by Melanie Kirby, beekeeper, queen breeder

Please allow me to introduce myself. I wear multiple hats but most of them revolve around bees. I’ve been keeping bees for 25 years and have had the immense and intense roller coaster of emotions learning from bees and working with keepers around the globe. I’ve seen healthy bees and not-so-healthy ones. I’ve seen amazing management techniques and others that were questionable, from sea to shining sea and across the “pond.” These experiences have provided me with several recurring thoughts, including the most important one which is that I have more questions than answers! These experiences have humbled me to the nurture and torture of nature. These experiences have opened my eyes to both what I’ve always felt to be true and to mysteries beyond my immediate experience. I’ve learned that bees and their keepers are fantastical storytellers weaving their journeys to make sense of their environments, their aspirations, and their survival.

But before I delve deeper into talking about bees, and wildfires- of which I have experienced the latter several times but more recently, very closely, I’d like to tell you about where I come from- as it plays a lot into how I view the bees and how I choose to manage my hives, through good times and bad…

My heritage is very important to me. I am indeed a descendant of the American “melting pot” though my roots anchor me beyond words as an Indigenous woman. There are over 500 federally recognized tribes across the United States. And there are many more that are not federally recognized. With recognition comes the prospect of being counted. Though not always and not always fairly. This is not a controversial topic. It is simply, a fact. But it is one, that is changing- albeit slowly, to becoming fairer. And that is a just thing.

I mention this because for many generations, prior to colonization in the Americas, Indigenous peoples and societies have learned from their environments how to preserve, conserve, and manage their landscapes through biomimicry and forward-thinking approaches that take into account, the generations to come. Biomimicry, holistic, regenerative, sustainable, organic, permaculture, and adaptive all have their roots in Indigenous practices.

These buzzwords have been “re-branded” and marketed to capture the interest and influence of settlers. But their roots remain the same- in truth, based on Indigenous practices. Indigenous practices are diverse. They are innovative and respectful. And despite the distinct and unique differences between Indigenous peoples, there is also a shared Indigenous WorldView- a view that sees the interconnectedness of all things and that recognizes that we all influence and depend on each other.

I take this shared worldview to heart and apply it to each of my choices- both familial and professional. I try to put my best foot forward and use my learned experiences to make decisions that I feel best support my regard for our interconnectedness. This interconnectedness definitely drives my continued approach to beekeeping.

It is this interconnectedness that I continue to reference and talk about when I give presentations. It is sometimes recognized by those who have heard me talk, and to others, it may sound like a foreign language. But I’ve been beating this same drum for over 2 decades.

I attended a beekeeping conference one year where they had listed my title as “Agriculture Philosopher.” I found that strange and slightly offensive as I wondered, “So do they think I only theorize, or do they realize that I actually practice beekeeping through a mindful lens?” Underneath their typed title, I added an additional one that read- “Consilience Researcher.”

“Consilience” means the unity of knowledge. It is the weaving together of various knowledge systems and approaches to create an interdisciplinary perspective- one that involves many disciplines and studies in order to gain a better understanding and review. I realized that most of us have been conditioned to learn about things in silos- meaning individually without context, without the relationship, and without concern for how things connect with one another.

Consilience became one of my missions to help bring this style of approach to our American apicultural industry as another valid approach to healthy beekeeping management. It has been a slow and sometimes rocky slope. But one that is gaining momentum with more interest- especially in response to the acceptance of the “rebranded” and marketed buzz words reaching more folks. This is a good thing… although it would be even better if we all acknowledged where these practices originated- with Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK).

If you made it this far, you’re probably wondering how this fits into the topic of BEES & WILDFIRES? Here goes….

Bees, like other animals- including humans, react to their environment. Beekeepers have known this across cultures and millennia as we’ve learned how to approach and steward them. Our ancestors recognized that by using smoke, they could pacify the bees and remove the comb carefully. Over time, we’ve learned that the smoke actually muffles their pheromones, which is their main form of communication with each other. We’ve learned that too much smoke, or fire, can cause the bees to flee in search of a safer location. No one wants to be caught in a fire- not bees, nor humans.

