Join Stephanie Frischie, Agronomist & Native Plant Materials Specialist with the Xerces Society, and John Tooker, Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Entomology at The Pennsylvania State University for this virtual short course.  This online short course is intended for NRCS staff, Soil and Water Conservation staff, Extension Educators, farmers and other agricultural professionals in the northeastern region of the US, and participants will learn about common soil invertebrates, their ecology and roles in soil health, scouting methods, and management strategies to increase beneficial soil animal populations.  No-till, cover crops, and diverse rotations help build soil health, but they can also build populations of arthropod predators that will control pests. Unfortunately, many farmers inadvertently handicap their farm fields by overusing pesticides, particularly insecticides. John will discuss the evidence and benefits of using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to help protect soil health while managing insect and slug populations by building predator populations.  

Click here to register.

Join the Xerces Community Engagement team for an exploration of various ways to spread the word about pollinator conservation and how to get your community more involved. See examples of what others have done and learn about Bee City USA, the Pollinator Protection Pledge, and X Kids, a new Xerces program.

This is the third webinar in the four-part series in Bring Back the Pollinators.

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

Click here for more information and to register.
 

Matthew Shepherd

Director of Outreach and Education - The Xerces Society

Matthew has worked for the Xerces Society for more than two decades, initially at the vanguard of a new movement to protect pollinators, but then on endangered species and a range of other projects. He is the long-time editor of Wings magazine, and he spent several years leading Xerces' communications effort. His current work is focused on outreach, community engagement, and conservation in towns and cities. 

Laura Rost

Bee City USA Coordinator - The Xerces Society

Laura has worked in development and communications for environmental groups since 2005, and has been with the Xerces Society since 2014. She loves to connect with members and share Xerces resources with the public. 

Rachel Dunham

Community Engagement Coordinator - The Xerces Society

Engagement Coordinator, Rachel has built our volunteer program from the ground up and is finding new ways for Xerces to connect to communities. Most recently, Rachel worked with volunteers to develop the X Kids Program.

Join Stephanie Frischie, Agronomist and Native Plant Materials Specialist with the Xerces Society, for this Women4theLand Conservation Conversation via Zoom.  Mid-September can feel like summer or like fall from one day to another. At this learning circle, the panelists will talk about what happened in your pollinator habitat over the summer. They’ll also talk about what is blooming this time of year, which pollinators and insects are active, and what will happen to them in a few months when winter sets in. Join them to learn about providing overwintering habitat and some good books to add to winter reading lists.

Click here for more information and to register.

Stephanie Frischie
Agronomist, Native Plant Materials Specialist

Based in northwest Indiana, Stephanie provides pollinator habitat expertise to farms in Canada and the U.S. She also works with the native seed industry and researchers to plan and develop seed supply of important plant species for restoration of insect habitat. 

The availability of nesting habitat is a critical yet often overlooked factor impacting native bee populations. In this webinar, Xerces Biologists, Leif Richardson and Sarah Foltz Jordan, will summarize nesting biology of major groups of bees, including leaf-cutter bees, mining bees, bumble bees, and many more. They will also offer numerous practical approaches to creating and managing nesting habitat features. Approaches are relevant to landscapers, farmers, gardeners, natural resource professionals, and anyone interested in taking the next step in supporting pollinators. Community science opportunities will also be discussed.

This is the fourth webinar in the four-part series Bring Back the Pollinators.

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

Click here for more information and to register.
 

Sarah Foltz Jordan

Senior Pollinator Conservation Specialist Habitat Restoration Specialist, Great Lakes Region - The Xerces Society

Based out of central Minnesota, Sarah leads Xerces' upper Midwest native bee and monarch habitat restoration projects, working closely with farmers, agencies, and conservation groups to promote pollinators on farms and in natural areas. 

Leif Richardson

Conservation Biologist California Bumble Bee Atlas - The Xerces Society

Leif is a conservation biologist who coordinates the California Bumble Bee Atlas project. His research focuses on the ecology, distribution, and declines of North American bumble bees.

Join Xerces Society Executive Director, Scott Black, as we kick off our next webinar series: Threats and Solutions. With well over one million known species, insects and other invertebrates eclipse all other forms of life on Earth. They are essential to the reproduction of most flowering plants, including many fruits, vegetables, and nuts; they are food for birds, fish, and other animals; they filter water and help clean rivers and streams; and they clean up waste from plants and animals. Just four of the many insect services—dung burial, pest control, pollination, and wildlife nutrition—have an estimated annual value in the United States alone of at least $70 billion.

