bee houses to help plant life at Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai

There’s a lot of buzz around some structures that have been installed at Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai.

Carrie Davis, a senior at Miller Place High School, constructed and installed three wooden bee houses to help expand the population of solitary pollinator bees and revitalize the area’s plant life. The houses, along with an informational plaque that describes the bees’ role, can be found off a trail that runs near the Marine Environmental Stewardship Center at the beach, she said.

Davis, 17, of Miller Place, is a member of Boy Scout Troop 2019 in Sound Beach. She tackled the task last fall as part of her Eagle Scout Award, the highest achievement attainable within the Boy Scouts of America. She is her troop’s second female scout to have achieved Eagle Scout status since the Boy Scouts organization approved plans to welcome girls in 2017. Her Court of Honor is slated for Nov. 30.

“I went to the nature center and asked if there were any projects they needed or wanted done,” Davis said. “They said they would like to have the bee houses, because the pollinator bees would help with all of the nature there. They would also keep the bees far enough away from the people walking.”

The structures are used by solitary bees such as mason, resin and leaf cutter bees, which are not part of a traditional hive or colony. The bees’ pollination will benefit native plant life, including beach plum and salt spray rose, Davis said.

She said she raised roughly $800 for the project through donations and received a discount on the building materials from Riverhead Building Supply in Port Jefferson Station. Her fellow troop members helped install the houses.

“Cedar Beach is right by my house, and I’ve been going there since I was little, so doing something helpful there meant a lot,” she said.

The teen’s environmental efforts were praised by Nicole Pocchiare, the environmental educator at the center, which has items ranging from “touch tanks” featuring local marine life to touch-screen computers that give users an animated view of the life in the Long Island Sound.

“The bee houses have been an inspirational conservation effort,” said Pocchiare. “Not only are the bee houses providing a much-needed area for bees to lay eggs and feed young larvae, but they serve as a launch pad for discussion and education.”

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.