The Hillsborough Garden Club encouraged the town to seek Bee City USA status. It helps develop the program and educational materials with the Hillsborough Public Space and Sustainability Division and Hillsborough Tree Board.

Bee City USA primarily focuses on native species of bees. It gives communities a framework to help native pollinators by providing habitats with a variety of native plants and nest sites and with protection from pesticides.

See:

• Hillsborough's Bee City USA resolution
• Bee City USA website

The pollinator garden is maintained by the Orange County Master Gardener Program, a program of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Orange County Center. To help maintain the garden or any future bee hotel, contact the Public Space and Sustainability Division.

Gold Park is located at 415 Dimmocks Mill Road. The pollinator garden is along the Riverwalk greenway, south of the railroad trestle.

Bee Hotel

In July 2025, floodwaters from Tropical Storm Chantal damaged the bee hotel that served as public art and a home in the Gold Park pollinator garden for 90 species of bees native to the area.

Pollinator-friendly Activities

Hillsborough has a number of initiatives to reverse pollinator declines. See the Sustainability Initiatives page for current initiatives. To volunteer, contact the Public Space and Sustainability Division.

Pollinator Gardens — The town installed and maintains pollinator gardens at:

• Cates Creek and Gold parks
• Downtown planters and parking lot islands

Orange County master gardeners helped install the garden at Gold Park and hold monthly workdays March-October at the garden.

The town, Tree Board and other partners offer a number of resources to help community members help pollinators.

• Designing a Rain Garden
• Growing Edible Landscaping
• Landscaping with Native Plants
• Growing a Pollinator Garden
• Top 25 Native Pollinator Plants for North Carolina