Sarah Gardner is a pollination ecologist and native bee taxonomist based in Pendleton, Oregon, dedicated to educating communities across the Pacific Northwest about native pollinators and the plants that sustain them. She earned her M.S. in pollination ecology from Utah State University in 2012, where she researched the effects of oil and gas development on rare plants and their pollinator communities. Her work also included studying managed native bees for alfalfa and apple pollination, sparking her enduring interest in plant-pollinator interactions.
This interest led Sarah to start her own consulting business, where she’s supported pollinator monitoring projects across the western U.S., including a rewarding collaboration with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation to identify pollinators for culturally significant food plants. Most recently she served as the western regional partner biologist for Pollinator Partnership, providing technical, educational, and outreach support for pollinator conservation. She enjoyed assisting producers, USDA staff, and partners in establishing pollinator-friendly habitats and navigating conservation planning, and is delighted to join Xerces Society as a western partner biologist, working with the NRCS West National Technical Support Center in Portland. In her spare time, Sarah explores the Pacific Northwest with her husband and dogs, mainly by foot or kayak.