GREENFIELD, Ohio – Solar farms occupy large areas of relatively open land, and the ground beneath and around the equipment can be managed in different ways. Some sites may incorporate grazing animals, while others attempt crop production around the panels.

Big Plain Solar near London, Ohio, a 196 mega-watt renewable energy project covering 1,500 acres, has 70 acres of native and pollinator-friendly species growing among the panels. And peacefully buzzing nearby are 50 boxes containing roughly 3 million honeybees.

The beekeeping itself isn’t run by solar plant technicians, but rather by Frontline Hives, an organization that trains veterans and first responders to manage the colonies on the property.

Travis Snyder, of Greenfield, is founder and executive director of Frontline Hives, a nonprofit that trains veterans and first responders in beekeeping as a therapeutic, purpose-driven activity. Snyder is also CEO of Wind and Sky Apiaries, a company pioneering restorative scale beekeeping.

Through Wind and Sky Apiaries, Snyder collaborates with corporate environmental, social and governance partners to meet biodiversity and sustainability goals, while Frontline Hives has already trained over 50 veterans and first responders.

Snyder’s approach is rooted in his own military service (17-year Ohio Air National Guard veteran and decorated veteran of Afghanistan) and his personal recovery from PTSD through beekeeping. His venture with the bees also began when his daughter, Ady, begged him to have a beehive on their own property. He obliged her and created ABC Honey beekeeping business in Greenfield.

“When Ady was a little girl, she urged me to start a bee hive,” Snyder laughed. “It worked out well because this was a way of bribing my wife into letting me keep bees. And this has just spiraled out of control since then. The first year I had just eight hives on our property in Greenfield and we called it ABC Honey, and it’s bloomed since then.”

Snyder expanded soon after and began integrating beekeeping with renewable energy projects to support biodiversity, community engagement and sustainable energy. Snyder began placing hives on solar and other renewable energy sites in Ohio with the mission to maintain healthy bee populations that pollinate local ecosystems, thereby enhancing land stewardship, improving public relations for energy projects and contributing to environmental stability.

And not just in Ohio. Snyder’s bee boxes have since been placed near solar panels in Indiana, Illinois, New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Texas, Michigan and Wisconsin. He spends a lot of time traveling, managing colonies at renewable energy sites, connecting beekeeping with land stewardship, and creating another pathway into a craft for people with military and first responder backgrounds.

“As the beekeeping industry has changed with the influx of foreign honey the honey no longer drives a beekeeping business,” Snyder said. “What drives that business for commercial beekeepers is the need to do a pollinator run. From February to October, they’re just chasing pollinator blooms across the country. And that’s what I’m doing now.

“We partner with these large land-holding companies that have solar fields. These companies plant large amounts of pollinator crops beneath the panels. The operators of these solar panels are planting seasonal food for the bees. These bees are much healthier than those positioned only near corn fields.”

ABC Honey also partners with Heroes & Hives, a nonprofit that removes barriers for veterans and first responders to enter beekeeping. This VA-approved PTSD therapy is a free six-week training course followed by provision of a fully equipped hive. Frontline Hives is vetted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, offering the training course and providing a fully equipped hive to participants, aiming to reduce PTSD symptoms and foster community engagement.

Honeybees and their hives have positive impacts at every turn. The USDA estimates that honey bees pollinate about $15 billion worth of crops in the U.S. each year, covering more than 130 kinds of fruits, nuts and vegetables. The Department of Energy (DOE) notes that pollinator plantings can help soil absorb stormwater and reduce erosion, as much as 38 percent under certain pollinator strategies.

One of Snyder’s goals is to rebuild U.S. honeybee populations to pre-decline levels (4-6 million hives) by partnering with industries like solar, utilities and agriculture to turn underutilized land into active pollinator hubs.

“Even though these solar farms are taking out some of our farmland, they’re not only producing energy but they’re also helping produce bees as part of our food chain,” Snyder said.