An environmental organization is partnering with a Detroit nonprofit to revitalize a vacant lot.

The work will help turn Detroit into an official Bee City in the United States.

Piper Pharr, 9, was doing her part on Saturday, helping to clean up trash in the lot located on the city’s east side.

“You have to not litter, like, you can’t just throw this or that on the ground. You need to throw it in somewhere you can reuse, recycle, and I forgot the other one,” Pharr said.

The third “R” that helps the planet is reduce.

“If we clean up this property, it will help prevent littering and pollution elsewhere in the community as well,” Evan Raskin, national campaign manager with Earthday.org, said.

Detroit Hives and Earthday.org are working to restore the lot into an arboretum and botanical garden.

“We’re hoping that, rather than being an empty, vacant piece of land, this can be a valuable asset to the community. A place where people can access green space, which is so important to both physical and mental health,” Raskin said.

In 2017, Detroit Hives turned the lot into an apiary for bees, but now its vision is expanding.

“There are a lot of urban gardeners and growers growing lots of fruits, vegetables and herbs. Well, guess what? A lot of our pollinators depend on those fruits, vegetables and nuts to pollinate as well, to get those blossoms pollination,” Timothy Jackson with Detroit Hives said.

In less than a year, the area will be replaced with walking paths, educational signs and vibrant flowers, similar to Navajo Grove in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood of Detroit.

“I think one great thing about pollen areas is that it’s a low-cost, sustainable project that you can replace out of a vacant lot to not only support people in the community, but also pollinators,” Jackson said.

This is phase two of the project. In the coming months, volunteers will strip back old soil, plant cover crops and flowers, and prepare the lot for busy bees.

“You get to help our planet. Our planet means a lot to me,” Pharr said.