How Better to Celebrate National Pollinator Week Than to Meet Your Pollinator Neighbors?
|
|
Just one of the many gorgeous photos of live bees you'll find in the Wild Bee ID App: female long-horned bee collecting pollen on Gaillardia. Photo: Celeste Ets-Hokin
|
|
Most Bee City USA affiliates will be observing
National Pollinator Week
, June 17-23, with educational events, habitat plantings, proclamations, or all of the above.
Asheville
and
Hendersonville
, North Carolina, celebrate the whole month of June.
You may want to take your own private pollinator safari or convene a group to see how many kinds of bees, moths, butterflies, beetles, flies, wasps, and hummingbirds you can find during National Pollinator Week. Even if you don't get outside, you can enjoy looking at native bees inside on the
Wild Bee ID App
--a free gift that has been many years in the making.
|
|
Spring Issue of Wings Is Here!
|
|
Fairie Kin Stiltwalkers perform dancing bees during Asheville's Pollination Celebration! in 2015. Photo: Phyllis Stiles/Xerces Society
|
Xerces produces a print and downloadable magazine twice a year called
Wings. The theme of the Spring 2019 issue is restoring nature close to home, including an article about the history of Bee City USA and merger with Xerces. As always, the issue is rich with pollinator conservation success stories to inform and inspire.
|
|
How Are the Monarchs Doing This Year?
|
|
Estela Romero (far left), monarch educator and journalist who works in the overwintering sanctuaries near her home in Angangueo, Michoacán, leads monarch presentation in Bee City USA - Hendersonville, NC, in fall 2018. Those are awfully big monarch eggs! Photo: Kim Bailey
|
|
Trying to get a handle on the status of monarch butterflies can be confusing when comparing eastern and western monarchs. Generally speaking, monarchs east of the Rockies overwinter in special mountain reserves in Mexico, while monarchs west of the Rockies overwinter on the California coast.
We continue to celebrate the monarch numbers from Mexico this year. The acreage that monarchs occupied in Mexico this past winter was much higher than in recent years. This is good news and gives monarchs a fighting chance at recovery. That said, monarchs are not out of the woods yet and we need many more strong years for real recovery. Why should we be cautious and not cry victory yet?
|
|
Xerces Events Coming To Your Area
|
|
A queen black and gold bumble bee (
Bombus auricomus
) forages on
Baptisia australis
. Read more about the bumble bee's relationship with Baptisia
here
. Photo: Phyllis Stiles / Xerces Society
|
|
Xerces has at least one pollinator conservation presentation or workshop somewhere in the country nearly every week. Check Xerces'
Events page
for details and to sign up for Xerces' E-News.
June 13th, 2019
8:30 AM – 4:00 PM
Mountain Research Station
Join other women landowners and land management professionals to grow your network and learn about the importance of pollinators and other insects, creating and enhancing habitat, and financial and technical assistance programs. Speakers include Nancy Lee Adamson, Senior Pollinator Conservation Specialist with the Xerces Society; Jill Sidebottom, Laurel Kays, Jennifer Fawcett, and Renee Strnad of NC State Extension; and Katie Bean of NC State DELTA (Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications).
June 15th, 2019
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center
Join us for this full-day training lead by Rich Hatfield, Senior Conservation Biologist at the Xerces Society, to learn about bumble bees, their conservation status, and how to participate in the
Pacific Northwest Bumble Bee Atlas
. This training is provided for anyone who has a curiosity for bumble bees and flowers, and an interest in contributing to an important citizen science project to provide a better understanding of the status of native bumble bees in the Pacific Northwest. Please join this project and help collect critical information on Pacific Northwest bumble bees. With your help, we can create an army of trained volunteers equipped with cameras and vials, and collect bumble bee data throughout our region.
This course is currently full. To be placed on the waitlist, please email
[email protected]
.
Click here
for more information, such as the course agenda.
June 15th, 2019
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Rio Grande Nature Center State Park
Join Xerces staff and partners for this workshop that will open a window into the fascinating world of North America’s native bees and butterflies, introduce you to what they need, and examine the threats that make the future daunting for them. You will learn about native bee and other insect natural history, their importance to our environment and food supply, and most importantly, the straightforward steps you can take to create lasting change in our urban landscapes to better support bees and other wildlife in your community.
