Healthy, living soil and its functions are created and maintained by fungi, bacteria, plants and by invertebrate animals as diverse as annelids, springtails, and firefly larvae, among others. Soil invertebrates are fundamental to soil health and create soil structure, cycle organic matter, consume weed seeds and prey on crop pests.

Please join us to learn more about urban soils, the invertebrates that live there, and management practices and other resources to support these important animals and their role in soil ecosystems. Guest presenter Anna Paltseva will lead a module about the risks of soil contamination in urban environments, focusing on heavy metal pollution, its sources, and its impact on human health and urban agriculture.

This online short course is funded by North Central SARE as a professional development project and is intended for urban farmers, NRCS staff, Soil and Water Conservation staff, Extension Educators, and other agricultural professionals who serve urban farms across the North Central SARE region (ND, SD, NE, KS, MN, IA, MO, WI, IL, MI, IN, OH).

The online course will be recorded and freely available for viewing on the Xerces YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

This course includes several digital publications: Farming with Soil Life handbook, Soil Invertebrate Biomonitoring Pocket Guide and Soil Invertebrate ID Pocket Guide.

Course topics:

1. A brief review of soil function, properties, and classifications
2. Introduction to the main groups of soil invertebrates; how to recognize them; their ecology
3. The roles of soil invertebrates and the connection to soil health
4. Methods for scouting, monitoring, and counting soil invertebrates, through a combination of formal scouting protocols (e.g., pitfall traps to collect and count soil-dwelling beetles) and informal observational techniques (e.g., the use of Berlese funnels).
5. Regionally relevant research about recognizing and addressing contamination in urban soils: Is Urban Gardening Hazardous to Your Health? Dr. Anna Paltseva’s presentation explores the hidden risks of soil contamination in urban environments, focusing on heavy metal pollution, its sources, and its impact on human health and urban agriculture. She discusses practical remediation strategies, innovative soil testing methods, and community-driven approaches to improving urban soil quality and sustainability.
6. Management practices to increase the abundance and diversity of soil animals (e.g., cover crop systems and non-chemical management of soil pathogens)
7. Case examples from urban farms
8. An overview of NRCS programs and resources for urban farms
9. Q & A

This material is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under agreement number 2021-38640-34714 through the North Central Region SARE program under project number ENC21-205. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Learn more and register here today!

Speakers:

Stephanie Frischie - Agronomist, Native Plant Materials Specialist - Xerces Society


Stefanie Steele - Pollinator Conservation Specialist, NRCS Partner Biologist, Urban and Small Farms, Michigan - Xerces Society


Kelly Gill - Senior Pollinator Conservation Specialist, NRCS Partner Biologist, East Region - Xerces Society


Anna Paltseva - Clinical Assistant Professor of Agronomy and Horticulture and Landscape Architecture - Purdue University
Dr. Anna Paltseva is an international urban soil scientist and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Departments of Agronomy and Horticulture & Landscape Architecture at Purdue University. Her expertise lies in urban soil contamination, remediation, and the impact of soil on public health and urban agriculture. With a Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from The Graduate Center, CUNY, Dr. Paltseva has authored over 30 publications and presented her research at national and international conferences in Italy, Brazil, China, Germany, Greece, and more. Dr. Paltseva is the author of Urban Soil Guide: A Field and Laboratory Manual, a comprehensive resource for understanding and testing urban soils. She is passionate about translating complex soil science into accessible knowledge for diverse audiences, leading community-driven initiatives and workshops to improve urban soil health.

To request a reasonable accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact [email protected].

California is home to 25 species of bumble bees, many of which face an uncertain future. Several species, including the western bumble bee, Crotch's bumble bee, the Suckely cuckoo bumble bee, and Franklin's bumble bee, have recently experienced significant declines. In order to conserve them, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has partnered with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to launch the California Bumble Bee Atlas. A key aspect of this work is to train a team of volunteers equipped with nets and cameras spread throughout the state to help us understand where these species are still living, and in which habitats they thrive. This California Bumble Bee Atlas workshop is your opportunity to join the collaborative effort to track and conserve California's bumble bees!

The agenda consists of three parts, and will cover an overview of bumble bee ecology and conservation as well as methods to be used by project volunteers to collect information about bees found at particular sites.

• Module 1: Introduction to Bumble Bee Ecology
• Module 2: California Bumble Bee Atlas Methods
• Module 3: California Bumble Bee Identification

This workshop is supported by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and other funders.

This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

Learn more and register here today!


Leif Richardson - Endangered Species Conservation Biologist, California Bumble Bee Atlas - Xerces Society


Rich Hatfield - Senior Endangered Species Conservation Biologist, Bumble Bee Conservation Lead - Xerces Society

To request a reasonable accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact [email protected].