This spring, my bees and I experienced the closest of dangers with raging wildfires in the southern Rockies. The fire, which started as a “controlled” burn, turned quite the opposite and merged with another “controlled” burn. These fires- called the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fires merged into New Mexico’s largest state fire in history. It spanned over 50 miles long and almost 500,000 square miles in coverage. The fires were started by the U.S. Forest Service during the windiest months. Anyone who is from New Mexico or who has lived there for some time knows that you never start a fire in March, April, and even early May due to the volatile spring weather. The southern Rocky Mountain region tends to warm up in March, which causes the thaw to commence. The thawing snow creates cold air that then come April, rushes down the canyons and into the valleys causing late frosts. I call this the “Rocky Mountain Whistle” as it is notoriously windy, and yo-yo temperature swings bring hail, spring snow storms, and abrasive blowing dust.

For the locals, and especially for the Native Peoples in this region, understanding the patterns of weather, as affected by the local topography is essential for survival. Folks don’t transplant or plant directly outdoors until after Mother’s Day or even Memorial Day due to the late frost and spring snow storms. I’ve personally experienced snow as late as June 10th in this region. Local folks don’t burn cleaned brush piles or clearings from their acequias (waterways) during windy periods. But yet, the Feds with their fancy equipment and tools, thought they knew better…

The fires displaced numerous communities and wreaked havoc on businesses and industries. And though my bee farm didn’t actually burn, this whole situation caused the evacuation of the farm and family and the relocation of hundreds of hives. Our spring mountain queen production had to be put on hold until evacuation orders cleared- 8 weeks later. We spent close to $20K just in fuel to relocate all of our hives and for supplemental feed while our bees waited in apiaries over 20 miles away. The fire came close- 5 miles away from the farm. But it was close enough to upend the whole bee season.

So why did we move our apiaries? We had no idea as to which way the fire was going to go. It surrounded us and boxed in our home farm. We didn’t want to risk losing hives due to the lack of relocation. We recognized that with too much smoke in the air, our bees would not be able to smell forage as well- what was just getting blooming at the time. We also didn’t know how long the situation was going to last. Friends in communities miles away offered locations to host our hives. Some even offered to come manually help with loading hives and moving equipment and home supplies.

We are so blessed to have a caring community. We had over 20 loads of bees and equipment that we had to move. Some equipment got stacked at a valley apiary site down by the Rio Grande. Other equipment got placed into storage units that were offered at no cost to the displaced. Queens that we planned to rear for sharing with beekeepers near and far and for research were postponed and overall queen production this year has been at a fraction of what was anticipated. And while I lament on the strife of this season, I can imagine what it meant for my bees…and more so even for the landscapes that provide for them.

One can’t help but start to comprehend the gravity of shifting climate and the uncertainty it brings. Will we have a better season next year? Or will it be worse?! I am reminded of my farm partner’s persistence- farmers are forever optimists hoping that next year will be better, or the next one… But those gaps may become larger and seem insurmountable. How can we all swiftly undo what has caused such drastic weather? Is the rise of the Industrial Age at its peak or will it transform into practices and products that are more mindful of current and future generations to come? What kind of world will not only our children but also our bees and other glorious biodiversity live in?

My hope is that we will return to what our Ancestors have known- that we are all interconnected and that our actions affect each other. Indigenous peoples have been managing fire in complex and diverse landscapes. They’ve learned how to use fire as a healthy stewardship method and to support landscapes and biodiversity through Indigenous technologies and TEK.

But today’s society has been conditioned to prevent wildfires and to try to standardize practices that create mono-crop agriculture, loss of biodiversity, and forests with dry and deep understories that become tinderboxes. If we look at fire as a negative, without reflecting on its positive uses, we isolate it and begin to regard everything out of context, which is very different in our living world than in a vacuum by itself. None of us live in a vacuum by ourselves. Not us, nor our bees.

Now the monsoon rains have begun and are swiftly racing down the burn scars bringing rivers of ash and washing away homes, seeds, and what took years upon years to establish. The understory is now no story. The fire scars will last decades if not longer. The forest areas burned will have to undergo slow repair in order to recuperate. They may never return to their full glory as the fire burned so intensely, and fast that the seeds buried in the thick understory all combusted.

