NEW HOPE, PA – Chloe McNabb, a sophomore student at New Hope-Solebury High School, recently channeled her passion for helping animals and conserving wildlife into an ambitious series of woodworking projects on behalf of the Girl Scouts.
McNabb successfully built 24 Bluebird Homes, 12 Screech Owl Homes, and 28 Bee Hotels.
She refined the idea after consulting Diane Smith, director of education for the Bucks County Audubon Society. McNabb then focused on helping the area’s most threatened bird species, including thrushes and circular owls, and solitary bees.
Last winter she started building “hotels” in her father’s basement workshop. The boxes are made of cedar wood, a sturdy wood that survives the winter months and can offer the animals permanent security. She developed several prototypes of each house to make sure the measurements were reasonable.
McNabb spent hours drilling every single hole needed for the bee hotels, a tedious process that involved changing the drill bit size to accommodate multiple species of bees.
“I think I learned some really important lessons and new skills in design and woodworking from that experience,” she said.
Once built, the birdhouses were hung in three local Buckingham parks, including Holicong, Hansell, and George M. Bush Park. By placing these right at the beginning of spring, the birds could create safe nests for their babies.
The bee hotels were placed within the Bucks County Audubon Society and a number of other locations in New Hope and Solebury. McNabb donated the additional bee hotels to their friends and neighbors, who set them up in their gardens to enrich their gardens.
When she visited the parks earlier that summer to check the bird houses, she found that almost all of them had nests with eggs or baby birds in them.
“It was very rewarding,” she said. “I was so proud because all my hard work had paid off and the local wildlife was thriving.”
McNabb also appreciates the support of many volunteers who helped her place the homes in the parks during the cold, wet spring days in Bucks County.
(Courtesy of the New Hope-Solebury School District)
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