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

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​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

National Pollinator Week ​(always the third full week of June) is an especially opportune time for raising pollinator awareness.  This year Bee Campus USA teamed up with the University of Connecticut-Storrs, Portland Community College and UNC Asheville to present a webinar explaining the Bee Campus USA commitments and application process to the members of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). The recording is available on You Tube or at AASHE's Campus Sustainability Hub.

Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA affiliates have been supplying regular updates on how they are mobilizing their communities to reverse pollinator decline during Pollinator Week. They offered entertaining and educational activities for all ages and invited any willing organizations to host events to achieve Bee City USA's mission of "galvanizing communities to sustain pollinators." Here are a few "postcards."

In Salisbury, Maryland, the Salisbury Zoo took the lead for the Week and welcomed over 1159 visitors on June 23.  Three beekeepers presented that day and the Cooperative Extension office and Master Gardeners led a pollinator craft.  Bees weren't the only pollinators being celebrated at the Salisbury Zoo.  Visitors were able to learn about a new conservation and research partnership between the Zoo, Salisbury University, and Maryland Department of Natural Resources geared towards saving the frosted elfin, a native butterfly species listed as endangered by several states, but not federally listed. Children created houses for cavity nesting bees out of tin cans and bamboo; and donned wings and posed for pollinator selfies. (See photo above) Guests received literature on how to make their yard pollinator friendly. The Zoo had a mini vegetable garden display talking about pollination and the Herb Society led a tour about pollinators and herbs. There were lots of posts on the Zoo’s social media about National Pollinator Week and how links to other interesting sites on bee-friendly gardening and facts about bees. They decided the bee dance exhibit needs music and a leader to get it going!

Denton, Texas, partnered with local libraries, the Denton County Beekeepers Association, a Master Naturalist from the Elm Fork Trinity, and the Painted Flower Farm (local native nursery) to offer a variety of events throughout the week. SCRAP Denton, a local creative reuse store and donation center, offered hands-on crafts with flower, butterfly, and bee themes for children. The library hosted a special pollinator-themed Story Time and sang songs about bees and butterflies. followed by planting in the Pollinator Garden. Clear Creek Natural Heritage Center hosted a class for children, presented by the Denton County Beekeepers Association, about the life of the honey bees, pollination, and how important pollinators are to the environment.

"Beecatur" held a total of 10 events during the week including a Native Plants Talk & Sale, a Pollinator Portraits photography exhibition, a pollinator photo safari, a pollinator puppet-making and storytelling for kids, and a screening of The Guardians at Agnes Scott College. This newly released film led to a lively conversation about Monarchs, and pollinators generally.

Talent not only dedicated their new City Hall pollinator garden, they also re-certified several local pollinator gardens and added couple of new ones.

​Mountain Home's Farmer's Market  went right to the stomach to make friends for pollinators! They hosted Pollinator Appreciation Day on June 23 complete with free chicken and shrimp BBQ glazed in honey & garlic and honey dressed salads courtesy of the University of Idaho Extension-Elmore County.  Enticing Market visitors with honey, Extension volunteers in bee costumes  talked to them about beekeeping and shared an entomology box with pinned native bees.  

Surry Community College got a jump on National Pollinator Week in the spring! They hosted Buzz Fest, an official event of the 2018 North Carolina Science Festival presented by the Biogen Foundation, a month-long effort to celebrate hands-on science activities.  Free and open to the public, Buzz Fest engaged college classes, the community, home school groups, and local school systems. Led by SCC Biology Instructor Grayson Patton and facilitated by students in Environmental Science, Horticulture, and Botany classes, the Bio Blitz was a scavenger hunt-like activity focused on finding and documenting local insect pollinators and their associated host plants. Participants explored vast natural areas surrounding campus to collect images of insects and plants which were later uploaded to the event group page and identified using the iNaturalist smartphone app.  Amy Moyle spoke on “Technology & Beekeeping” and Debbie Roos lectured on “Pollinator Gardening."