And so here we are at an impasse. How can we move forward and also repair the damage done? How can we better support our bees and their landscapes? How can we ensure that the generations to come learn from our experiences and truly progress in equitable and respectful ways? There is a way forward, and one that is inclusive. The way forward is through consilience. The way forward encourages us to integrate methods from varying knowledge systems- including those from Indigenous Peoples and responsible technology. The way forward is what we make it. And the way forward is also the way back…

I heard an Indigenous Elder once say in a presentation that despite the inequities, the hardships, and the imbalance, and though Indigenous practices have historically been regarded as unadvanced and backward, “Indigenous People are so far behind, we’re ahead.” Being ahead means using one’s head. Being ahead means taking into account all aspects of one’s actions. Being ahead means being cognizant of cause and effect, and of how we impact each other. Being ahead means being aware, being mutually respectful, and being mindful.

My hope, and the hope of other marginalized perspectives, land stewardship “philosophers” and practitioners are that all of us- from all perspectives can sit at the same table and have discussions on how to keep our planet intact and healthy. And, that others are willing to make the table longer and are open to listening to each other with receptivity and willingness to make life better for our bees and all of our plant and animal relatives for generations to come.

About the Author:

Melanie Kirby is a professional queen honey bee breeder and holds a Master’s in Entomology. She currently serves as the Extension Educator at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Melanie is a registered member of Tortugas Pueblo. As an interdisciplinarian, Melanie works with bees and their keepers around the globe. You can follow her on InstaGram @ziaqueenbees and @nectarnomad and at www.ziaqueenbees.com

Additional Readings/Resources:

Burkle, L., Simanonok, M., Durney, J.S., Myers, J., Belote, T. Wildfires Influence Abundance, Diversity, and Intraspecific and Interspecific Trait Variation of Native Bees and Flowering Plants Across Burned and Unburned Landscapes Front. Ecol. Evol., 02 July 2019 Sec. Population, Community, and Ecosystem Dynamics https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2019.00252/full

Evangelista, C., Kraft, P., Dacke, M., Labhart, T. and Srinivasan, M.V., 2014. Honeybee navigation: critically examining the role of the polarization compass. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 369(1636), p.20130037. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2013.0037

Galbraith, S.M., Cane, J.H., Moldenke, A.R. and Rivers, J.W., 2019. Wild bee diversity increases with local fire severity in a fire‐prone landscape. Ecosphere, 10(4), p.e02668.
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.2668

Garvey, K.K., University of California Agriculture & Natural Resources What Do Honey Bee Colonies Do During a Raging Wildfire? https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=43528

Garvey, K.K. University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources 2020. The Bee People, The Bees, and The Fires https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=43585&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed

Hegedüs, R., Åkesson, S. and Horváth, G., 2007. Anomalous celestial polarization caused by forest fire smoke: why do some insects become visually disoriented under smoky skies?. Applied Optics, 46(14), pp.2717-2726. https://opg.optica.org/ao/abstract.cfm?uri=AO-46-14-2717

Love, B.G. and Cane, J.H., 2016. Limited direct effects of a massive wildfire on its sagebrush steppe bee community. Ecological Entomology, 41(3), pp.317-326. https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/een.12304

Mason, S.; Shirey, V., Ponisio, L., Gelhaus, J., Responses from bees, butterflies, and ground beetles to different fire and site characteristics: A global meta-analysis Biological Conservation 261 (2021) Elsevier Ltd. Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320721003177

Tan, Y.Q., Dion, E. and Monteiro, A., 2018. Haze smoke impacts survival and development of butterflies. Scientific Reports, 8(1), pp.1-10. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-34043-0

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                                       PRECAUTIONARY STATEMENTS

HAZARDS TO HUMANS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS DANGER: Corrosive; causes irreversible eye damage. May be fatal if absorbed though the skin. Harmful if swallowed or inhaled. Do not get in eyes, on skin or on clothing. Avoid breathing vapor or spray mist.

My husband was wearing shorts and sandals, with none of the protective, PPE, or knowledge of the safety recommendations or environmental hazards of the product.

I began researching and downloading studies from the internet. These are available for anyone to read. The damage to human health has been researched by M.D.s and Ph.D.s. The results have been published in medical journals. I took my large binder of these studies with me when I met with the Executive Director of our local children’s museum. My concern was, not only the honey bees that the museum kept with indoor viewing, but the danger to the children’s exposure to the lawn chemicals that were being applied.

After discussing the original lawn, Dutch white clover mixed with grass seed, Jeff Mehn informed me he only liked just grass. It was what is socially expected. He wasn’t concerned about the bees or the children.

