In 2015, President Barack Obama issued a plan to restore 7 million acres of land for pollinators and called it the National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators. While that was a good start, it doesn't address the 4,000 species of native bees in the United States, most of whom you probably have never heard of.
On this episode we talk with Paige Embry, author of Our Native Bees, about the plight of the bees that permeate our regional landscapes, the workhorses who pollinate a huge percentage of our native plants, orchards and fields.
Paige Embry studied geology at Duke University and the University of Montana and worked as an environmental consultant in Boston and Seattle. After moving to the Pacific Northwest, she took up gardening and started a garden design and coaching business. Paige’s immersion in the lives of America’s native bees began with a gardening epiphany: honey bees can’t pollinate tomatoes. This led to an obsession with bees that cascaded into taking classes, wading through scientific literature, raising bees, participating in various kinds of bee science, modifying her garden, trekking into fields and onto farms with bee experts to learn who America’s bees really are, and writing this book.
Two bee related citizen science programs happening in Oregon:
- KBOO