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 (Above and below) Red admiral butterfly on plum tree. Photo: Sarah Foltz Jordan/Xerces Society  Most of us picture blooming meadows when we think of pollinator habitat. While wildflowers are essential for supplying nectar and pollen, a small bee must expend enormous energy to fly to flowers strewn across a landscape. In contrast, a single blooming tree offers a flower feast. To highlight this point, the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign’s annual poster for 2016 was “Trees for Bees.” Bee Culture Magazine recently ran an article about the importance of hedgerows and trees—still an agricultural norm as late as the early 1900s—for providing pollinator forage, as well as nesting and overwintering habitat. The Xerces Society wrote this article about the benefits of hedgerows in farm landscapes in 2016. “The advent of industrial agriculture after World War II radically changed the landscape,” said Dave Goulson, founder of the UK’s Bumblebee Conservation Trust and author of A Sting in the Tale. “Flower-filled hayfields were replaced by green, flowerless silage fields, traditional crop rotations were largely abandoned, and small fields bounded by hedgerows were merged into massive mono-cropped fields that rely on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Around the globe, industrial agriculture has eliminated once abundant habitat for pollinators and other beneficial insects.” The Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA program was launched in 1976 to raise awareness of the importance of urban tree canopies and create local systems for maintaining them. During its formation in 2011, Bee City USA drew inspiration from Tree City USA, reasoning that if the Tree City USA program could help urban and suburban areas institutionalize efforts to enhance urban tree canopies, the same organizing principles could be applied to reversing pollinator declines in those areas.  Scion Foltz Jordan enjoys juneberries from a native hedgerow at Keepsake Farm in Minnesota. Photo: Sarah Foltz Jordan/Xerces Society The consequences of declining tree populations are legion, including profound ramifications for pollinators. As important as tree and shrub flowers are for feeding bees and other pollinators, even wind-pollinated and non-flowering trees and shrubs frequently serve as caterpillar host plants and nesting sites for the world’s 17,500+ butterfly and 160,000+ moth species. Entomologist Dr. Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, said, “Native oaks alone support more than 500 species of butterflies and moths, in contrast to exotic gingko trees from Asia that support virtually no American caterpillars.” Most people associate trees with birds, but Arbor Day is also an excellent occasion for educating your community about the butterfly and moth caterpillars their tree canopy supports, and the vital role most adult lepidoptera play not only in pollination, but also the role they play during their caterpillar stage in feeding ninety per cent of young land birds. Tallamy said, “A single clutch of chickadees will eat 6000-9000 caterpillars before they leave the nest.” Tallamy collaborated with the National Wildlife Federation to create a Native Plant Finder that links plants in your zip code to the butterfly and moth caterpillars they support.  Yellow-faced bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) on big leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) Photo: Kitty Bolte/Xerces Society National Arbor Day is April 26, 2019. There are endless reasons for planting trees, not the least of which are storing carbon and oxygenating the air we breathe. This year, consider celebrating Arbor Day by planting fruit and other trees to offer meadows in the sky for our fuzzy little friends and food for hungry caterpillars. Visit Xerces’ regional plant lists page and Bee City USA’s Create Habitat page for tips on selecting species that are native to your area.
When thinking about planting trees for bees it is also good to think about how managing trees can affect bees, in particular insecticide treatments. A major Bee City USA commitment for certification is administering an informed integrated pest management program. The goal is to prevent pest problems, but when they arise, to address them in a way that least harms pollinators. The now infamous massive bumble bee kill caused by spraying blooming linden trees in a retail parking lot in Wilsonville, Oregon, in 2013 is a sobering reminder of how tree treatments impact pollinators. The silver lining to this incident is that it led to a ban on treating linden trees with several neonicotinoid products in Oregon and spurred new pest management policies and practices in many cities across the nation. Wilsonville even became a Bee City USA affiliate in 2017! Author’s Note: Douglas Tallamy is a member of Bee City USA’s Science Advisory Board.
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 Arkansas State Capitol Photo: By Eukesh - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link 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.”
