Dave Hunter
Bee Informed: Challenging Garden Norms, Photographing California's Native Bees, Bees Flock to Clearcut Areas, and EPA Report on Neonics
Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability. 1. She ripped up her manicured lawn and challenged the norms of gardening stories (npr.org, by Melissa Block) "I love a person who talks kindly to plants," poet Camille Dungy writes in her new contemplative memoir. And for sure, Dungy can be counted among those who do exactly that. In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden, Dungy describes her years-long project to transform her weed-filled, water-hogging, monochromatic lawn in suburban Fort Collins, Colo., into a pollinator's paradise, packed instead...
Dave Hunter
Bee Informed: Celebrate Earth Day with a Bee Walk, Squash Bees are Spreading across North America, and Mapping People's Knowledge of Bees
Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability. 1. Celebrate Earth Day with a bee walk (Environment America, By Steven Blackledge) Earth Day—April 22nd—is a day to not only celebrate our planet but also to take part in environmental education and activism to build a greener, healthier world. And what better way to help the planet than by helping the fuzzy little critters whose hard work holds up entire ecosystems? I’m talking about bees. These humble heroes pollinate 80% of the world’s flowering plants, and there are more than...
Dave Hunter
Bee Informed: Non-Native Mason Bees, Bees: The Unsung Vineyard Hero, and The World's Highest Concentration of Bee Species
Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability. 1. Is This Non-Native Mason Bee an Invasive Species? (Entomology Today, By John P. Roche, Ph.D.) The mason bee Osmia taurus, a native of eastern Asia, was first discovered in the United States in 2002 in Maryland and West Virginia. Once here, its population increased rapidly, and it is now found from Florida to New Hampshire in the eastern U.S. The closely related non-native beeOsmia cornifrons was brought to the U.S. in 1978 to increase pollination in fruit orchards. But unlike...
Dave Hunter
Introducing Bee Friendly Gardening
Chances are if you’re reading this article, you own or have an interest in solitary bees. Cute, charismatic, gentle (no need to worry about being stung!) - what’s not to love? And if you love bees, you likely have an interest in supporting them and making the world a more hospitable place for them. Cue Bee Friendly Gardening. Bee Friendly Gardening (BFG) is a program administered by Pollinator Partnership - the world’s largest nonprofit dedicated exclusively to the health of pollinating animals. BFG is a membership program that aims to help people play a bigger role in the health of pollinators (such as...
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