Bee City USA - Decatur, Georgia, makes their Mardi Gras parade really buzz!
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Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA affiliates are planning now to celebrate pollinators all year long in 2019! As
you plan your pollinator conservation and awareness activities, be sure to add a splash of fun.
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States Increasingly Pass Laws
to Protect Pollinators
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Bumble bee buzz pollinating blueberries. Photo: Nancy Lees Adamson/Xerces Society
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If you’re interested in pollinator conservation policy at the local, state, national, or international level, you may want to read a groundbreaking report in
Environmental Science and Policy
. Dr. Damon Hall is Assistant Professor at the School of Natural Resources in the Department of Biomedical, Biological & Chemical Engineering, at the University of Missouri (affectionately known as Mizzou), a certified Bee Campus USA affiliate since 2016. Hall teamed up with Rebecca Steiner of Saint Louis University to publish, “Insect Pollinator Conservation Policy Innovations: Lessons for Lawmakers.”
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Call to Action to Save Western Monarchs
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An iconic migration is on the verge of collapse—we must all do our part to save western monarchs!
Once, millions of monarchs overwintered along the Pacific coast in California and Baja, Mexico—an estimated 4.5 million in the 1980s. But by the mid-2010s, the population had
declined by about 97%
, and in 2018, the decline was that much more dramatic. The annual Xerces Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count showed that
the population hit a record low: Volunteers counted only 28,429 butterflies.
This number is an 86% drop from the previous count done at Thanksgiving 2017, when 192,668 monarchs were counted—and a dizzying 99.4% decline from the numbers present in the 1980s.
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While the situation for eastern monarchs overwintering in Mexico is not quite as dire as that of western monarchs overwintering in California and Baja, Mexico, reversing declines for both populations hinges on providing them with healthy habitat throughout their life cycles.
Enjoy this incredible video of a three-week long "Bring Back the Monarchs" event in 2014 hosted by a small town in North Carolina. Teresa Coté created the splendid monarch with an 11-foot wingspan to draw attention to the monarch art show. The haikus were written by middle schoolers after researching monarchs.
Bottom line: No matter where you are located, you can help support monarch conservation! See
xerces.org/monarchs
for more information!
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A Sampling of Xerces Events
Coming To Your Area in February
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Xerces has at least one pollinator conservation presentation or workshop somewhere in the country nearly every week. Check our
Events page
for details. Here are some examples in February.
February 8, 2019, Silverwood County Park, Edgerton, WI
Interested in learning more about promoting beneficial insects on your farms, orchards, and gardens for pest control? Join Thelma Heidel-Baker from the Xerces Society in this full-day course offered by the Friends of Silverwood. Learn about beneficial insect ecology, habitat opportunities, impacts of different farm practices to beneficial insects, and assessing farms for insect conservation.
February 14th – 16th, 2019, CH2M Hill Alumni Center, OSU, Corvallis, OR
Join Rich Hatfield, Senior Conservation Biologist with the Xerces Society, at this two-day conference and an additional day of workshops designed to “connect-the-dots” between research, extension and application. This meeting is for extension agents, natural resource professionals, land managers, educators, as well as pollinator enthusiasts who want to develop or enhance the pollinator programming in their area. Rich will be delivering a talk on utilizing volunteers to conduct a multi-state bumble bee atlas.
Science Pub: Pollinators, People and the Planet: A Love Story --Asheville, NC
February 15, 2019, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM, The Collider, Asheville, NC
Plants have been using colorful flowers and nectar to seduce pollinators for millions of years. Even though we are beginning to understand that one in every three bites we take is dependent on a pollinator of some kind, conventional landscaping and agriculture often have invisible "Keep Out" signs where pollinators are concerned. Join Phyllis Stiles, Xerces Pollinator Champion and founder of Bee City USA, to learn why and how Bee City USA affiliates are changing the way they landscape to welcome at-risk pollinators with the goal of reversing their global declines.
February 16, 2019, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN
This annual conference promotes biodiversity through the preservation, restoration and establishment of native plant communities. This year, Sarah Foltz Jordan and Karin Jokela of the Xerces Society will give a spotlight presentation on the Xerces Society’s work with farmers and other local citizens to promote pollinator conservation.
Join Emily May, Pollinator Conservation Specialist with the Xerces Society, on February 20th for a presentation titled “Protecting and Preserving Pollinator Habitat” as part of the 2019 Eastern New York Fruit and Vegetable Conference. The full conference runs from February 19th – 21st.
To receive regular Xerces Events announcements,
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February 20, 2019, 12:00 PM (Eastern Time)
Vicki Wojcik of the Pollinator Partnership and Rich Hatfield of the Xerces Society reprise the popular talks they gave at the 2018 Natural Areas Conference in October. Vicki will speak on “Flora Resource Competition Between Honey Bees and Wild Bees: Is There Clear Evidence and Can We Guide Management and Conservation?” and Rich will speak on “Honey Bees in the Pollination Networks of Natural Areas? — An Overview and Best Management Practices.”
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Our National Network Is Growing!
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Central Community College (Grand Island, NE) students help with weed shield planting day at the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. Photo: Central Community College
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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.
Welcome to the most recent affiliates to join our network: Woodland, California and Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia.
Check the current
Bee City
and
Bee Campus
pages to see the most up-to-date lists of our 141 affiliates in 37 states.
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MISSED OUR LAST NEWSLETTER?
No worries! You can read it
here
.
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Bee City USA, An Initiative of the Xerces Society | 503-395-5367| beecityusa@xerces.org| www.beecityusa.org
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