The Metro: Nonprofit Detroit Hives turning vacant lots into an oasis for pollinators, residents
The Metro, Amanda LeClaire May 5, 2025Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Finney Community Arboretum and Botanical Garden, a new urban oasis created by Detroit Hives.
Bees’ pollinating presence helps to ensure the vitality of our food systems.
The work of bees isn’t just happening in fields of wildflowers or quiet suburban gardens. Bees in urban neighborhoods also have an important role to play.
The nonprofit Detroit Hives has turned vacant lots into thriving pollinator habitats and community green spaces. That work includes planting pollinator-friendly trees in neighborhoods that need canopy, beauty and biodiversity. One of the group’s recent projects was at the Finney Community Arboretum and Botanical Garden, which they hope to transform into a thriving community space for pollinators and residents alike.
Detroit Hives Co-founders Tim Paule Jackson and Nicole Lindsey joined The Metro on Monday to discuss their work.
Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.
–Segment produced by WDET’s Amanda Le Claire.
More stories from The Metro on Monday, May 5:
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.
Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.Donate today »
More stories from The Metro
Authors
-
-
Amanda LeClaire is an award-winning journalist and managing editor and lead reporter of WDET's new environmental series, the Detroit Tree Canopy Project, as well as WDET's CuriosiD podcast. She was the host of WDET’s CultureShift and a founding producer of the station’s flagship news talk show *Detroit Today*. Amanda also served as a Morning Edition host at WDET and previously worked as a host, audio and video producer, and reporter for Arizona Public Media.