Cemeteries as biodiversity refuges

A Cornell study found an estimated 5.5 million ground‑nesting Andrena bees living under East Lawn Cemetery in Ithaca, NY, revealing that graveyards can host large, long‑standing animal aggregations. Urban burial sites often escape intensive landscaping or redevelopment, making them inadvertent sanctuaries for pollinators, native plants, and other wildlife. — If cemeteries routinely harbor significant biodiversity, they should be considered in urban conservation planning, pollinator protection strategies, and heat‑island mitigation policies.