Roads crisis-cross the state of Oregon, making roadsides an appealing focus for creating an interconnected network of pollinator habitat. But roadside habitat has to fit within the constraints faced by Departments of Transports. In this episode we hear about some of those constraints and successes achieved by Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).  

Our guest this week is Robert Marshall, who is the Roadside Development and Landscape Architecture Program Lead for ODOT. He is also a member of ODOT’s Pollinator Task Force.

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Links:

How ODOT Helps Protect Pollinator Habitat (Brochure)

Robert’s book recommendation: Natural vegetation of Oregon and Washington (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973)

Robert’s go-to-tool: USDA NRCS Plant Database

Robert’s favorite pollinator species: Yucca whipplei and the yucca moth

There is a lot of ground under solar panels that could be planted to pollinator habitat. In this episode guest host Maggie Graham (MSc candidate, Water Resources Science, OSU) talks with John Jacob, a Southern Oregon beekeeper, who has been working with solar panel companies to make sure new installations include habitat for bees.

John has run Old Sol Apiaries in Medford, Oregon since 1997. He is also the current President of Oregon State Beekeepers Association.

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Links:

Nation’s largest solar bee farm in Oregon (Bee Culture, July 26, 2018)
Pine Gate Renewables
Old Sol Apiaries
John’s favorite book: Seeley, Thomas D. Honeybee democracy. Princeton University Press, 2010.
John’s go-to-tool: Pro Lifter Hive Tool
John’s favorite pollinator: honey bee

ow important are trees to the health of bees? In many cases we don’t know because trees are a lot bigger than us. That doesn’t stop our next guest from scaling into the canopy for her research. This week we feature PhD Candidate Kass Urban-Mead. 

Kass is working on PhD in Entomology at Cornell University. She is interested in wild bee biology, conservation, and sustainable agriculture. She thinks wild bees are top-notch because not only are they endlessly fascinating critters biologically, but an accessible entry point for connecting with people of all backgrounds about our interconnected global ecological web. Her research focuses on wild bee populations in forests and orchards, and how bees differently use these habitats over time and space. Specifically, she explores the often overlooked canopy resources and vertical habitat spatial use. Kass spends a lot of time on local farms, and ultimately hopes her research will contribute to forest management recommendations to support important agricultural pollinators. When not in the woods, Kass is singing shape note or coaching kids’ roller derby. Long term, she is interested in a career at the intersection of outreach, extension, and policy.

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Links Mentioned:

Kass’ website
The McArt Lab (Cornell University)
The Danforth Lab (Cornell University)
Kass’ Book Recommendation: Danforth, B.N., R.L. Minckley, J.L. Neff (2019). The Solitary Bees: Biology, Evolution, Conservation. Princeton University Press
Kass’ Go to Tool: Big Shot Sligshot (video demonstration)
Kass’ Favorite Bee: Andrena (University of Minnesota video) and Nomada

https://kassurbanmead.com/

Pollinating crops can be difficult on honey bees. Since 2014, the California Almond Board has been working with beekeepers, pest control advisors and groups like Project ApisM to come up with standards (Best Management Practices, BMPs) to increase the health of bees in California Almonds. This week we talk with former Director, Agricultural Affairs, Almond Board of California (ABC), Bob Curtis, about how the BMPs were developed and how effective they have been to help bees during pollination. 

Bob has had an productive career with the Almond Board, and, in fact, still works with the Almond Board as a consultant. In 2013, Bob was awarded the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CA&ES) Award of Distinction, which recognized his work as a liaison for the betterment of partnerships between the almond industry and the agricultural research community. In 2018, He received the Eric Mussen Distinguised Service Award from the California Beekeepers Association and in 2019, Friend of the Industry Award from the American Honey Producers Association. He has served on several advisory groups, including the UC Davis CA&ES Dean’s Advisory Council. Bob received his master’s in agricultural entomology from UC Riverside and a bachelors in zoology from UC Los Angeles.

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Links Mentioned:

Honey Bee Best Management Practices (Almond Board of California)

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.