Though they are indisputably important, insects and other invertebrates are experiencing a multicontinental crisis evident as reductions in abundance, diversity and biomass. Given the centrality of insects to terrestrial and freshwater aquatic ecosystems and the food chain that supports humans, the potential importance of this crisis cannot be overstated.

The loss of insect diversity is driven by habitat loss and degradation, pesticide use, climate change, diseases and more. The science is clear: It is impossible to address the loss of biodiversity without addressing climate change, but equally impossible to tackle the full impacts of climate change without working to protect and enhance biodiversity. Scott will discuss how nature-based solutions can address both.

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

Click here for more information and to register.
 

Scott Black
Executive Director - The Xerces Society

Scott Black is an internationally renowned conservationist who has been at the forefront of the conservation movement for three decades. Scott’s work has led to protection and restoration of habitat on millions of acres of rangelands, forests, and farmland as well as protection for many endangered species. 

To help ensure healthy ecosystems and successful harvests, pollinator conservation is essential. For many people, pollinator conservation is synonymous with the honey bee and beekeeping, but the story is bigger than that; much, much bigger than that. As we work to conserve pollinators, we need to ensure that our efforts are best directed where they are needed most, and not just at what is easiest to accomplish. While honey bees are important for our current agricultural systems, their role in our natural areas, and even in our urban and suburban areas, is more complicated. Join Xerces Society Senior Conservation Biologist Rich Hatfield for an honest conversation about the unseen consequences that a focus on honey bees can have, and how we can focus our actions in ways that will create positive change, for all pollinators.

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

Click here for more information and to register.
 

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

Rich manages all aspects of the Xerces Society’s work on bumble bees. In addition to his skills as a research biologist, Rich also has extensive classroom teaching experience with a focus on conservation biology, ecology, and sustainability.

Grasslands in the Great Plains, and elsewhere, are rapidly disappearing. Grasslands provide critical habitat for a variety of wildlife, including pollinators and other invertebrates. Join Xerces Biologists, Sarah Hamilton Buxton, Ray Moranz, and Rae Powers to learn about the ecological and social value of rangelands, management practices to support pollinators, and critical actions to maintain native plant diversity on rangelands.

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

Click here for more information and to register.
 

Sarah Hamilton Buxton
Farm Bill Pollinator Conservation Planner - The Xerces Society

Sarah Hamilton Buxton grew up frequently visiting her grandparents’ farm where she developed an appreciation for farmers, ranchers, private landownership, and the natural world. 
 

Ray Moranz
Grazing Lands Pollinator Ecologist, Partner Biologist for the NRCS Central National Technology Support Center - The Xerces Society

Ray works to conserve pollinators on rangelands in the central U.S., and he also serves as a Partner Biologist to the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) Central National Technology Support Center in Fort Worth, TX. He is based at the NRCS Field Office in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
 

RaeAnn Powers
Farm Bill Pollinator Conservation Planner, Nebraska - The Xerces Society

Rae works with USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) staff and landowners in Nebraska and South Dakota to create and protect pollinator habitat using farm bill programs. 

Come join Kass Urban-Mead, Xerces Pollinator Conservation Specialist, NRCS Partner Biologist, for an adventure exploring how wild bees use the woods--from the leafy forest floor to the tippy top of the canopy. Although we usually think of bees busy in our gardens, flower patches, and meadows (which is true!), that is not the only place they are found. In fact, in the northeastern US up to 1/3 of our wild bee species may rely on forest habitats for at least a part of their life cycle. Some are specialized to only collect pollen from spring ephemerals on the forest floor, while others nest in stumps, logs, and leaf litter deep in the woods, and orchard pollinators use forest canopy pollen before the orchards bloom. We will discuss the changing nature of forests on our landscape and how this is likely to affect different groups of bees. Finally, we will highlight ways in which forest management for healthy, diverse, climate-resilient woods is crucial not just for birds and other wildlife, but also for the bees.

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

Click here for more information and to register.

Kass Urban-Mead
Pollinator Conservation Specialist, NRCS Partner Biologist - The Xerces Society

Kass Urban-Mead provides technical assistance on pollinator conservation in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast region. As part of this work, she assists with planning, designing, installing, and managing habitat for pollinators and other beneficial insects. Kass also works with staff and research partners to develop technical guidelines and provide training on pollinator conservation practices.