Pollination | A Pollinator Health Podcast

Listen in as we go over pesticide's effects on pollinators, the difficulties in testing, and the advantages certain insects have in fighting pesticides. “It’s a bit ironic that the most convenient organism for which to study toxicology from a logistical perspective, the honey bee, is also the most problematic one for which to interpret toxicology.“ - Doug Sponsler. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Doug-Sponsler

Listen in to learn about how urban environments affect pollinators, what homeowners and civil planners can do to improve them, and which plants and trees are best for the city. “People can even help their own local micro-habitat by shading their driveway and their house and things like that, which saves you energy to boot.“ - Steve Frank. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Steve-Frank

Listen in as we talk about the Alan’s work with GloryBee, their raising of bee awareness, and how beginning beekeepers can get started. “At the beginning those were the two tenets of what we’re still trying to achieve today: to raise and expand awareness, and raise support [for honeybees]. “ - Alan Turanski. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at bit.ly/PN-Alan-Turanski

Find out more about what you can do for pollinators at your own home, and how Al blends aesthetic and functional aspects of landscaping and pollinator habitats. “It seemed just a horrible shame to have 500-odd acres of space here on campus and have it all strictly geared toward something you look at as you pass by. We could do a better job than that.“ - Al Shay. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Al-Shay

Listen in as we talk about the bee population of Canada, her new captive breeding project, and how citizen science positively impacts her research. “He surveyed a wide variety of people, and the vast majority of them think bees are important but nobody really knows what a bee is versus what a fly is.“ - Sarah Johnson. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at bit.ly/PN-Sarah-Johnson

In today’s episode, we will learn about Skyler’s work with pollinators, his projects with citizen scientists, and how you can get started in taxonomy. “Things like ‘Bees In Your Backyard’ are really helpful, but until you have the bee in your hand, it’s really difficult to know what you’ve got.“ - Skyler Burrows. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at bit.ly/PN-Skyler-Burrows

Listen in to this episode to learn about how you can keep your colonies safe from varroa mites, and what tools you can use to prevent and manage them. “It’s not if your colony has varroa mites, that’s not the question you should be asking. You should be asking how many mites does my colony have? ” - Dr. Dewey M. Caron. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at bit.ly/PN-Dr-Dewey-M-Caron

We will be talking about mosquito abatement techniques, their effect on pollinator health, and the research Kristen’s team has done to keep them safe. “They really wanted to know if what they were doing with mosquito control was killing bees, so they asked if we could help address that topic.” - Kristen Healy. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Kristen-Healy

Listen in to learn George's experience as a land manager, good practice in cultivating pollinator habitats, and his work in the advocacy of pollinators. “We’re creating in many areas what are virtually pollinator deserts.“ - George Hansen. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-George-Hansen

Listen in to learn more about the Oregon Flora Project, and the amazing benefits their research and data collection has on pollinators. “The Oregon Flora Project is striving to make information useful and relevant…to a broad sector of the population.“ - Linda Hardison Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at bit.ly/PolliNation-22

Dr. Jim Rivers is a vertebrate ecologist and leader of the Forest Animal Ecology Lab at Oregon State University. With broad research interests that are focused in the fields of animal behavior and physiological ecology, his research program combines observational, experimental, and comparative approaches to test predictions from theory in empirical settings. He recently lead the Pollinators in Managed Forests workshop, which brought together speakers from Oregon State, Washington State, Montana State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to address a variety of topics, including the influence of wildfire severity, salvage logging, herbicides and practical ways to augment blooms for native bees. We’re talking today about how pollinator habitats and forests coexist and work with each other, the ways that bees thrive in forested areas, and how he and others in the field have begun researching the interaction of pollinators in forested areas. “There’s a lot more that we don’t know about bees in managed forests t

Erin Udal leads community pollinator conservation projects out of Vancouver, BC and was formerly the Program Manager and Pollinator Specialist with the Environmental Youth Alliance. With her background in conservation biology, she designs bee-friendly gardens and develops citizen science projects, working to help people protect pollinators in our backyards and parks. Erin finds facilitating hands-on outdoor education very rewarding, and always pleased to share the fascinating and diverse world of native bees with anyone who cares to learn. On today's episode, we talk with Erin Udal about developing citizen science projects, working to help people protect pollinators in our backyards and parks. “I think it was Carl Sagan that said, ’Science is not so much a body of information, but a way of thinking’, and so I want people to feel like they are part of that way of thinking.“ - Erin Udal. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PolliNation-20

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.