Local facilitator, Asheville GreenWorks, invited organizations and businesses across the Asheville area to host Pollination Celebration! events throughout the month of June, resulting in more than fifteen events for young and old. The photo above shows a stop on the pollinator-focused garden tour at Bee Campus USA-UNC-Asheville.  

​Working in conjunction with more than 20 local organizations, Bee City USA-Seattle hosted a variety of events, kicking off with a Bee Photo Exhibit at Central Co-op, by biologist and wild-pollinator photographer, Will Peterman.  Central Co-op also installed educational markers on various pollinator dependent items in the grocery store and  hosted a screening of The Guardians when a butterfly expert talked about the difference between the monarchs in the movie and the monarchs on the west coast, as well as how the two groups interact. 

At the “Meet the Bees” party, The Common Acre celebrated the release of the first EVER Field Guide to Bees of Puget Sound.  Along with live music, actors portraying bees, and tasty treats, key scientists involved with the guide made presentations. The Common Acre joined forces with the Tilth Alliance to offer multiple opportunities to participate in a field day and work parties in local parks, farms, and pollinator patches, as well as workshops on pollinator friendly gardening.  Community members learned how to make insect hotels, planted native plants, and met with Washington State University (WSU) researchers and other pollinator experts to learn about tools for identifying, conserving, and promoting wild pollinators. The Garden Hotline worked on the pollinator garden for the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands, featuring useful weeds, medicinal, native, and ornamental plants, all of which are great for a variety of pollinators.  Based on WSU research. special focus was given to selection of plants, and the bee species present and how to provide for them. 

Midweek, a Save Pollinators Symposium featured lightning talks from diverse perspectives including the Washington state Poet Laureate, urban farmers, educators and others.

UCF hosted a tour of their pollinator garden followed by a bee condo making workshop. Attendees left with their own bee condos and  pamphlets to enable them to identify local pollinators and flowers in the future.

Durham, NC, launched National Pollinator Week with the Bee Bash at The Durham Hotel to educate about pollinators, habitat, bees, bee products and honey!  Bee Downtown started the Bee Bash three years ago. Exhibitors were Keep Durham Beautiful, Durham Bee City USA, Honeygirl Meadery, Durham County Beekeepers Association, The Durham Originals and Granville County Beekeepers. Among Durham's many Pollinator Week events were  the Burt’s Bees Cabin tours,  Pollinator Day at the Museum of Life and Science, and the Bee Jubilee in Granville County.

All butterflies make the stunning transition from determined caterpillar to striking adult. But the eastern monarch's epic migration from Canada to Mexico’s high elevation fir forests piques our collective imaginations, reminding us of nature’s brilliant complexity and capacity to innovate. The notion of a small butterfly, weighing only a half gram, riding air currents as much as 11,000 feet in the air, and somehow locating relatively small, high-elevation forests 3,000 miles away, is very empowering. It makes us feel almost anything is possible—even reversing global pollinator declines.

What does this mean for Bee City/Campus USA affiliates?  
With Bee City USA as part of the Xerces Society’s programs, there will be benefits for both organizations—and for pollinators and their advocates. Currently Xerces has more than 20 staff in their Portland headquarters and almost 30 staff in regional offices across the country. To ensure this change is smooth, Bee City USA founder Phyllis Stiles is joining the Xerces Society staff as Bee City USA Pollinator Champion with the goal of fully transitioning management of the Bee City/Campus USA programs over to other Xerces staff during the next couple of years. She will continue to work from her office in Asheville, North Carolina.

​In the future, instead of relying solely on the generosity of passionate, capable volunteers, Bee City USA will be managed by Xerces’ capable, committed staff, however, Bee City USA’s Internet address is still www.beecityusa.org.
 
Why Xerces?
From its launch in 2012, Bee City USA’s strategic plan was to someday be adopted by an established pollinator conservation organization. The Xerces Society was at the top of a short list of prospects. Xerces’ work is based on the latest science and is increasingly recognized as the worldwide standard for pollinator conservation. In the last decade, Xerces’ efforts have culminated in the restoration or protection of pollinator habitat on 692,000 acres of U.S. farmland, with thousands more acres in development. Xerces has also directly reached more than 100,000 people through workshops, farm field days, conferences, invited talks, and short courses on pollinator conservation and other beneficial insects in all 50 states. Xerces offers a growing number of workshops and other events, continues to expand their library of fact sheets and guidelines, hosts citizen science projects like Bumble Bee Watch, and certifies pollinator-conscious agricultural operations through their Bee Better Certified program.