Time passed, the bees died, and I auditioned for a local Art Center performance. When I made the cut, I was told my stage was set up at the Above and Beyond Children’s Museum. Of course, I had to check out the lawn and the set up before hand. I was thrilled to find clover in the lawn! Jeff and I had another meeting.

My next step was asking Michele Colopy, then Director of the Pollinator Stewardship Council, if a letter could be sent commending the change. The idea being to reinforce the positive and encourage a new perspective on lawn care.
This excellent letter is still influencing my local community today.

Grandma Jo
grandmajo4bees @gmail.com
White Clover for Honey Bees

https://www.facebook.com/whitecloverforhoneybees/

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From our survey in May of this year, 77% of association leaders will still offer virtual attendance to their members for their continuing education.  When providing speakers for local meetings, and state and national education 66% of leaders said they would offer virtual speakers to save travel costs for speakers, 55% to reduce the climate impact caused by speaker travel, 88% to expand the educational opportunities to members and groups, and 77% of leaders will welcome virtual speaker participation to meet the safety and health concerns of speakers.  The survey response most telling concerned feeling safe to return to large event activities:

What size event will you feel comfortable attending in person?

76%     10-25 people

23%     26-60 people

1%      61-100 people

0%       101-250 people

0%       251-500 people

0%       500+ people

Successful leaders need to adopt a “new normal.”  That new normal includes the opportunities many groups discovered in being able to provide national and international speakers to their members.  Many groups welcomed members from outside their county and state due to the caliber of speakers the group sponsored.  Educators are not limited to just our county, state, region, or country.  With virtual options local, state, and national events can provide high caliber speakers from across the country, and the globe, and reduce our carbon footprint at the same time.  The speaker, as well as the conference attendees, health, travel risks and constraints must be recognized.  At the time of this writing Canada still has restrictions on US travelers to Canada.  Not until August 9^th does the 3 night hotel “quarantine” cease. 

In a survey of event planners by Encore they found “more than one-third of planners have adopted a hybrid approach in the past six months and nearly 60% plan to use hybrid going forward,” for their events and association education.

Organizations will decide to participate on-site at events on a per case basis.  Business owners who have been vendors in the past have to weigh the health risks to their employees who work a vendor table: Are the vaccine rates low in a state, is the event indoors, are masks required or not required, how comfortable do the staff feel attending the event, etc.   The return on investment from an exhibit table or vendor table at an event has always been determined by the financial return on investment (ROI), but now the ROI also includes health costs to the staff or volunteers. 

The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development surveyed national and international insurance carriers highlighted at the beginning of the pandemic that “  . . .few companies have business interruption coverage that is likely to respond  . . . exposing the existence of an important protection gap for some pandemic-related business interruption losses.” 

According to Economics Observatory, “The multi-faceted nature of the Covid-19 pandemic has meant that it has affected many lines of business where there is insurance coverage. The affected areas include, but are not limited to, business interruption (for example, disruption to supply chains and inability to operate as normal due to government measures), trade credit insurance (cover for businesses if customers who owe money for products or services delay payment or do not pay at all), travel, cyber liability (due to increased working from home) and event cancellation.”

Very few state and national groups even secure event insurance, and of course never thought they would have to cancel an event, even due to weather.  With climate change, impacts to events, and the subsequent vendor and exhibit tables, registration fees, and venue deposits and costs, will be at risk.  For the future, an event must place insurance as part of their conference expense.

The negative media coverage resulting in mass illnesses, whether from food, the “basic” flu, or Covid-19 will cause years of damage to an event.  See these two articles about an event, and a community group that became “super spreader events” even with precautions.

Poor service by a conference venue, such that the mention of the city causes others to also groan with dissatisfaction and bad memories, haunts many an event.  Bad memories linger in attendees, speakers, and exhibitors.  Add to that a low vaccine rate, and the looming winter flu season, and event planners are setting themselves up for a highly problematic experience for all.  If your event becomes a super-spreader event, no events for the industry will ever be held in that city in organizational memory after that.

Humbled and pained’: Calif. tech exec’s indoor conference becomes COVID superspreader

After Its Superspreader Rehearsal, A Community Choir Struggles To Sing Together Again

Association Now offers four tips for event:

“It all starts with safety protocols. Even as the risk of contracting COVID-19 decreases, attendees remain cautious. They expect cleanliness and social distancing protocols to be in place and want to be reassured that the locations where they’re staying and meeting are adhering to them.

Secondly, the pandemic has made teleconferencing the norm. Attendees have become more comfortable with that experience, and some may even prefer it–after all, it’s more convenient and less expensive than traveling. Coupled with the fact that there are still many people who don’t feel safe attending meetings in person, offering both options–to attend in-person and via teleconference–is a smart strategy. This hybrid offering is now part of a new normal that attendees both expect and appreciate.

Third, outdoor spaces are now preferable for meetings, so destinations with open-air offerings have a leg up. This goes for all gathering places, from facilities to after-hours venues. Being able to offer that fresh air is sure to increase attendance, help attendees feel safer and enjoy themselves more.

Lastly, now more than ever, events need to offer something new and unique. There needs to be a hook or some wow factor because there are still many people on the fence about attending in-person events.” Moreover, events with experiences that are more effective in person, such as teambuilding excursions that build motivation and camaraderie in a way that teleconferencing can’t, are sure to lure more attendees and have a bigger impact.”

Even as vaccination rates rise, health concerns and safety protocols will continue to be important for many event attendees.  Washing of hands, and hand cleanliness should continue to be promoted in large groups.  Having more physical space in which humans can interact is healthier over-all.  Vendor areas that are human traffic jams should have been, and are unhealthy and unsafe for the attendees and the vendors.  Food service buffets have raised health concerns for decades.  If the event is health conscious the attendees will value it, and be willing to pay more for an event that implements health standards for every aspect of the event. 

Joanne Brooks of Successful Meetings Start Here offers “Top tips for reducing contagion and keeping attendees safe at face-to-face meetings,”

1. “Negotiate a flexible cancellation policy with the venue, in case local levels of Covid-19 are high and it is unsafe to hold the event. You will need to determine how much of a refund will be provided and how close to the event date it will be offered. 
2. Require attendees to complete temperature checks and show proof of vaccination or provide a negative Covid-19 test result. Covid-19 sniffing dogs, which have been used at airports and some events, are another option.
3. Make sure that the event staff, speakers and vendors have also been tested or vaccinated. Provide a separate set-up area just for the staff to reduce contact. 
4. Consider closing the meeting rooms for 30 minutes between sessions for proper cleaning and disinfection. Be sure to sanitize all microphones and equipment between speakers.
5. Make air-flow adjustments, such as opening windows and using ozone air purifiers, to minimize the risk of contagion.
6. Use digital scanners for contactless registration. It’s also a good idea to invest in contact-tracing technology, so you are prepared in case there are any outbreaks on site.
7. Add one-way aisles and schedule visiting times for the exhibit hall to control traffic. 
8. Implement a no-handshake policy and use digital business cards, so attendees can safely exchange contact information.
9. Use server-attended stations and staggered meal times to avoid crowding and create a safe food and beverage experience. You can also offer to-go containers, so attendees can eat in their rooms if they are more comfortable doing so.”

Leaders providing member association education will ensure the longevity of their local, state, and national association only if they embrace the “new normal.”  Take your feedback from your audience and make the changes to protect, educate, inspire,  and grow your audience.

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Last year we all adapted, just like pollinators, to be involved, give and receive education, and connect with others.  Leaders in county and state associations had to adjust to serve their members and meet their mission.  While many groups attempted to provide on-site and in-person member meetings and state and national conferences, many were simply cancelled.  To adapt you have to accept change.  Adaptation means learning new methods.  In the case of monthly member meetings and conferences, education delivery had to change.  Event planners had to quickly learn the technology, and most importantly learn from others successes and failures.

2020 was LEAD for Pollinators inaugural year. Last February we planned a national conference for October.  However, we quickly saw we had to adjust, as did our scheduled speakers. By June we had adapted our on-site conference to a virtual conference.  Speakers were pleased we were concerned for their health and safety. We featured our sponsors and vendors, and we served the education needs of beekeepers, farmers, member groups, and entrepreneurs at our Becoming 21st Century Leaders: Women in Beekeeping and Agriculture virtual conference.

We continue to provide online education with regionally and nationally recognized speakers in our Log-In to Learn Webinars.  We are presenting 44 topics during 2021 for beekeepers, association leaders, entrepreneurs, farmers, gardeners, and more. 

