58 Pollinators and their People: The voices of Oregon Pollinator Week 2018

Speaker 1: From the Oregon State University Extension Service, this is Pollination, a podcast that tells the stories of researchers, land managers, and concerned citizens making bold strides to improve the health of pollinators. I'm your host, Dr. Adoni Melopoulos, assistant professor in pollinator health in the Department of Horticulture.

Oregon just hosted the largest Pollinator Week event in its history, perhaps one of the largest in the country in 2018 this past June. And I thought it would be a great opportunity to catch up with some of the people involved with the more than 20 events that took place across the state. In this episode, you're going to hear the voices of some of the people who organized those events or were involved with those events starting with the event in Klamath Falls with Nicole Sanchez from OSU Extension and Akimi King from US Fish and Wildlife Service. Then we travel to Corvallis to the farmers market where we catch up with Master Gardner and Oregon Beatless volunteer Rich Little and Tim Weinach from the Lynn Benton County Beekeepers. And then down the road to Eugene where we talk with Pam Levitt from the Lane County Beekeepers and Allison Center from the North American Butterfly Association. Finally, we traveled across the Cascades to the final event of Pollinator Week at the High Desert Museum where we caught up with Margaret Marshall who's talking about monarch butterflies, and Louise Shirley who is a natural history curator with the High Desert Museum. It's a great episode to hear about different ideas on how to engage the public around pollinators. So I am in Klamath Falls with Nicole Sanchez. What's your title, Nicole?

Speaker 2: Assistant Professor of Horticulture and I'm at the Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center here in Klamath Falls.

Speaker 1: Now you've organized this really great event. We're just at the lunch break right now but this room was packed at the Klamath Falls Museum.

Speaker 2: So cool to see so many kids out here checking out pollinators and as we were saying earlier how sophisticated they are and really do know a lot about some of these insects already. So we tried to challenge them a little bit by showing for instance some of the bee mimic flies that work and seeing if the kids could distinguish between a bee and a fly or a bee in a wasp and we had a lot of fun with looking at them under the microscope for things like that. How did that go? I think it went really well. The kids really liked that and they really liked checking out things like the Ocele. A couple of kids wanted to see if we could find some stingers and we were able to see a few stingers and gave me a chance to mention that those are ovipositors and kind of talk about that. Lots of really good questions. A couple of kids picked up on the pollen baskets. Oh, fantastic.

Speaker 1: Yeah. I thought it was a really great exercise. You had like a, well put this on the show notes, you had like a little picture, you had a little card with the two specimens and microscopes set up. Yes.

Speaker 2: So what we found out is that kids are absolutely drawn to microscopes and really like that opportunity to explore. So when we're out collecting for the bee project, we try to get a few extra specimens that we can share with the kids and it's gone over hugely to allow them to actually handle the specimens and try to work the microscopes themselves. So we picked some pretty simple microscopes that they wouldn't have too much trouble with and some of the kids spent a really long time checking them out.

Speaker 1: So the other thing I was really, when I came in here this morning was you had this, this really wonderful insect collection here at the museum.

Speaker 2: So I was so excited that we got an opportunity to see that this collection was put together in the 1930s and the eight or nine trays that are out today represent about half of the collection that this person put together. So I'm looking forward to learning more about it, but as we work our way through the bee project, won't it be cool to look and see the diversity of species we have now and compare that to this collection that was put together almost a hundred years ago now and see how that flushes out. It's really awesome that we have this reference collection to be able to look back on it. I noticed a lot of the kids were spending a lot of time looking at those insects.

Speaker 1: They're amazing. Well, it must be for people in the Atlas here in Klamath Falls just knowing that you're going to be the next, you know, there was a big pulse of sampling in the 30s and now it's almost a hundred years later. Some of this, you're in such a biodiverse-rich part of the state.

Speaker 2: Yes, I've been really interested in the diversity of bees that we're seeing here and in terms of diversity of pollinators in general, one thing that I'm picking up on is that it appears that flies are really important pollinators during the cooler parts of our season, which here in Klamath is a pretty good portion of it. But, you know, I noticed last year when we were piloting this and it seems to be holding again. So I'm actually collecting some of those flies and even some of the wasps and building an ancillary collection to what we're doing with the bee project. But when the weather is cool, it seems like there are a lot more flies out pollinating than there are bees. So I think they're probably playing a pretty important role.

Speaker 1: Well, and I saw you, the other thing that I saw today was some of the some of the bees and flies that you'd collected here as the group. You sort of put them on display for the public to see what you're doing.

Speaker 2: Yes, so we're trying to build a collection of other pollinators to complement what we're doing with the bee project. As a very generalist entomologist, I'm really interested in that whole range of different things that are out there pollinating. And it's also really fun to take note of how many of the flies look like bees.

Speaker 1: Yeah, you could have put some of those that exercise with kids and really kind of stumped even the adults.