Until February 24, 2019, anyone can download the report for free using the author’s link: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1YLKd5Ce0rVvlT The report provides a content analysis of 109 insect pollinator policies passed by U.S. state-level legislatures from 2000 to 2017—notably both before and then after publicity about colony collapse disorder, neonicotinoid insecticides, and highly-visible bee kills. Thirty-six states passed between one and nine laws each that fit into six categories: 1) Laws tightening apicultural management: bees as livestock; 2) Evolving views of bees as beneficial insects: laws to review pesticides; 3) Addressing pollinator declines: task forces on pollinator health; 4) Creating and managing habitats for pollinators; 5) Policy for increasing awareness of insect pollinators; and, 6) Research for insect pollinators. From a positive perspective, these state level actions often bridge political divides and are predictors of what’s to come at the national and international levels. Moreover, they show lawmakers are increasingly seeing pollinators as beneficial insects which changes how lawmakers address pesticides. The authors organized the laws into a searchable database, characterizing policy trends and documenting the spectrum of policy innovations. Hall says, “These 109 new laws cover apiculture, pesticides, pollinator awareness, pollinator habitat, and research. Together, they narrate an evolution of bureaucratic thinking on insects.” Perhaps the most comprehensive habitat protection signed into law (MN HF976, 2013) is Minnesota’s Pollinator Habitat Program, requiring the Commissioner of Agriculture to develop best management practices and habitat restoration guidelines for pollinator habitat enhancement, and report to the agriculture and natural resource legislative committee. The report, developed in collaboration with the Pollution Control Agency, Board of Water and Soil Resources, and representatives of the University of Minnesota, must include proposals for establishing a “pollinator bank” to preserve pollinator species, creating “pollinator nesting and foraging habitat…including establishment of pollinator reserves or refuges,” and "provide criteria to evaluate neonicotinoid pesticides." As Americans complain that the government is often gridlocked at the national level, Hall says, “I wanted to see the actual points of agreement at state levels around insect pollinator conservation. In so doing, we could argue that these more than 100 policies passed by state legislatures constitute points of consensus worth exploring for national policies and international agreements. After all, sustaining pollinators crosses rural and urban, and left and right, divides.”  Wendy Harness, Facilities Management Administrative Assistant and Pollinator Alliance Team member, smiles as she ponders Delta College's future bee trail. Across the country, individuals and communities are realizing how vital it is to sustain pollinators. In honor of the Winter Solstice, a time of reflection, we asked Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA affiliates for their favorite pollinator conservation highlight from 2018. Here are some of their responses. Delta College, University Center, Michigan - Linda A. Petee, Sustainability & Risk Management Coordinator "Delta College was honored to join Bee Campus USA this year as the first and only Michigan-certified campus! With the support of the campus community, our Pollinator Alliance Team designated a section of our natural area to develop as a bee habitat trail. We’re excited to plan plantings, interpretive signage, student club projects, community-learning activities, and tours." Talent, Oregon - Dolly Warden, Chair, Bee City USA Talent Committee "The most gratifying experience Bee City USA Talent had this year occurred on the 5th of December when the Talent City Council unanimously approved the proposed Integrated Pest Management Report and Recommendation. We first began working on the goal of an Integrated Pest Management Policy in March of 2014, so it has been almost five years. Although many people are responsible for the final outcome, it was Jim Thompson's persistence that saw it to the finish." Garden City, Idaho - Judy Snow, Chair, Bee City USA - Garden City Committee "The highlight of the year for me was visiting our pollinator garden and observing the hundreds (thousands?) of bees and other pollinators who showed up in only its second year. It was truly amazing to see the bees of all shapes and sizes, butterflies and hummingbirds visiting the flowers. We had leafcutter bees make their home in our bee boxes and observed solitary bee homes in the ground. It has proven to me that....If you build it, they will come!" San Francisco, California - Peter Brastow, Senior Environmental Specialist, Nature, Ecosystems and Biodiversity, San Francisco Department of Environment "In light of the ongoing insect apocalypse and the continuing racial and economic inequity in access to nature, we are working to meet both conservation and justice goals by piloting the installation of a local native plant landscape in a workforce development model at affordable housing sites in San Francisco." Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio - Danielle Trevino, Biological Scientist "My most inspirational moment was from one of our smaller projects…a monarch waystation we planted with the children from the base youth center in the spring. The kids have taken such great care of it and now have a genuine interest the habitat and the many pollinators that call it home. It was such a small thing, but it is a reminder that big changes start with small steps." Norcross, Georgia - Mike Brose, Sustainable Norcross Committee "When I received the signed resolution, I was happy to know that the City of Norcross is now beehav’n!" Carrboro, North Carolina - Laura Janway, Environmental Planner "As a new member of Carrboro Town staff, I was excited to see the Town and community’s commitment to pollinators through current and future pollinator gardens, installations of native bee nesting boxes, and educational outreach. I am inspired by the dedication from Bee Cities across the country and hope to keep up the momentum in 2019." Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia - Jennifer Kraft Leavey, Ph.D., Principal Academic Professional, College of Sciences "My favorite urban pollinator-related moment of the year was getting a call about a "swarm" of bees on an island of grass in the middle of a giant parking lot on the campus of Georgia Tech in downtown Atlanta. When I got there the island was covered in mining bee nests that look like little ant hills. Just above there were a cloud of these precious solitary bees working on creating the next generation of mining bees. By the next week you couldn't even tell they had been there." Hillsborough , North Carolina - Stephanie Trueblood, Public Space Manager "My favorite pollinator moment this year was the day when the swallowtail caterpillars showed up on our bronze fennel. I had heard from friends that they had arrived but our plants were empty. My kids and I checked our garden every day for more than a week and then SURPRISE, one morning we found 10 happy fat caterpillars munching away. We were thrilled.:)"  Photo: City of Orland. Bee display at Glenn County Fair. Orland, California - Pete Carr, City Manager "Our OktoBEEfest drew 200 people and netted $5400 for the Bee city committee to spend on education and outreach. The Glenn County Fair 2018 theme was "What's all the Buzz about?" The city is purchasing real property as the future site of Honeybee Discovery Center." Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington - Chuck Faulkinberry, Director, Hemmingson Center, GUEST, Auxiliary Enterprises "This fall we held our now annual harvest and wintering event. We brought in a hand cranked extractor and let each student take a turn that was in attendance. Much like when I was little when we made ice cream on my grandfather’s porch in the summer. Each student was eager to crank and felt some ownership in the extraction. It is a great way to get students involved and everyone walked away with a small honey bear for their efforts."  Photo: Dickinson College Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania - Cody Rosenbarker, Sustainability Learning Coordinator
"The Center for Sustainability Education hosted an event where students brought in our native bee homes for the winter. We found mason bees and leaf-cutter bees had used our homes as well as some that we couldn’t identify. Although it seems like the mason bees had already been parasitized, we’re looking forward to putting them all out in the spring and see what comes out to pollinate our gardens!" Central Community College, Grand Island, Nebraska - Ben Newton, Environmental Sustainability Director "Organizing our First Annual Pollinator Festival brought in a diverse mix of dedicated insect and native plant fans that I previously did not know existed! We even had a band that were also beekeepers playing at the festival while young children enjoyed honey ice cream. Our first full season of a new pollinator garden on campus was worth all the sweat and pain of pulling sand burrs by staff and students!" Denton, Texas - Sarah Luxton, Sustainability Coordinator "It’s exciting to see the younger generations get enthusiastic about pollinators and take action to support them in their community. These young beekeepers and gardens can be an inspiration to us all! Phoenix, Oregon - Sharon Schmidt, Psy.D., Cascade Girl Organization "We created a 2,000 square foot mural in Phoenix, Oregon over the course of 36 months. It is across from a popular fast-food restaurant and has little embedded signs that say 'grow organic'. Thousands of visitors look at it daily and it raises people’s awareness of Pollinators and organic produce (inner smile!)." Albuquerque, New Mexico - Anita Amstutz, Think Like a Bee "Poet Saeed Jones expressed it well for me, 'It's increasingly difficult for me to vibe with people—even keen, talented people—who are salty about everything all the time. Gotta have some sweetness in this life. I believe in the intelligence of honey.'" Carson City, Nevada - Gillian Mellor, Chair, Bee City USA - Carson City Committee "After many happy days collecting nectar and pollen, We have safely tucked our families in their hives for their well deserved rest. Greeting them again in the new year - we are able also to rest." Pine Lake, Georgia - Elise Witt, Member, Bee City USA - Pine Lake Committee "I loved having my song, “Bees Make Honey,” sung to celebrate our Bee City certification in Pine Lake!" Photos: Nancy Lee Adamson/Xerces Society  Photo: Phyllis Stiles/Xerces Society Are you mesmerized by milkweed fluff? If so, you are not alone!