Similar to an on-site, in-person event, audiences want an engaging, knowledgeable speaker, with a different point of view.  Eventually the local audience has heard every speaker in their club, and even many speakers at the state level.   Good speakers excite an audience to think, laugh, and utilize skills or information learned during a presentation. 

Too many groups have continually relied upon the “tried and true” speakers, but now audiences have access to national and international speakers online.  Due to the Covid health and safety restrictions, audiences will demand quality and diversity in their speakers going forward.  In the March 2021 issue of the American Bee Journal is an article discussing “The Value of A Good Event Speaker”  for their skill, knowledge, and “stage presence” online and onsite.

A good speaker is vital especially online, as the competition is now so vast.  Even when we return to on-site events, audiences, and speakers, will demand quality and diversity in topics, speakers, and cost. What the Covid health and safety restrictions have taught us in conference and meeting planning is quality speakers can be provided easily via the internet, without the speaker having to travel, and not incurring travel expenses.  As conference planning begins again, speakers will not want to travel, as they can readily provide a presentation via an internet connection.  Speakers can interact with an audience via the internet.  Even in large halls on-site, a moderator circulates to hear the questions from the audience.

Speakers will be relieved to not have to spend days travelling to and from an event.  Conferences will save money on travel costs for speakers. If your event has not paid speaker fees and travel costs, read “The Value of A Good Event Speaker” in the March 2021 American Bee Journal (and start paying speakers).

Vendors too will examine the past year to assess the economic value of attending conferences.  The cost of paying staff, paying their travel costs, and time away from their business will be evaluated at a different level now.  Vendors were able to support virtual conferences in 2020 and 2021, for less cost, and still increase their sales.  Conference planners will have to examine the new costs of virtual vendors, and virtual exhibit halls.  The new normal will have to offer both, and will have to be cost effective. Vendors who made money during 2020 without going to state, regional, and national conferences will re-examine their need to return to on-site events with all of the additional staff costs, plus the vendor fee.  Having been a nonprofit vendor at state, regional, and national conferences, the vendor fees have been typically too high, unaware on any aspect of the return on investment (ROI) to the vendor.  If a vendor’s ROI from the costs of being a vendor onsite does not at least break-even, vendors may only want their presence in an ad, or only online.

The return to large events, conferences, fairs, and more will be slow for many of us.  The full audience will not return for a while, and conference planners, and member education leaders will have to compromise with speakers, members, venues, and vendors.  We will have to adapt like pollinators.  To provide education we have to continue to be open to new ways to communicate, to share, and to learn from each other.

Learn to plan and implement hybrid conferences and meetings.  For those members who can’t attend a meeting due to weather, or illness, they could still attend online as long as we also make on-site meetings online as well.  We can provide national and international speakers on-site, but online as well, saving travel costs and time, for the speaker, and the event planners. 

Speakers will be asking for the online option. Members will expect online options.  Audiences will appreciate a national or international speaker “brought in” to an event online. Audiences will appreciate the reduced travel costs through online participation in an event.

Vendors will want reasonable vendor fees reflecting a return on their investment to include options for only ads, only onsite, or only online, or all three.

Event planners will reduce their costs and yet increase the value of their event with diverse speakers on-site and online, including diversity of vendor support and interaction to meet the needs of this new speaker and audience experience.

It is a new event planning world.  Embrace it and get planning hybrid events!

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If your nonprofit sells products online, sales then are available 365 days a year: you need a vendor’s license, and must collect and file sales taxes. When determining what items you sell are taxable, talk to an accountant. Not everything sold relative to agriculture is tax free. A responsible Board and Treasurer will consult with a tax accountant in their state to ensure the Board and the organization are following all tax laws.

Disclaimer: LEAD for Pollinators, Inc. is not a CPA or attorney. For legal and accounting advice consult a licensed attorney or accountant.

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The Cleveland Pollinator and Native Plant Symposium educates and inspires homeowners, garden clubs, landscape architects and designers, horticulturists, botanists, naturalists, educators, conservationists and anyone eager to learn about creating pollinator and wildlife habitats using native plants and trees to promote biodiversity and ecological resilience.

The 6th Annual Symposium has been postponed to 2021. The site secured for the planned September 2020 date did not allow for social distancing, and was not going to open to the public until July, making it difficult to work through the process to manage events and the public in such a short time. Therefore, this exciting, educational event has been postponed for 2021 in the greater Cleveland area.