This transition felt very natural to both parties because Bee City USA and the Xerces Society have partnered for many years. Indeed, Xerces’ senior pollinator conservation specialist for the Southeastern region, Nancy Lee Adamson was Bee City USA’s informal, and later formal, science advisor, and Mace Vaughan, co-director of Xerces’ pollinator conservation program, has advised Bee City USA for years. Bee City USA hosted a Xerces short course in 2014 and Bee City USA affiliates have been drawing on Xerces materials to inform their activities.

This next step will further solidify an already strong, complementary relationship. While Xerces may be best known for its work with farmers, government agencies, and public land managers, urban areas are increasingly a focus for Xerces. Bee City USA’s programming meshes quite naturally with this new priority area. 

A Bright Future
Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA affiliates are amassing a distinguished record of pollinator conservation achievements. Driven by a grassroots desire to engage friends and neighbors to organize events and make pollinator habitat improvements, they are changing their communities’ landscaping paradigms where they live, work, learn and recreate. With affiliates’ demonstrated commitment to pollinator conservation, it’s no wonder the Xerces Society was attracted to Bee City USA. Bee City USA and the Xerces Society can build on the considerable interest in pollinator conservation from cities, colleges and universities, corporate campuses, schools, and other similar groups, to achieve more than either group could alone. ​

Xerces BLOG: Xerces Society + Bee City USA = A Match Made in Pollinator Heaven
Scott Hoffman discusses the benefits that will accrue to both Xerces and Bee City from this change—and how pollinator conservation can strengthen communities.
 
PRESS RELEASE: Bee City USA joins forces with the Xerces Society

Making Your Campus A Bee Campus USA Affiliate Webinar June 20

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) is hosting a free webinar entitled "Making Your Campus A Bee Campus USA Affiliate" on June 20 at 3:00-4:30 Eastern Standard Time.

Here's the webinar description: "While we need pollinators for the reproduction of 90% of the world's wild plant species and three-quarters of crops, announcements of their national and global staggering declines seem relentless. College campuses can help! They can serve not only as models for pollinator-friendly landscaping practices, but also education and outreach centers for changing our landscaping paradigms. This webinar will explain the application process for becoming a Bee Campus USA affiliate and the commitments entailed. Examples of how current affiliates are fulfilling their commitments will be featured." Register for the webinar here.

From left to right, the presenters are Elaine Cole, PhD, Portland Community College-Rock Creek, Sustainability Coordinator; Jackie Hamstead, Bee Campus USA-University of North Carolina Asheville, Environmental Specialist; Emily O'Hara, University of Connecticut-Storrs, UConnPIRG Secretary and Save the Bees Campaign Coordinator; and Phyllis Stiles, Executive Director of Bee City USA. 

Bee City USA also hosts its own occasional webinars, some of which are available here. Here is a current list of all Bee Campus USA affiliates.

​Monarch Joint Venture Webinars

• The FREE Monarch Conservation Webinar Series is a collaboration between the Monarch Joint Venture and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. You can see the excellent 2018 webinar lineup here. Did you miss a webinar? No worries! You can watch the recordings here.
• Register here for the next webinar on May 22: The Power of Volunteers in Monarch Conservation.
• Bee City USA is a proud partner of the Monarch Joint Venture.

​Other Notable Webinar Series

• The Ohio State University Bee Lab webinar series
• Bee Campus USA-University of Illinois-Chicago ERC (Energy Resources Center) Rights of Way as Habitat Working Group webinar series. Register for upcoming webinars here.