If you saved your fluff, you may want to have a holiday craft session to turn it into ornaments. Buy inexpensive clear glass Christmas balls from a craft store, and working inside a large paper bag, use your finger or a pencil to stuff a lot, or a little, fluff into the ball before capping it off with the hanger. (We suggest the bag because one friend discovered the cause of her printer problems was fluff that worked its way inside the rollers!) True fluff ornament connoisseurs insert unopened fluff in the narrow glass ball opening, much like putting a collapsed miniature ship in a bottle, but without popping it open afterward. This showcases the fluff's elegant, silky growth pattern. After the holidays, you may want to remove any seeds in the ornaments and plant them in time to sprout before the spring monarch migration. By Justin Wheeler, The Xerces Society Justin Wheeler previously worked for the Xerces Society managing websites and social media, and providing graphic design, writing, and content development. As a Penn State Extension Master Gardener, Justin is engaged with education and outreach to his community on a range of gardening-related subjects such as sustainable and pollinator-friendly gardening practices. Besides providing the right plants, and protecting your garden from pesticides, one of the next most valuable things you can do to support pollinators and other invertebrates is to provide them with the winter cover they need in the form of fall leaves and standing dead plant material. Frequently however, this is the hardest pill for gardeners to swallow. It may be habitual, a matter of social conditioning, or a holdover of outdated gardening practices from yesteryear—but for whatever reason, we just can’t seem to help ourselves from wanting to tidy up the garden at the end of the season—raking, mowing, and blowing away a bit of nature that is essential to the survival of moths, butterflies, snails, spiders, and dozens of arthropods. That’s why this year—and every year—we are making the case for leaving the leaves and offering input on what to do with them. Read on!  Must Love Leaves While monarch migration is a well-known phenomenon, it’s not the norm when it comes to butterflies. In fact, the vast majority of butterflies and moths overwinter in the landscape as an egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, or adult. In all but the warmest climates, these butterflies use leaf litter for winter cover. Great spangled fritillary and woolly bear caterpillars tuck themselves into a pile of leaves for protection from cold weather and predators. Red-banded hairstreaks lay their eggs on fallen oak leaves, which become the first food of the caterpillars when they emerge. Luna moths and swallowtail butterflies disguise their cocoons and chrysalis as dried leaves, blending in with the “real” leaves. There are many such examples. Beyond butterflies, bumble bees also rely on leaf litter for protection. At the end of summer, mated queen bumble bees burrow only an inch or two into the earth to hibernate for winter. An extra thick layer of leaves is welcome protection from the elements. There are so many animals that live in leaves: spiders, snails, worms, beetles, millipedes, mites, and more—that support the chipmunks, turtles, birds, and amphibians that rely on these insects for food. It’s easy to see how important leaves really are to sustaining the natural web of life.  Click on this photo to watch this gorgeous hummingbird clear wing moth (Hemaris thysbe) nectaring on phlox. The clear wing spins a cocoon in leaf litter to pupate, sometimes over winter. Video: Phyllis Stiles Leaves and Lawn
At the time of a 2005 NASA estimate, there were around 40 million acres of lawn in the continental United States—making turf grass the fourth largest “crop” we grow. This disproportionate ratio of lawn to garden is the main reason we rake, mow, and blow. To mimic the natural ecosystem an animal needs, a layer of leaves needs to be at least a couple of inches thick. While this would be too much of a good thing for turf grass to handle—research has shown that lawns actually benefit from a thin layer of leaves, and the rest can be piled up around ornamental trees, shrubs, and perennials to no ill effect. If you must keep your lawn clear of leaves—try opting for raking or using a leaf vacuum to capture whole leaves, rather than shredding them with a mower and make a leaf pile in a corner of your yard. More on that below. Better still would be to reduce your overall lawn footprint, replacing it instead with wildlife supporting plantings that can be future repositories for fall leaves. To Shred or not to Shred? Many organic gardeners opt for shredding their fall leaves for use in compost piles. While this is certainly a more environmentally friendly practice than bagging leaves and sending them to the landfill – shredded leaves will not provide the same cover as leaving them whole, and you may be