Join in the conversation in 2021 meeting with national and regional experts to increase your knowledge of pollinators, native plants and planting designs that are robust and form ecologically valuable alliances. Our focus is on shifting traditional horticultural practices to creating landscapes for beauty, biodiversity, and a sustainable ecosystem. The program encourages participants to connect, exchange ideas and share information with each other and the speakers.

Featured speakers for 2021 (dependent on continuing availability for 2021):
Ian Adams is an environmental photographer, writer and educator specializing in Ohio’s natural, rural and historical garden areas. Twenty-three books of his color photography have been published, including Ohio In Photographs: A Portrait of the Buckeye State, co-photographed with Randal Schieber and a foreward by Ohio Governor John Kasich.
Since 1989, Ian has conducted more than 200 seminars and workshops in digital photography and has produced photographs for Country Gardens, Fine Gardening, Horticulture, Living the Country Life and Organic Gardening magazines. Symposium topic: iPhone Landscape and Nature Photography David Burke is the Chief Program Officer of Science and Conservation at Holden Forests and Gardens. His primary research interest as an ecologist has been the interaction between plants and soil mircroorganisms. Of special interest are mycorrhizal fungi that form mutually beneficial relationships with plants that can enhance plant growth, diseases resistance, drought tolerance, and affect plant community composition. David believes a better understanding of how mycorrhizal fungi interact with plants will be necessary to develop sound management of ecosystems. Symposium topic: The Mysterious Mutualistic System of Mychorrizal Fungi and Why We Should Care

Laura Ekatsetya is the Director and Head Horticulturist at the renowned Lurie Garden in Millenium Park, an ecologically sensitive oasis in downtown Chicago designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and renowned Dutch designer, Piet Oudolf. Laura has been responsible for guiding Lurie Garden as it matures—maintaining the vision of the designers while leading it into a new climate era. Even though the garden is ecologically responsible by design, Laura has shifted the organization’s mindset from one of pure maintenance to one of constant improvement— challenging the garden to maximize its usefulness to the urban wildlife and human community. She has pushed the boundaries of design, experimenting with new ideas to preserve habitat for wildlife. Ekatsetya is an evangelist of the naturalistic movement, speaking world-wide and participating in the global initiative to change the way we think about gardens. Symposium topic: Wild By Intention Nadia Malarkey is a garden and landscape design professional who incorporates environmentally friendly practices to produce landscapes that enhance biodiversity and biomass, address habitat fragmentation and climate change, while enriching our experience of the changing seasons. Many of Nadia’s gardens exemplify how regenerative design, while addressing habit fragmentation and climate change, can be elegant, uplifting and enlightening. Nadia’s work has been featured in magazines and news articles, and she speaks at regional Conferences. In 2015, Nadia’s project “Regenerating Suburbia” was selected as a finalist in The Society of Garden Designers (United Kingdom) annual SGD awards for Planting Design. Symposium topic: Creating Captivating Bio-Diverse Residential Gardens: One Practitioner’s Path Of Discovery

Joel Hunt is the program administrator of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Highway Beautification and Pollinator Habitat Program. Realizing the many benefits of roadside pollinator habitats, ODOT became a founding partner of the Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative (OPHI) in 2015. In late 2016, ODOT created a fully funded standalone Highway Beautification and Pollinator Habitat Program to capture the numerous opportunities available to establish new pollinator habitat on ODOT’s right of way. Symposium topic: Ohio’s Pollinator Highway Initiatives

Kass Urban-Mead
How might you enhance your pollinator habitat…with trees? Kass Urban- Mead’s research as an entomology PhD candidate at Cornell University explores the intersection of ecological forest management and sustainable crop pollination. Her “tree-climbing for bees” (sampling in canopies) explores forest habitats as sites not only for bee nesting, but also the possibilities they are collecting the vast amounts of pollen produced by flowering forest trees. Kass has written several extension articles for outreach and extension publications, given many community workshops and outreach events. Symposium topic: The Value of Forests for Insect Pollinators

Doug Tallamy’s work has been a catalyst for change at the grass-roots level, and has formed the principles that guide how we treat our landscapes for future generations. Doug says, “Biodiversity is not optional.” He is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology and the University of Delaware, where he has taught classes in insect taxonomy, behavioral ecology, humans and nature, and insect ecology. Doug’s book Bringing Nature Home was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers Association and The Living Landscape, co-authored with Rick Darke, was published in 2014. He has won the Garden Club of American Medal for Conservation, the 2018 American Horticultural Society Communication Award and the 2019 Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award. Symposium topics: Nature’s Best Hope and Let It Be An Oak