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Links Mentioned:

The Bees of the Willamette Valley: A comprehensive guide to the genera (2019)
August on Instagram
August’s book pick: The Bees in Your Backyard (Wilson and Messinger Carril, 2015), Bees of the World (Michener)
August’s go-to-tool: Canon 80D camera, Canon Speedlight Flash
August’s favorite bee picture: Nomada and Chelostoma

The Fourth International Pollinator Conference was held in Davis, CA. In this episode you will hear about some of the interesting new research happening on pollinator health from around the world. 2019 International Pollinator Conference highlighted recent research advances in the biology and health of pollinators, and linking these to policy implications. The conference covered a range of topics in pollinator research, from genomics to ecology, and their application to land use and management, breeding of managed bees, and monitoring of global pollinator populations. The fourth International Pollinator Conference, the first year ever held at the University of California, Davis, drew a capacity crowd of 250, with presenters from 15 countries.

https://honey.ucdavis.edu/pollinatorconference2019

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Honey bee queen quality is an often overlooked dimension of colony health. In this episode we catch up with Dr. Shelley Hoover who is the Apiculture Researcher with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. She tells us about work to assess different commercial queen stocks and to fit queen production into crop pollination. Dr. Hoover is the Apiculture Unit Lead for the Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. She is the current President of the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists and is a Past President of the Entomological Society of Alberta. Her current research focuses on honey bee health, breeding, management, pest management, and nutrition, as well as canola pollination. In addition, she has conducted research on other managed bees including bumble bees and leafcutter bees. Dr. Hoover completed her PhD on honey bee worker ovary development, nutrition, and behaviour at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. Prior to her current position, she was a Research Scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, a Research Associate with the University of British Columbia and the AAFC Beaverlodge Research Farm, and an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

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Links Mentioned:

Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturalists
Shelley’s book pick: Honey Bee Diseases and Pest Manual (3rd Edition, Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturalists)
Shelley’s go-to-tool: Queen rearing wheel, calf sled colony mover, hive lifter, Paul Kelly’s hive tool holder
Shelley’s favorite bee: Honey bee queen and drones (or workers that aspire to be queens)

In this episode we talk with Dr. Rosalyn (Ros) Johnson from Yardbio.com about how to establish local, native, and drought-tolerant species in backyards to support pollinators and wildlife. After Dr. Johnson earned her degree in Wildlife Ecology she decided to move to a part of the country she really like and work on preserving and supporting species and ecosystems locally – the San Francisco peninsula. While she works for bees and other wildlife like birds and salamanders, she also preserves the landscaping of yards and adhere to the wishes of the yard owner. As you will hear in this episode, she uses a few non-invasive but non-native plants that support honey bees and some native bees, too.

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Links Mentioned:

Yardbio.com
Calscape (California Native Plant Society)
Ros’ book recommendation: California Bees and Bloom (2014, Gordon W. Frankie, Robbin W. Thorp, Rollin E. Coville, and Barbara Ertter)
Ros’ go-to-tool: Collection vials
Ros’ favorite pollinator: Carpenter bees (Xylocopa spp.)

Although solitary bees make up the bulk of bee diversity, there hasn’t been a comprehensive biology book about them. That is until now. This week we catch up with Dr. Bryan Danforth about his new book, The Solitary Bee, authored along with Frances Fawcett, John Neff, and Robert Minckley. Dr. Danfoth is a Professor in the Department of Entomology at Cornell University in Ithaca NY. He pursued his MS and PhD under the guidance of Charles Michener at the University of Kansas, he had a post-doc with Ron McGinley at the Smithsonian and a second post-doc with George Eickwort at Cornell. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1996. His lab focuses on bee phylogeny, evolution, and biology with an emphasis on solitary, native bees.

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Links Mentioned:

The Solitary Bees: Biology, Evolution, Conservation (2019) Bryan N. Danforth, Robert L. Minckley, and John L. Neff. 

Squash bees were recently discovered in Oregon last year. This week we talk to Dr. Jim Cane about the biology of squash bees and what how far (and fast) it might spread into the state. We also take this opportunity to have Dr. Cane profile another summer bee that can be found in virtually any backyard in Oregon – the sunflower bee of the genus Melissodes.  Dr. Cane recently retired as a Research Entomologist with the USDA’s Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research in Logan, UT.

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Links Mentioned:

Best, L, Marshall, C. and Red-Laird, S. (2019) Confirmed presence of the squash bee, Peponapis pruinosa (Say, 1837) in the state of Oregon and specimen-based observational records of Peponapis (Say, 1837) (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) in the Oregon State Arthropod Collection. Catalog: Oregon State Arthropod Collection Vol3(3) 2-6.

Cane, J (2013) Gardening for Native Bees in Utah and Beyond. Utah State Extension.

Cane, J (2015) Gardening and Landscaping Practices for Nesting Native Bees. Utah State Extension