Insecticides sprayed to kill adult mosquitoes are often used in home yards, as mosquitoes can be a nuisance and health risk. But, the insecticides used in these sprays are broadly toxic to insects, and the risks they pose to pollinators isn't well known. In the summer of 2023, Xerces performed a study comparing insecticide residues and quantifying risk to pollinators in yards sprayed by private mosquito spray services, in yards near a neighbor who sprayed, and yards sprayed by vector control districts. Join Aaron Anderson, Pesticide Program Specialist and Towns and Cities Lead, to hear the results of the study and discover practical, non-chemical mosquito management strategies for use at home.

This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

Learn more and register here today!


Aaron Anderson - Pesticide Program Specialist, Towns and Cities Lead - Xerces Society

To request a reasonable accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact [email protected].

The nearly fifty species of bumble bees in North America are highly efficient pollinators of our natural areas and farm fields, making them essential to ecosystem function. Unfortunately, substantial declines in widespread and formerly common species have been reported. Between climate change, the widespread use of pesticides, habitat loss, and the amplification and spread of diseases from commercial bees, bumble bees face an uphill challenge to recover from observed declines, and repopulate areas where they’ve been lost. In this webinar we will discuss bumble bee ecology, how that interacts with ongoing conservation issues, and what we can all do to help. The good news is that we can all contribute. Beyond participating in our Bumble Bee Atlas projects, protecting, creating, and restoring habitat is the key. We’ll discuss how to provide critical aspects of habitat to benefit each stage of the life cycle, whether you have a small porch, or manage several acres.

While this webinar is directed toward our Bumble Bee Atlas volunteers, anyone is welcome to join. The webinar will be led by the bumble bee conservation crew at the Xerces Society: Katie Lamke, Leif Richardson, Genevieve Pugesek, Molly Martin, Michelle Toshack, Amy Dolan and Rich Hatfield, who will be joined by Dr. Elaine Evans and Elise Bernstein of the University of Minnesota.

This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

Learn more and register here today!

To request a reasonable accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact [email protected].

Join us for the Mountain States Bumble Bee Atlas 2025 training webinar to learn the what, why and how of this project! We'll go step-by-step though the process of joining and participating in the Atlas, discuss what's new in 2025, and have time for Q&A.

The Mountain States Bumble Bee Atlas is a collaboration between the Xerces Society and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

This webinar will be recorded and available on the Bumble Bee Atlas website and our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

Learn more and register here today!


Amy Dolan - Endangered Species Conservation Biologist, Mountain States Bumble Bee Atlas - Xerces Society


Michelle Toshack - Endangered Species Conservation Biologist, Montana Bumble Bee Atlas - Xerces Society

To request a reasonable accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact [email protected].

The Bumble Bee Atlas is a community science effort to gather the data needed to track and conserve bumble bees. Join us for the 2025 training session for the Montana Bumble Bee Atlas! Learn how to participate in the Atlas, find out what's new in 2025, and have an opportunity to get your questions answered.

This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

Learn more and register here today!


Michelle Toshack - Endangered Species Conservation Biologist, Montana Bumble Bee Atlas - Xerces Society

To request a reasonable accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact [email protected].

California is home to 25 species of bumble bees, many of which face an uncertain future. Several species, including the western bumble bee, Crotch's bumble bee, the Suckely cuckoo bumble bee, and Franklin's bumble bee, have recently experienced significant declines. In order to conserve them, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has partnered with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to launch the California Bumble Bee Atlas. A key aspect of this work is to train a team of volunteers equipped with nets and cameras spread throughout the state to help us understand where these species are still living, and in which habitats they thrive. This California Bumble Bee Atlas workshop is your opportunity to join the collaborative effort to track and conserve California's bumble bees!

The agenda consists of three parts, and will cover an overview of bumble bee ecology and conservation as well as methods to be used by project volunteers to collect information about bees found at particular sites.

• Module 1: Introduction to Bumble Bee Ecology
• Module 2: California Bumble Bee Atlas Methods
• Module 3: California Bumble Bee Identification

This workshop is supported by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and other funders.

This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

Learn more and register here today!


Leif Richardson - Endangered Species Conservation Biologist, California Bumble Bee Atlas - Xerces Society


Rich Hatfield - Senior Endangered Species Conservation Biologist, Bumble Bee Conservation Lead - Xerces Society

To request a reasonable accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact [email protected].

Although most ecosystems on Earth are altered by humans, we still have little understanding of how to do conservation, especially of insects in human-dominated ecosystems. Join Dr. Chelse Prather, Associate Professor of Biology at the Univeristy of Daylon, to talk about four projects on this topic covering diverse ecosystems such as restored prairies, greenroofs, urban farms, and solar arrays as well as diverse insect groups like beetles, hemipterans, bees, ants, and butterflies.

This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

Learn more and register here today!


Dr. Chelse Prather - Associate Professor - University of Dayton
Dr. Chelse Prather is an ecologist with 20 years of diverse experience working with insect communities in forests, grasslands, and urban ecosystems. She is a passionate instructor, mentor, and scientist. She has managed a variety of projects from understanding basic insect ecology, like what nutrients limit insect communities, to very applied projects, such as how the development of solar power affects insect communities.

To request a reasonable accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact [email protected].