Nadia Malarkey is a garden and landscape design professional who incorporates environmentally friendly practices to produce landscapes that enhance biodiversity and biomass, address habitat fragmentation and climate change, while enriching our experience of the changing seasons. Many of Nadia’s gardens exemplify how regenerative design, while addressing habit fragmentation and climate change, can be elegant, uplifting and enlightening. Nadia’s work has been featured in magazines and news articles, and she speaks at regional Conferences. In 2015, Nadia’s project “Regenerating Suburbia” was selected as a finalist in The Society of Garden Designers (United Kingdom) annual SGD awards for Planting Design. Symposium topic: Creating Captivating Bio-Diverse Residential Gardens: One Practitioner’s Path Of Discovery

The 2021 date will be announced on our website in February 2021. Learn more about the Sixth Annual Cleveland Pollinator and Native Plant Symposium HERE.

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A recent article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Seed Vault Holds Plan to Save World’s Crops” is apropos for our society today.  Dwindling diversity is a threat to both our food crops and also our organizations. While many people are comfortable with uniformity, that uniformity in the end will eventually doom the organization.

More than once I have been told to “stay with my own people.”  Yes, while I too may be more comfortable “with my own people”, staying in that small circle does nothing to help me improve diversity in other organizations.  I will say, from experience, sometimes there does come a time when leaving an organization, that does not want to change, is the best action.

Telling people they have to change their mindset has not reached the goal of diversity in organizations or how we care for our environment.  The demonstrations and sit-ins of the 60’s for peace and to save our environment had little long-term impact on today’s current situation.  Educating organization leadership, getting their “buy-in”, and then implementing on-going long-term training for the rest of the organization will make the difference we need.  Help be the change for diversity, both in our environment and our society.

The diversity of genetics within a hive, along with the diversity of nectar and pollen sources help provide a strong future for our favorite pollinator, the honey bee.

Grow your strength and become that 21^st Century leader by attending our conference in October.

https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/svalbard-global-seed-vault/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/plan-to-save-worlds-crops-lives-in-norwegian-bunker-11590744601

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Here are some activities to help keep boredom at bay:

Help out the local health industry (but call ahead to make sure they can utilize your creations) : https://www.joann.com/ also read: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/03/20/calling-all-people-who-sew-and-make-you-can-help-solve-2020-n95-type-mask-shortage/

“Visit” The Van Eyck exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent. See the artwork before, during and after restoration. http://closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be/

Learn a new skill. Sites such as Bluprint, Joann’s, and Michaels have many free projects available on their websites.

Boredom, hah! Who has time for that?

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Someone I text with mentioned that life at home was quiet. I’m not sure what that means – I have socks on the needles, audio books on the phone, bee equipment drying between coats of paint, piles of fabric cleaned and sorted and ready to be sewn into a new bedcover, and a to-do list that keeps reinventing itself.

The local public library has added more audio books and book downloads to their offerings due to the school closures. Check out what free on-line resources your library has to offer.

Here are some sites/articles that can help focus you and the family on productive, positive activities.

www.xerces.org/wings

stories.audible.com

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/feature/on-coronavirus-lockdown-the-top-online-museum-and-art-tours

https://www.si.edu/OpenAccess

The post Keeping Busy- Part II appeared first on Lead For Pollinators.

Ingredients:

2-3 sheets of newspaper, shred by hand

3 cup measuring cup

Seeds – about 1 T of assorted, or choose specific types for each batch

Blender, paper towels, sieve

How to:

Place shredded newspaper in measuring cup.

Fill cup with water until it covers the paper. Let it sit for about 15 minutes.

Place mixture in blender and mix until pureed.

Put sieve in sink and pour puree into it. Let it sit and drain until the consistency of a wet bread dough.

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Rip off a tablespoon size blob of the dough, add a pinch of the seeds, and roll into a ball. Press firmly the ball into silicone mold.

Sponge off excess water, and pop the seed balm out. Let dry.

These seed balms are very light when they dry. Nestle into the soil and water. Why not plant these in a design in your garden. Have separate seed balms for red, white and blue flowers? A flag design in your garden.

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