Pollination | A Pollinator Health Podcast

David Phipps is considered one of the Northwest’s leaders in golf course environmental stewardship and innovation. While working as the superintendent at Stone Creek Golf, he received the GCSAA President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship in 2012, as well as the 2004-2005 Cooperator of the Year by the Clackamas County Soil and Water Conservation District. David received a Bachelor of Science Degree from Oregon State University in Horticulture, Turf and Landscape Management, and currently works for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America as the NW Region Field Staff Representative. Today we’re talking about pollinator habitats curated within golf courses, how they can best be utilized, and David’s amazing contributions to conservation and the golf industry. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Lynn A. Royce, Ph.D. did her doctoral research on tracheal mites of honey bees and has studied pollinators for over 30 years. She is a passionate scientist who cares deeply about implementing research in practical applications to improve honey bee health. In this episode, we talk about her organization Tree Hive Bees, and how you can perform “bee-lining” to trace wild bees back to their colonies in trees. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Ellie Andrews is a PhD student in Development/Rural Sociology at Cornell University. As honey bees across the US face a range of challenges, keeping bees healthy and productive requires ever more skill and investment. Her research seeks to understand the sociological dimensions of these educational imperatives: how are new beekeepers learning to keep bees and how are experienced ones adapting to new challenges?  For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Ellen Topitzhofer works for the Bee Informed Partnership, an innovative organization across the U.S. that works with commercial bee keepers to tackle some of their most pressing pest management issues. In this episode, we discuss the unique pest issues in the Pacific Northwest, and explore the universal problem of varroa mites in bee colonies. We talk about how best to manage those pests, the relationship of the mites to the bees and pollination patterns, and more. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Jen Holt is the brand new Coordinator for the Oregon Master Beekeeper Program at OSU. In this episode, we’ll learn about how Jen got interested in bees, what she sees for the future of the program, and the ins and outs of how the program functions today. We discuss beekeeping education from the start to the master - how to take a regular person and turn them into a beekeeper. Jen is co-appointed to the OSU Pollinator Health Program, so we talk about creating synergy between the two programs. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Bee habitat in agricultural landscapes is key element in any good strategy for pollinator health. But farmers have a lot going on and may not have clear answers to some important pollination questions. Our guest is here to help us with these issues. Jessa Kay Cruz is the Senior Pollinator Conservation Specialist for California with the Xerces Society. Based in Sacramento, Jessa works closely with landowners and farmers, developing strategies for overcoming misconceptions when it comes to pollinators and their habitats. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Ruth Marsh is a multidisciplinary artist based out of Halifax, NS. Her work uses absurd and often comically deadpan narratives to address loss, absence and longing in the context of living creatures and the natural world. She is interested in investigating themes of environmental loss through labour intensive meditations on transformation: life to death, experience to memory and the surrealistic degradation of information that occurs with each successive change of state. In this episode, we talk about her work repairing bees. She creates these labor-intensive repairs using found objects, and uses exhibitions of the work to bring together people from the scientific and art community. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Scott is an Assistant Professor of Urban Ecology at the University of Toronto at Scarborough in the Department of Biological Sciences. Scott is also a researcher at the Green Roof Innovation Testing (GRIT) lab at the University of Toronto in the faculty of Landscape Architecture. Scott has published 12 peer-reviewed articles on green roof ecology and performance, and works with the City of Toronto Planning Division on a number of projects, which have included the 'Bees of Toronto' Biodiversity Series book, and the 'Guidelines for Biodiverse Green Roofs'. Today we’re talking about the Bees of Toronto book, what makes the city special for pollinators, and why urban habitats are so important for bee conservation. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Laura Taylor works for The West Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District. In this episode, find what happens when a local government wants to do something to help pollinator health. As a conservation technician and an educational coordinator, Laura created an innovative program to monitor wild pollinators around restoration sites. Learn how she got the monitoring program off the ground, what you can do for landowners wanting to help create pollinator habitats, and how they teach people to identify pollinators. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Aimee Code is the Pesticide Program Director at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. During her career she has worked in urban and agricultural setting to mitigate the risks of pesticide use and promote integrated pest management programs. She also works with communities ​around the country to implement policies and practices to restore dwindling pollinator populations.​ Today we discuss how to mitigate the use of chemicals and pesticides on farms and around pollinator habitats, as well as what to do when you have to use chemicals. We talk about the best places to build and locate pollinator habitat, and more. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Dr. Meghan Milbrath began working bees with her father as a child over 20 years ago, and now owns and manages The Sand Hill Apiary, a small livestock and queen rearing operation in Munith, Michigan. Meghan is active in multiple beekeeping organizations, writes for multiple beekeeping journals, and speaks about bees all over the country. She currently runs the Northern Bee Network, a directory and resource site dedicated to supporting queen producers, and she is passionate about keeping and promoting healthy bees. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Today on the podcast talk about bumblebees in agriculture. Dr. Sujaya Rao is a Professor in Entomology at Oregon State University. Her research covers IPM in field crops and native bee pollinators in diverse cropping systems and in native habitats. A serendipitous discovery made by her led to development of a new bee monitoring tool. She has also documented the presence of overwintering sites and nests of bumble bees in agricultural landscapes. Results from her studies on native bee abundance, overwintering and nesting of bumble bees provide evidence that, contrary to the perspective that agricultural landscapes are detrimental to native bee populations, the diversity of cropping systems in western Oregon has enabled native bumble bees to flourish. Dr. Rao is also actively engaged in insect outreach in K-12 classrooms and at public events. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Today on the show we explore bees and their social impact. In 2012, Sarah Common co-founded Hives for Humanity Society, alongside her mother, Julia, in response to a gap she saw in opportunities for connection to nature, to community and to meaningful work for marginalized citizens. She has coordinated partnerships between a variety of organizations and businesses, developing programming that builds self-worth and community pride. We talk about how it got founded, how it works, and tips for other groups looking to do something similar in their communities. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Dr. Dave Smitley is a professor and researcher at Michigan State University. He works with the turf grass and nursery industries to deal with emerging pest problems, and the greenhouse industry to grow plants in ways that are safe around pollinators. In this episode we talk about practical tips as well as national initiatives to protect pollinators in urban landscapes. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Mike Burgett is the Emeritus Professor of Entomology at OSU, where he has taught since 1974. He has conducted a huge amount of work on apiculture research, including a survey of beekeepers and growers in the Pacific Northwest of the US, which is our main topic for today. We’ll discuss pollination markets as they are today, the history of beekeepers in this region, the unique pollination scenarios in the Pacific Northwest. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Dr. David Lowenstein is a post-doc researcher at Oregon State University’s Department of Horticulture. Today we talk about his fascinating research on urban pollinators during his time in Chicago. We discuss biodiversity in a city, what property owners can do to attract pollinators, and the unique challenges of urban bee research. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Utah, Dr. Joseph Wilson has coauthored a marvelous book called The Bees in Your Backyard. We discuss the book in detail in the interview, including how to tell bees apart from other insects, common bee myths, and more. Joseph has conducted research on evolution and ecology of bees and wasps, and frequently guests on radio and news media to discuss this increasingly hot topic. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

Today’s episode is all about getting the public involved in surveying and identifying different species of bees. Dr Elaine Evans is our guest. She’s the new Extensions Educator working on bee conservation at University of Minnesota. She has been working on education and advocacy for native pollinators for a long time, and is the lead on a fascinating project called the Minnesota Bumblebee Survey. Listen in to this episode to understand how you can get involved in some important citizen science initiatives. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

“A hairy vegetarian wasp.” That’s how professor Francis Ratnieks of the University of Sussex describes the bee. Professor Ratnieks has done a lot of research on bees, from honeybee biology to practical solutions for beekeepers and homeowners interested in encouraging pollinators. This wide-ranging interview is full of tips for how to select pollinator plants, reasons for becoming a beekeeper, and common myths that people have about bees. For more, visit us at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu.

PolliNation is a podcast from Oregon State University Extension Service that tells the stories of researchers, land managers and concerned citizens who are making bold strides to improve the health of pollinators. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at agsci.oregonstate.edu/pollinator-health.