Many affiliates have hosted screenings of awe-inspiring, and sometimes disturbing, films like Wings of Life; Flight of the Butterflies; A Ghost in the Making: Searching for the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee; Queen of the Sun; Hometown Habitat, Stories of Bringing Nature Home; Vanishing of the Bees; and Bee Movie.

Now, there is a new, quieter film, about the challenges of preserving the monarchs' overwintering sanctuaries while sustaining human communities. Monarch ecologist Dr. Lincoln Brower calls it "an eye-opener for conservation advocates." 

The producers are releasing this documentary, The Guardians, this summer in honor of National Pollinator Week. 

Bee City USA has partnered with the filmmakers on their national screening tour. They are offering our Bee Cities and Campuses a 30% discount on the screening kit, which includes everything you need to a host a successful screening event centered on pollinator conservation--a license to screen the film, printed posters and postcards, a DVD & digital file of the film, discussion guide and digital promotional materials.with an exciting new documentary film. 

We think the film is a powerful tool for Bee City/Campus USA affiliates to engage their communities in discussion about pollinator conservation. Already, Bee Campuses and Cities in Washington, New Mexico, Ohio, Missouri, Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon and New Jersey have lined up to host screenings. Because the film is in Spanish with English subtitles, it offers a rare opportunity to engage local Latino communities in conversation about pollinator conservation.

To see a private screener of the film to inform your decision or if you just have questions, please email the film's director at tessa.moran@eidolonfilms.com.

​While Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA affiliates can (and do) host pollinator conservation awareness events throughout the year, many choose to take advantage of National Pollinator Week, June 18-24 (this year's third full week in June).

Across America,  affiliates are asking their city councils to make proclamations for National Pollinator Week as well as hosting educational garden walks, inspiring and informative movies, expert presentations, habitat enhancement events, or scavenger hunts at farmers markets to link pollinators to our diets.

Consider registering your event(s) on the Pollinator Partnership's National Pollinator Week calendar here.

You can get full instructions and supplies for leading a scavenger hunt at your local farmers market from a previous Bee City USA E-News here.

Need attractive educational resources for your pollinator awareness activities? In partnership with the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC), NRCS (the Natural Resources Conservation Service) will ship up to 5 free (no shipping costs either) gorgeous Pollinator Week posters. This year's theme is Pollinators and Seeds. Order your 18" x 36" posters here. Past posters are available here (use "pollinator" as the keyword). Some may be downloaded as PDFs, while other hard copies can be ordered FREE OF CHARGE.  For example, the fabulous “Trees for Bees” poster, one of the series the Pollinator Partnership produces each year, is available in boxes of 10. We laminate our posters and bring them to our events. 

By Phyllis Stiles, 
​Director, Bee City USA  

Thanks to volunteer Scott Offord at beepods, Bee City USA realized a longstanding dream this year. When cities/counties and institutions of higher education become certified as Bee City USA or Bee Campus USA affiliates, one of the commitments they make is to provide an annual report that is published each January summarizing their previous year’s accomplishments in pollinator conservation and awareness.

We had always wanted Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA affiliates to know about the innovative work their counterparts were doing. While at Bee City USA headquarters we hear incredible stories of winning new friends for pollinators and enhancing habitat for pollinators from our affiliates on a daily basis, there is simply no way we can communicate the ingenuity and joy expressed in each of those stories. We've always known the affiliates need to be able to tell their own stories. But how?

Experienced webmaster Scott Offord had the answer. He created a website just for annual reports, with a template page dedicated to each affiliate's story.  Simple!  The affiliates just place their text and photos into the "slots" provided, and Voila!, they communicate their year of achievements on a single webpage, available 24/7 around the world, complete with contact information if the reader wants to get in touch directly with the affiliate for more information. How empowering!

While city and college staff lead or support many of these efforts, passionate volunteers are at the forefront of most. These reports are bursting with inspiring stories of communities planting pesticide-free habitat rich in a diversity of locally native plants, discussing their community’s pest management policies with pollinators in mind, and hosting events for young and old to create awe for and greater understanding of the plant-pollinator collaboration that makes our planet bloom and fruit. 