destroying eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalis along with the leaves. We suggest that leaves in garden beds and lawn edges be left whole. Where space allows, consider creating a leaf pile and allowing it to break down naturally, or add the leaves gradually to your compost pile over time. Such efforts will keep critters safe and allow you to benefit from the rich garden gift that falls from the trees above. Free Mulch! Another reason to leave the leaves is for the many benefits they provide to your landscape. Leaves provide valuable organic matter and build up healthy soil. Fallen leaves have the same weed suppression and moisture retention properties of shredded wood mulch—and they’re free! Where mulch is desired as a decorative element, what could be more seasonally appropriate than a pile of brightly colored fall leaves? In the past gardeners may have worried that fall leaves, matted down by snow or rain, would have a negative impact on their perennials. In reality, a thick layer of leaves provides additional insulation against bitter cold weather, and can protect newly planted perennials when frost-heave may expose tender roots. Anyone who has spotted fragile spring ephemerals popping up in the woods knows that all but the frailest of plants will burst through the leaf litter in spring without trouble. The Bottom Line You gave them flowers and a place to nest. You tended your garden and avoided pesticides. Don’t carry all of that hard work out to the curb. Simply put, when we treat leaves like trash—we’re tossing out the beautiful moths and butterflies that we’ll surely miss and work so very hard to attract. While the idea is to “leave the leaves” permanently—for all of the benefits mentioned above—if you do decide you need to clean up the garden and remove the leaves in spring, make sure you wait until late in the season so as not to destroy all the life you’ve worked to protect. Reposted with permission from the Xerces Society’s blog: https://xerces.org/2017/10/06/leave-the-leaves/ How Bee Campus USA - Abilene Christian University Is Transforming Its Campus Into Pollinator Heaven10/11/2018 Hunter Welcome Center goes native to welcome butterflies and bees! Photos: Gayenell Rainwater Many college landscape directors belong to the Professional Grounds Management Society. The Society's September/October newsletter, Grounds Management Forum, featured the article below. We hope the first few paragraphs will entice you to read this beautifully written story of one ground manager's and one campus' awakening to landscaping for pollinators. WHAT BECOMING A BEE CAMPUS MEANS by Gayenell Rainwater, Abilene Christian University How many of you have ever heard of a Bee Campus? If you listen to the news at all, in the last few years you have no doubt heard about the decline in the monarch migration. You may have heard of Colony Collapse in honeybees? You may have heard about the fact that many species of bees are becoming extinct? All pollinators are facing global decline due to habitat loss, chemical exposure, or poor nutrition. We, as human beings, are causing this decline. You have the power to reverse this decline. Simple changes, in the way you landscape and what plants you choose can have a profound effect on not only pollinators, but on people. How many of you have a pollinator garden on campus or choose native species for your landscaping? Then you too, can become an accredited Bee Campus. If I may, I would like to share our story…. While I would like to say that becoming a Bee Campus was intentional, and I would love to take the credit, saying it was my diligence and forward thinking, seeking to forge a name in sustainable environmental practices, I have to admit it was almost an accident. The opportunity came about due to other circumstances. First, I would like to talk about the monarch butterfly a little bit because this is what actually led to us becoming a Bee Campus. About 3 years ago, I heard a speaker at ULMA (the University Landscape Manager Association) meeting. Thea Junt, from University of Texas at Dallas, gave a talk on monarch way stations. She is a very motivating speaker, had great slides, and best of all showed a project that students would be interested in. I came back, very determined for Abilene Christian to have a monarch way station. It started out very simply. We chose Hunter Welcome Center because of its sprawling porch and the fact that we have many visitors here every year, we wanted it to be visible. We had a couple of small beds that had needed a makeover, due to the fact, that many of the plants chosen for that area were not suitable for our soils, climate, or effluent water. . . . The Professional Grounds Management Society will hold its annual conference October 16-19, 2018, and Mike Oxendine, former Landscape Supervisor for Southern Oregon University, will be there making a presentation about how SOU instigated the Bee Campus USA program in 2015.