June 18th, 2019
9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
GEOS Institute
This half-day workshop will be led by biologists with the Xerces Society and the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Classroom topics will include general information on the conservation status of butterflies in Southern Oregon, as well as an overview of our project’s goals for 2019. Participants will be trained in a standardized monitoring protocol and will learn how to collect and submit data for the monitoring program. We will spend the latter part of the morning practicing the protocol and butterfly identification at a nearby field site.
June 19th, 2019
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Union Plaza
Join Rae Powers, Farm Bill Pollinator Conservation Planner with the Xerces Society, in celebrating National Pollinator Week with the family by learning all about the wonderful world of pollinators. This free event will have lots of fun and creative activities for all ages. Be sure to swing by the Xerces table for information and activities on pollinator conservation. This event will be co-hosted by Lincoln Parks and Recreation and the University of Nebraska- Lincoln, UNL Bee Lab.
June 20th, 2019
9:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Lockeford Plant Materials Center
Join Angela Laws, Kitty Bolte, and Jessa Cruz of the Xerces Society for this field day on Monarch Conservation. Topics covered include monarch biology, plants monarchs need, monarch conservation strategies and priorities, and more.
June 21st, 2019
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
State Botanical Garden of Georgia
Join Xerces staff and partners for this workshop that will open a window into the fascinating world of North America’s native bees and butterflies, introduce you to what they need, and examine the threats that make the future daunting for them. You will learn about native bee and other insect natural history, their importance to our environment and food supply, and most importantly, the straightforward steps you can take to create lasting change in our urban landscapes to better support bees and other wildlife in your community.
June 21st, 2019
8:30 AM – 3:30 PM
Hundley-Whaley Research Center
Join Sarah Nizzi, Farm Bill Pollinator Conservation Planner and NRCS Partner Biologist with the Xerces Society, for this workshop intended for row crop farmers, livestock producers, recreational landowners, and anyone else interested in the many benefits that native plants offer to farms and recreational land. Five experts will present information on how native plants provide benefits to farm revenues, livestock health, pollinators, wildlife, soil health, water quality, and more. Sarah’s presentation will explore the many ways to improve pollinator habitat on farms.
Beetopia, A Festive Day Celebrating the Certification of Bee City USA - Gastonia, Gastonia, NC
June 22nd, 2019
9:00 AM - 1:30 PM
Rotary Centennial Pavilion, 107 N South St.
Join Phyllis Stiles, Bee City USA Founder and Pollinator Champion of the Xerces Society, as she speaks at 9:20 to the importance of all pollinators and what each of us can do to help reverse their decline. Other speakers include Allen Thompson and Burton Beasley of Gaston County Beekeepers Association; Emily Ehinger and Justin Cornett of Organic Marketplace to talk about mushrooms and bees; Jim Burke, Natural Resources Extension Agent to talk about Beneficial Plantings for our Region; Robert Stroud, City of Gastonia Arborist to talk about pesticides and herbicides and Gastonia’s environmental initiatives; and Kat Culver of Gateway Herbals Secrets of Essential Oils, Apitherapy, and the magic of Elderberry.
Click
here
and
here
for more information.
June 22nd, 2019
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Dancing Oaks Nursery & Gardens
Join Xerces Ambassadors for the Dancing Oaks Pollinator Festival that will include local food & music, educational activities for kids and grown-ups, and featured pollinator-friendly plants for sale & giveaway during the day.
