Location: Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection
2025 Annual Report
Objectives
1.) Conduct research on general pollinator health and recovery. [NP305, Component 2, Problem Statements 2A, 2B, 2C]
2.) Conduct research aimed at restoring critical pollinator habitat. [NP305, Component 2, Problem Statement 2A]
3.) Generate economic revitalization through beekeeping and STEM focused programming for Appalachian youth. [NP305, Component 2, Problem Statements 2A, 2B, 2C]
Approach
Objective 1: Center staff will manage queen bee breeding and research program to survey and identify genetic material for a locally adapted pest-resistant strain of honey bee. Center staff will collect and review data on hundreds of honey bee hives in central Appalachia from more than 100 individual beekeepers as well as the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective’s own extensive breeding apiary. These data also will provide quantification of best practices as well as important baseline data for our research and breeding programs. Development of beekeeping practices that limit or eliminate antibotics and synthetic chemicals will also be pursued.
Objective 2: We will quantify pollinator usage of and preference for native plants found in and unique to central Appalachian ecosystems, particularly in forested areas, and utilize them for habitat restoration projects. Center staff will initiate and manage a native plant horticulture program, involving collecting seeds and plant materials from native varietals of pollinator-preferred plant species based on survey work. We will grow those plants at the Center’s facilities (including greenhouse and shade house facilities). These plants will be used in pollinator habitat restoration projects in central Appalachia. The Center will provide this information and other current research outputs to provide regionally specific educational outreach and materials for general public use for planting and restoring critical pollinator habitat throughout the region.
Objective 3: The Appalachian Beekeeping Collective program, an economic development program, will provide expertise and programs for local people in Central Appalachia to learn beekeeping. This program will provide bees, hive boxes, equipment, continuing education, and support for new beekeepers. This program will also provide STEM educational instruction focused on pollinators and beekeeping for youth. Programs include classroom-based activities throughout the school year as well as through Camp Waldo, an annual residential summer camp for 4th-7th graders.
Progress Report
For Objective 1, we have continued to train and support 87 beekeepers in central Appalachia. We continue to collect honeybee colony health data from selected hives (850 total) across southern West Virginia and Virginia. Factors assessed include queen’s brood patterns, size of brood chambers, queen source, queen age, hive temperament, predicted and actual honey production, and hive management treatment efficacy. Our head beekeeper regularly presents and teaches at West Virginia beekeeping association meetings, at county beekeeping meetings, pollinator presentations to numerous elementary classes and several summer camps around the region reaching over 500 people interested in beginning or improving their existing honeybee colonies. Our head beekeepers also worked with Mandela Washington Foundation to virtually mentor/train a professor at Comoros University in Comoros, Africa in January and February to assist in advancing their beekeepers knowledge in mite issues and disease with her translating into the native language. He is also working with a West Virginia women’s beekeeping group to set up virtual meeting with Oummu Kuluth Mohamed Ali (Comoros University) to facilitate a discussion on impact of women in beekeeping. He will present at the West Virginia Beekeeper's Association fall conference and will set up ABC demonstration hives for live training sessions. Our beekeeping staff is scheduled to speak during live sessions with individuals from the National Wildlife Federation, at regional libraries, and at additional beekeeping associations in various counties in West Virginia. We hope to expand our school outreach in several county school systems in the coming year.
For Objective 2, Appalachian Headwaters staff have developed a nursery program based in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, and several restoration sites throughout southern West Virginia. These sites include the Mammoth Preserve, in Raleigh and Fayette counties, which is a more than 5,000-acre, former surface mine site. Appalachian Headwaters has reforested approximately 2,500 acres of mined land on this site by ripping compacted soils open to loosen, so seedling trees of native hardwood forests can take root, returning the disturbed land to deciduous forest more closely resembling the natural forest that once thrived here. Appalachian Headwaters staff and interns have conducted annual pollinator research surveys at the Mammoth site and are developing relationships with scientists to expand this program. We have also worked with U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and University of Kentucky to reforest approximately 465 acres of rare red spruce forest at Sharp Knob in the Monongahela National Forest (Pocahontas County, West Virginia). At our Headwaters Park site in Greenbrier County, we are restoring a 160-acre former agricultural site to host various native habitats, including meadow, forest, and wetland ecosystems. These habitats are part of the Headwaters Park public education and community science hub. As of 2025, we have hosted over 25 community events in this space, providing opportunities for community science programming focused on pollinators and native ecosystems.
We are conducting our second summer ecologist fellowship in which we host academic partners on site for 10 weeks (about two and a half months) of teaching and community science programs including a faculty member from North Carolina Wesleyan University, along with our Director of Ecology, and six interns. We intend to continue the expansion of this project in future summers with additional scientists and interns. Appalachian Headwaters staff focus primarily on community science and education programs, rather than pure research. We continue to work with ARS to develop a joint position for a scientist focused on pollinator and native plant interactions which will be implemented in the coming year.
For Objective 3, the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective program, a training and support program for partner beekeepers in central Appalachia, has partnered with 255 beekeepers over the past five years, with 87 active partners. Several hundred members of the public have taken advantage of the beekeeping curricula offered by our staff. Last year, the Collective produced approximately 32,000 pounds of honey and has received several prestigious awards. We continue selling the honey wholesale to retail outlets, in addition to multiple direct-to-consumer locations. Additionally, our staff conduct regular pollinator educational programming for children around the region in classrooms, through virtual programs, and during our summer camp programs, Camp Waldo and Waldo Day Camp. Camp Waldo hosts more than 100 children each year for several weeks of pollinator and native ecosystem programming. Waldo Day Camp, held at our Greenbrier facility, continued to expand in Summer 2025 and will span the months of July and August. This camp offers programs with activities focused on learning about science and ecology, exploring the outdoors, activities like archery, gardening, chess, hiking, a ropes course, outdoor games, science labs, art, music, and other creative activities.
Accomplishments