 Photo of rusty-patched bumblebee: Clay Bolt Remember when seven of the 60+ known yellow-faced bee species in Hawaii were added to the Endangered Species list in 2016, and the once common rusty-patched bumblebee was listed in 2017?
Yellow-faced bees are Hawaii's only native bee species. As the primary pollinator of the naupaka, a beach shrub native to the islands, as they go, so goes the naupaka. In both cases, arrows point to climate change, invasive plant species, habitat loss, diseases, parasites and pesticides as synergistic contributors to their demise. Nevertheless, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and conservation biologists are hopeful that endangered status will strengthen plans to help the insects. Recently we received promising news that rusty-patched bumblebees still inhabit the Eastern United States, at least in Virginia; and consequently, they could receive more protections in an effort to help the species rebound--IF the federal government continues to administer the Endangered Species Act. According to Rich Hatfield, Senior Conservation Biologist with the Xerces Society, "Since 1973, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been at the forefront of species protection, placing the United States as a world leader in science-based conservation. The ESA is our nation’s most effective law for protecting animals and plants in danger of extinction, and has prevented 99 percent of listed species from going extinct. Despite how effective this law has been at its intended purpose, the current administration has its sights on weakening the ESA to the detriment of the species it was designed to protect." John Muir said, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." Which species is expendable? While no one has the knowledge to answer that question, scientists consider biological diversity our best weapon again the impacts of climate change. Greater species numbers and larger population sizes give organisms more adaptability to survive. The comment period for the proposed changes to the ESA ends on September 24, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. You can let your federal legislators know that you support the Endangered Species Act. Read Xerces blog on how here. Photos Above: Mead and honey sales at Oregon Honey festival, and educational booth at North Carolina Honey Festival.
What happens at honey festivals besides talking to beekeepers and tasting honey? The list is endless, but here's a sampling: speeches by honey bee and pollinator experts, bee beards, mead competitions and tastings, Honey Queen pageants, honey bake offs, hive inspections, foods and beer made with honey, kids bee crafts, photo contests, bee art (made by people, not bees), and live music.  Photo: Robin Stickney Produced by honey bees that literally gather one flower nectar droplet at a time, transport the nectar to the hive in their honey stomachs, "regurgitate" it to pass it from bee to bee using their proboscises (their "tongues") mixing it with saliva rich in enzymes with each exchange, store it in wax cells, cure it by flapping their wings to reduce its water content, and then seal it with a wax cap. Simple, right? Intact honey has been found in Egyptian pharaohs' tombs! Watch the "The Bee Colony as a Honey Factory" lecture by Dr. Thomas Seeley here. This ability to store food through the winter is what makes them the only "perennial" bees out of the temperate world's 20,000+ species of bees. While individual honey bees live relatively short lives, the colony may live for many years.