June 22nd, 2019
9:30 AM – 4:00 PM
Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum
Join Xerces staff and partners for this workshop that will open a window into the fascinating world of North America’s native bees and butterflies, introduce you to what they need, and examine the threats that make the future daunting for them. You will learn about native bee and other insect natural history, their importance to our environment and food supply, and most importantly, the straightforward steps you can take to create lasting change in our urban landscapes to better support bees and other wildlife in your community.
|
|
Bee City USA - Wright Patterson Air Force Base hosted Huffman Prairie State Natural Landmark tours for the youth center on base and for the public during summer 2018. Approximately 40 children and 50 members of the public attended these interpretive tours, focusing on the flora and fauna of the prairie ecosystem, and highlighting the numerous pollinator species and habitat required to sustain them. Photo: Danielle Trevino
|
|
W E B I N A R S E R I E S
|
|
Natural Areas Association Webinar Series
June 18, Tuesday, 2019, Noon EST
Insect Apocalypse? What Is Really Happening, Why It Matters and How Natural Area Managers Can Help
Join Scott Hoffman Black, Executive Director of the Xerces Society, for this webinar hosted by the Natural Areas Association, where he’ll explain the latest science on insect declines and highlight important ways natural areas managers can incorporate invertebrate conservation into their land management portfolio. Though they are indisputably the most important creatures on earth, invertebrates are in trouble. Recent regional reports and trends in biomonitoring suggest that insects are experiencing a multi continental crisis evident as reductions in abundance, diversity and biomass. Given the centrality of insects to terrestrial and freshwater aquatic ecosystems and the food chain that supports humans, the potential importance of this crisis cannot be overstated. If we hope to stem the losses of insect diversity and the services they provide, society must take steps at all levels to protect, restore and enhance habitat for insects across landscapes, from wildlands to farmlands to urban cores. Protecting and managing existing habitat is an essential step as natural areas can act as reservoirs for invertebrate diversity.
|
|
Rights-of-Way As Habitat Working Group Webinar Series
Hosted and facilitated by the Energy Resources Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Rights-of-Way As Habitat Working Group is a unique collaboration of professionals from across multiple sectors, including gas, electric, rail, and road industries. The
Group formed in 2015 to create a forum to collaborate, share ideas, and identify best management practices for habitat conservation on working landscapes.
You can watch recordings from their webinar series.
|
|
Bee City Canada Webinar Series
Thursday, June 18, at 1pm EST
Town of Whitby “Leveraging Existing Resources for Pollinator Habitat Creation and Promotion”
Presenter: Jill Stanton Landscape Architect and Aimee Pugao Parks Planning and Development Divisions
|
|
Monarch Joint Venture Webinar Series
Tuesday, June 25, 2 PM EST
Integrating Social Science into Strategic Monarch Conservation
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Field Museum’s Keller Science Action Center have been working to understand the social, political, and economic factors that produce environmental threats, and foster those that benefit monarchs and their habitats. In this webinar, USFWS Human Dimensions Team Lead Christine Browne (Conservation Social Scientist) will explain how those factors within socio-ecological systems have been identified and considered in the development of conservation strategies, and Field Museum Social Scientist Lex Winter (Environmental Social Scientist) will share research on how these factors play out on the ground in urban and suburban areas in the Midwest.
|
|
Our National Network Is Growing!
|
|
One of Talent, Oregon's many certified pollinator gardens. Talent was the 2nd city to be certified as a Bee City USA affiliate in the nation.
|
|
The best part of the Bee City USA network is that we are teaching and learning from one another how to mobilize our communities for pollinator conservation. Check the current
Bee City
and
Bee Campus
pages to see the most up-to-date lists of our 156 affiliates in 39 states. While you're there, check out our new maps that show which
ecoregion
each affiliate calls home.
Welcome to the most recent affiliates to join our network!
- Burlington, Vermont
- Village of Galena, Ohio
- Williamstown, West Virginia
- Lane Community College (Eugene, Oregon)
- University of San Francisco (San Francisco, California)
- Lawrence University
- Dunwoody, Georgia
|
|
Bee City USA is an initiative of the Xerces Society. Our conservation work is powered by our donors. Your
tax deductible donation
will help us to protect the life that sustains us.
|
|
Follow Bee City USA on Facebook to watch Claxton Elementary's Bee Day video (we dare you not to smile!); and read about ... the dogwood flowers' surprise pollinator; Greenwood, South Carolina's mosquito SWAT team; Lane Community College's commitment not to use neonicotinoid insecticides; new studies on how glyphosate herbicides may be impacting honeybees; and the new Franklin's Bumble Bee conservation stamp....
|
|
Bee City USA, An Initiative of the Xerces Society | 503-395-5367|
[email protected]| www.beecityusa.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
