On the count of three, kids with scissors poised and wearing bright green T-shirts printed with “Bee a little wild” cut the ribbon strung in front of a bee hotel, a nesting habitat for native wild bees.

Children line themselves along a ribbon as they prepare to dedicate a native bee hotel built along the Rockefeller Nature Trail at the KU Field Station on Saturday, May 2, 2015. Representatives of the KU Field Station and Kansas Biological Survey teamed up with local companies Prosoco and Clark Huesemann Architects to erect the bee hotel along the trail to help in sustaining the population of pollinators.

The ribbon cutting was the culmination of a local service project to design and construct the bee hotel, which is installed along the Rockefeller Prairie Trail at Kansas University’s Field Station, about 5 miles northeast of Lawrence.

Unlike the honeybee, native bees are solitary and don’t live in hives. The bee hotel serves as a place for female native bees to build their nests and lay eggs, said Daphne Mayes, a Kansas University graduate student studying ecology and evolutionary biology.

“The bee hotel gives people a glimpse into this world of bees we don’t really pay attention to,” Mayes told the crowd of about 40 people gathered Saturday for the ceremony.

Mayes, whose research focuses on native bee populations, said the bee hotel is a learning tool.

“We know and understand very little about our wild bees, and this project will help us understand more,” she said.

Local companies Prosoco Inc. and Clark Huesemann Architects sponsored the project, which was part of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Green Apple Day of Service. The communal aspect of the project was important, said Jane Huesemann of Clark Huesemann Architects.

“We like being involved in the community and being able to involve the kids,” she said.

Employees of both companies and some of their children participated in the project, which also included educational presentations and activities. By locating the bee hotel on public trails, they hope to pass the knowledge on to others, said Kay Johnson, Prosoco sustainability and environment manager.

“We are trying to get Lawrence a little more familiar with bee hotels,” Johnson said.

The bee hotel includes an information plaque on native bees, including the decline of bee populations and the role bees play in maintaining ecosystems and the food supply. It’s important to understand the link between native bee health and environmental health, Johnson said.

“If we don’t have bees, we don’t have certain vegetables, fruits and flowers,” Johnson said.

A study found that in the past 120 years, 50 percent of Midwestern native bee species have disappeared from their original habitats. These declines are due mainly to changes in the environment, such as loss of habitat and pesticide use.

The bee hotel includes different sizes of tunnels — made of bamboo stalks, rolled paper tubes and blocks of wood with holes drilled through them — in order to accommodate different species of bees, Johnson said.

Habitats for native bees, which don’t normally sting, can also be installed in urban settings, Mayes said.

Another way to help native bees is to use native grasses and flowers, which can be found at most nurseries, to mimic the prairie in landscaping, Mayes said.

“If people want to know what they can do, use native plants,” she said.