Tag Archives: pollinator habitats

53 Kelly Rourke – National Pollinator Week

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Pollinator Week on PolliNation with Andony Melathopoulos

Eleven years ago the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval and designation of a week in June as “National Pollinator Week” marked a necessary step toward addressing the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations. Pollinator Week has now grown into an international celebration of the valuable ecosystem services provided by bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles.

With it being literally a month away, PolliNation caught up with Kelly Rourke of the organization that has been organizing National Pollinator Week across the US (Pollinator Partnership (P2)), Kelly Rourke.

Kelly is Pollinator Partnership’s (P2) Senior Program Manager, who not only manages National Pollinator Week, but also North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) and P2 grants and scholarships. Kelly has loved nature, in all its capacities, since she was a young girl growing up in upstate New York. Now settled in San Francisco, she has been able to explore and appreciate a very different environment. Kelly holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and a minor in Anthropology from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She has also received a Master’s of Science in Environmental Management (Ecology Concentration) from the University of San Francisco. Her background in ecology, conservation, and culture has propelled her career in the non-profit sector. Prior to Pollinator Partnership (P2), Kelly worked at another bay area-based environmental non-profit called Conservacion Patagonica (CP). CP’s mission is to establish national parks in Chile and Argentina where there is not only fragile ecosystems, but also, complex cultural and societal struggles.

Listen in to learn about National Pollinator Week, how the Pollinator Partnership helps the world’s pollinator populations, and how you can take part.

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“Protect their lives, preserve ours.” – Kelly Rourke

Show Notes:

  • How National Pollinator Week got started
  • When national news about pollinators spurned positive action in our government
  • What National Pollinator Week is looking to accomplish with the public
  • How Kelly believes we all can help the world of pollinators
  • What Pollinator Partnership does for the world’s pollinator population
  • What makes a good National Pollinator Week event
  • The upcoming documentary film Pollinator Partnership is releasing
  • What resources the Pollinator Partnership offers for everyone to help the cause

“Pollinator Partnership creates a wide array of materials to show people how they’re connected to pollinators and resources to get them involved.” – Kelly Rourke

Links Mentioned:

 

40 Tom Landis – Monarch Butterflies in Southwestern Oregon

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Tom Landis on PolliNation with Andony Melathopoulos

Tom Landis has a PhD in Forest Ecology and has worked for 30 years as a nursery specialist for the USDA Forest Service. He now runs Native Plant Nursery Consulting and is a member of the Southern Oregon Monarch Advocates, where he provides educational and hands-on Milkweed and Monarch Workshops. The Southern Oregon Monarch Advocates are a dynamic group of people united in a common goal: to help the western monarch butterfly focusing on public outreach, creating habitat by establishing Monarch Waystations, planting native milkweed and nectar species, and raising monarchs.

Listen in to learn more about the Monarch butterfly, what Monarch waystations are and why they exist, and their unique system of migration.

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“The adult butterfly weighs half as much as a paperclip, yet they fly 40 miles a day and up to 700 miles [to their destination].“ – Tom Landis

Show Notes:

  • Where the migratory Monarch butterflies live in Oregon
  • The unique migratory process of the Monarch butterfly
  • What fuels the super generation’s long migration
  • Why Monarchs need a certain kind of tree canopy to survive
  • What are Monarch waystations and who came up with the idea
  • What Monarch waystations contain for Monarch butterflies
  • How Tom is helping spread Monarch waystations throughout southern Oregon
  • What it means when you see a whole cluster of butterflies in one spot
  • How you can make your own Monarch waystation

“That’s what’s so amazing about monarchs; you think of that fourth generation, they’re flying back to where their great-great-grandparents came from, and they’ve never been there.“ – Tom Landis

Links Mentioned:

36 John Gruszka – Independence From Packaged Honey Bees: the Case of Saskatchewan, Canada

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John Gruszka on PolliNation with Andony Melathopoulos

John Gruszka served as the Provincial Apiculturalist in Saskatchewan, Canada between 1978 and 2011. As John mentions in the interview, Saskatchewan is one of the most productive honey producing places on the planet, but it suffers from quite an inhospitable winter (John says it’s the closest you get to ‘Siberia’ on the continent). In this episode, John describes how Saskatchewan beekeepers learned to become less dependent on imported package honey bees during the 1980’s. John has a biology degree from the University of Waterloo, and a Masters degree in Entomology (Apiculture major) from the University of Manitoba. He worked in Tanzania from 1971-1975, 3 years of which was on Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) sponsored beekeeping training, research and development. During his term as Provincial Apiculturalist, he served three terms as President of the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturalist (CAPA).

Listen in to hear about the history of pollinators in Northern Canada, wintering techniques, and how packages of bees have changed the beekeeping industry.

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“I will never forget Dr. Don Peer telling me, ‘I’m a 2 percenter. If I can improve by having 2% less winter losses, 2% more honey, 2% less aggression in my hives – whatever else you are selecting for – over five years I am 10% better’.” – John Gruszka

 


Four colonies pushed together and insulated
into a four-pack (Southern Alberta, photo: Lynae Ovinge)

Show Notes:

  • Why anybody would keep bees in such cold climates
  • How bees were kept alive during the harsh winters of the past
  • What makes Northern Canada so ideal for pollinators
  • When the trend changed from wintering bees to relying on packages for winter
  • The key innovations afforded by packages of bees
  • How different ways of wintering bees can provide different benefits
  • Where many wintering techniques come from
  • The history of the Carniolan bee in Saskatchewan

“Beekeepers need to recognize that when it comes to queen rearing, you can do this!“ – John Gruszka

 Links Mentioned: