111 - August Jackson - The Bees of the Willamette Valley

Learning the bees of your local area can be a daunting task. Most guides and keys, for example, include bees that don’t even exist where you live, and are packed with hard-to-understand terminology. This week we talk to August Jackson, who has come up with a solution – a concise guide to the bees of the Willamette Valley (The Bees of the Willamette Valley: A comprehensive guide to the genera). August is the Interpretation Coordinator at Mount Pisgah Arboretum, helping to develop the Arboretum’s interpretive exhibits and adult educational programming. He has been studying and photographing bees and other pollinating insects in the region for over five years, and his photographs have appeared in a number of publications. August regularly teaches classes and delivers talks on pollination ecology and bee identification around the state. Most recently, he is assisting with the Oregon Bee Project in teaching basic bee taxonomy to volunteers conducting a statewide census of Oregon’s bee species.