Ironically, in North America, honey bees are an introduced bee species from Europe. Before colonists brought them in 1622, there were no honey-making bees here. Now European honey bees are making friends for all of their 4000 native bee cousins (think bumble, blueberry, mining, sweat, carpenter, mason, leaf cutter, squash...). Of all 20,000 bee species, bumble bees are most like honey bees in that they have a queen and worker bees and live as colonies, albeit much smaller ones. But they die out in late fall leaving only mated queens to hide away somewhere waiting for spring to lay her worker bee eggs and start a new colony. Otherwise, bees of most species live only a few weeks as adults and sustain their species from year to year by surviving winter as larvae or pupae. They are solitary bees; they don't have colonies like honey and bumble bees. They also rarely sting because (excuse the pun) there's no point! If they die while stinging, no other bees will guard their small nests. Each solitary female bee may lay as much as 20 eggs, but she will never see them become adults.  Photos: Karen Rycheck NOTE: Bee City USA is especially excited for guest blog posts from our affiliate cities and campuses.
Guest Blog by Diana Reynolds Roome, reproduced with permission from Talent [Oregon] News & Review and the author, Diana Reynolds Roome. For mosaic artist Karen Rycheck, any giant slab of bare concrete looks like a blank canvas. Last year, she noticed that the outdoor stage between City Hall and the Library could be the perfect place to declare Talent's dedication to vital pollinator insects and the plants that feed them. "We have this designation," said Karen, referring to Talent's 2014 declaration as a Bee City USA (the second in the nation.). "But few people know that we're a Bee City or what that means. I want to make the commitment obvious. Let's stick to that and honor it." Scores of people apparently agree. Many have taken the project into their own hands, literally, by taking one or more mosaic workshops at Karen's studio in Talent. Under her careful guidance,, they have fashioned an explosion of colorful glass and ceramic flowers, often surprising themselves. "Working with Karen and helping on the mosaic mural project has given me so much confidence and artistic freedom," said Noel Hastings, who has come from Grant's Pass multiple times with her sister and a friend. 'Sitting side-by-side with other artists, each with our own flair and style and with Karen's direction, has allowed me to be free in my own thoughts." For Carol Berger, a retired occupational therapist in Talent, the mosaic has been an opportunity to highlight the importance of flowers and pollinators. "I have a pollinator garden and this project gives me one more opportunity to promote this cause and have a lot of fun at the same time, "she said. Flowers will express the major theme in a mosaic 32 feet long by 19 inches tall, to be installed on the lower front of Talent's outdoor stage in time for this year's Harvest Festival. It will have the words Bee City USA - Talent blazoned across the front, and will swarm with insects and bees as well as flowers of every imaginable shape and color. Bees and butterflies will be portrayed in detail, fashioned by Karen herself. These will be based on several speciific species and because of this they take exceptional skill. For this project, Karen has done a lot of research into different types of pollinators and how they relate to specific blooms. I'll place each insect on the flower it would probably be pollinating," Karen said. "That's what I love about these projects. I like the educational component, I enjoy doing research and learning things." Read the entire story here. Note: For regional native plant guides that support pollinators, visit the Xerces Society.  Photo: Kristina Lefever NOTE: Bee City USA is especially excited for guest blog posts from our affiliate cities and campuses.
Guest Blog by Kristina Lefever, Ashland, Oregon reproduced with Permission from The Ashland Daily Tidings Even with the seemingly unending issues that we are dealing with — especially smoke and fire — we are fortunate to live where we do. Not only is this an amazing part of the country, Ashland is home to a large population of passionate people working on issues to make our city, county and world a better place. I’d like to give a “hat tip” to the passionate and dedicated Ashland residents who made Bee City USA Ashland’s second annual Pollinator Garden Tour, on Sunday, July 15, a success! Sixteen gardens were on the tour this year, all different and all bee-autiful. Thank you to those gardeners who worked so hard to bee ready, and then graciously shared your gardens and knowledge with many visitors for several hours that morning. And of course, thank you to Ashland Parks and Rec and the Bee City USA-Ashland team for making it all possible! Our hope is that people found both inspiration and ideas to grow their own pollinator landscapes. Read More |
Header photo by: Nancy Lee Adamson
 
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