These reports inspire our national network of Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA affiliates with new, more efficient, more cost effective, more creative, or generally more impactful approaches. Thanks to Scott Offord for making our dream a reality!

By Diane Almond, Bee City USA Founding Steering Committee Member and Education Advisor

Did you know that after more than three years of efforts by the Republic of Slovenia, the United Nations adopted a resolution declaring May 20 as World Bee Day? Passed unanimously in November 2017, the resolution was co-sponsored by 115 member states including some of the largest: USA, Canada, China, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, India and all EU Member States.
                                                                       
Slovenia’s proposal to the UN addressed the need to raise awareness of honey bees’ essential role as pollinators for ecological balance (biodiversity) and food security and to acknowledge the urgent need to address growing worldwide challenges especially sustainable, sufficient food production; adaptation to climate change; and diminishing natural resources such as arable land and water supply.
 
The Slovenian proposal summarized that over the last 50 years, “…bees have become increasingly endangered, particularly in the areas with intense agriculture. Shrinking habitat along with negative effects of expanding monoculture areas as well as modified and intensified grassland cultivation technology have led to declines in the development of bee colonies. The situation is made worse by new bee diseases and pests, whose impacts are aggravated by deteriorating resistance of bee colonies and impacts of globalization that allows for the transfer of pests over long distances.”

Bee City USA®, a national nonprofit organization founded in 2012 to make America’s landscaping paradigm more PC (“pollinator conscious”), has reached a major milestone.  They have just certified their 100th affiliate--Salisbury, Maryland!
 
At the highest levels, certified cities and institutions of higher education have committed to reviewing their landscape design and maintenance plans with pollinators in mind. But their commitment extends well beyond simply reviewing those plans.
 
Whether a Bee City USA or a Bee Campus USA affiliate, they have agreed to develop and publish a recommended species list of plants, trees and shrubs that are locally native species, rather than the exotic plants that tend to dominate American landscapes. They also have agreed to develop and publish a least toxic Integrated Pest Management plan that instructs city and campus landscaping maintenance staff to seek biological controls for managing pests, using chemical inputs only as a last resort. According to Bee City USA founder and director, Phyllis Stiles, “The goal is to allow nature to find balance between predatory and prey insects. While dogs don’t eat dogs, bugs do eat bugs when given the chance!”
 
These plant lists and pest management plans should be integrated into certified city and campus comprehensive plans, in order to become policy. The goal is for the cities and campuses to provide demonstration sites of pollinator-friendly landscaping for their communities, to inspire the public at large to adopt these same landscaping principles, all directed at reversing national and global pollinator declines.
 
Salisbury, Maryland, Mayor Jacob Day, said, “We feel like we’ve won the lottery! Not only are we excited to embark on this new campaign to welcome vital pollinators to Salisbury, we were lucky enough to be the 100th affiliate to be certified. We’re really buzzing now!”

By Phyllis Stiles, with editorial support from Sam Droege and Mace Vaughn

It's just human nature to want to be first, and you can!  You can be the first in your area to record a monarch returning from her overwintering refuge, or the first to record a hummingbird returning from her winter jaunt to Central America. The Journey North site lets you easily record Nature's firsts each spring.

​But have you thought about posting your first bumble bee sighting in 2018? You can at Bumble Bee Watch.

​Spring means bumble bee queens are emerging after their winter hibernation. They are mated and ready to start their colonies.  Unlike honey bee queens attended by worker bees through the winter, a queen bumble bee survived the winter all alone, and now it's up to her to start  a new colony and continue her species. Other than honey bees, bumble bees are the most well known social bees in the temperate world. They live in small colonies where the worker bees tend to the colony’s need for food, cleaning, and caring for baby bees. Most of the other nearly 20,000 species of bees around the world live solitary lives.
 
In the spring, a bumble bee queen is looking for a suitable nesting site in an undisturbed area, possibly under a clump of native grass or in an abandoned rodent burrow. She wants a place that is dry, in a private, sunny spot, and away from people or other critters that might accidentally step on her nest or intentionally try to eat her protein-rich cache of larvae. Frequently, she looks for nests along tree lines or old stone walls.