Speaker 2: Yes, so they have to take a close look at the antenna and number of wings to be able to see that. So it's a great introduction to entomology and it really opens people's perspective up when they realize the diversity that's there when you look up close.

Speaker 1: I guess the other thing that's going on in climate these days is monarchs. This is part of the western migration corridor.

Speaker 2: Yes, so we have a Kimi king who works with wildlife and fisheries and has also been here participating in our pollinator day. And here at the museum, it's one of our official collecting sites for the bee projects. It's also an official site for Monarch Way Station and collection. So the museum's a little involved in that as well.

A Kimi is doing rearing. She's reaching out to the public quite a bit in terms of what they can do to support monarchs and has a great array of things for the kids to do to kind of help them understand the role of monarchs in nature and what they're doing and what kids can do to help. I think they really like the seed bombs for instance.

Speaker 1: Yeah, lots of great engaging activities around here and lots going on here in Klamath Falls. It's really wonderful.

Speaker 2: Yes, I am so glad that we have this great team of volunteers that's been out here collecting and helping support events like this and we're all excited about learning more about bees and it's been a really good team effort. We have a lot of folks working on this. Great job. All right, well thanks for having us.

Speaker 1: All right, how's it going?

Speaker 3: Hi, Anthony. My name is A Kimi King with the US Fisher Wildlife Service here in Klamath Falls, Oregon. I work for the Klamath Falls Fisher Wildlife Office and I'm doing monarch outreach and education as well as building monarch waystations with schools and parks a women's shelter and on trails here at Oregon Tech. Lots of different businesses. We have a community garden monarch waystation. I've been working with garden clubs and such.

Speaker 1: So you've got lots going on here in Klamath Falls. There are a lot of people interested in pollinators and we were just hosting this great activity at the pollinator festival here in Klamath Falls. Tell us a little bit about the activity.

Speaker 3: Sure, so I came along with my two high school interns, Fox from Chiliquin and Sonia from Klamath Union High School and we came to celebrate with the Klamath County Museum and Oregon Bee Project to celebrate National Pollinator Week, which is a national event and so we brought some children's activities. The kids got to make some native plant seed bombs and they love doing it too.

Speaker 1: Yes, it's a great project for kids to get dirty, get to hands dirty, learn a little bit about the benefits of planting native plants in their garden and they get to have a fun way of bombing their garden with these seed bombs. And you had some great, you were also giving away seeds. Tell us a little bit about the plants you were.

Speaker 3: Sure, so for the past few years I've been working with monarch butterflies and everyone knows that monarchs need milkweed and I have various milkweed plants around that I planted here in the Klamath Basin. So we're giving away native narrow-leaf milkweed seeds and showing milkweed seeds here to anybody interested in doing something good for monarchs.

Speaker 1: That's fantastic. You know, one other thing I really loved about the display is I saw lots of kids there with crayons drawing butterflies. Describe that activity to us.

Speaker 3: Sure, so I like to engage kids, young kids, and old kids as well. Parents get to participate as well and I have these insect plates and they, I have butterflies and wasps and bees and all kinds of insects, and the kids pick the insects and put this elevated plate underneath the piece of paper and they rub a crayon on the surface of it and it makes an impression and it's a really quick and simple educational tool and something the kids can take home. I have them write the name of the species on the front. They could, and you could tailor it towards any sort of like I do it on Mother's Day at our International Magatary Burntay and you could theme it out to whatever species that you're trying to promote or educate about, and on the back they, you know, they learn as they're doing their insect revving. You talk about the difference between bees and flies and wasps and bees and butterflies and, you know, insects and spiders and so it's a great educational tool.

Speaker 1: The thing I really liked about it, was it was also quick. It didn't, a lot of these, a lot of people who are doing pollinator events this week, have a high volume of people coming through and you really need to be able to get somebody engaged.

Speaker 3: Yep, shuffle them through. Yeah, yeah, it's great really, and anyway, they have, I bought them through Acor Naturalist and they have a series of track plates, insect plates, bird plates, animal skins, and plates, so there's a variety of educational tools and I always look for the quick and easy ones to shuffle people through like that as well.

Speaker 1: Maybe just in closing, tell us a little bit about the importance of butterfly conservation here in the county.

Speaker 3: Sure, so my interest in monarchs came about three years ago when present or several years ago, President Obama put out a monarch initiative and I worked in the schoolyard habitat program and partners for fish and wildlife program and because we're always so underfunded in outreach and education, it's not a high priority. It's very important to educate people, children, and our citizens about pollinators, but still, it's very rare that we have a pollinator monarch initiative come about, so I thought, well, I wonder if we have monarch butterflies here in Clamette County. So I remember 20 years ago on this trail that I worked on, I'd seen this patch of milkweed and it was like late summer, so I went out to this patch of milkweed that I remembered from 20 years prior and thought, how can I incorporate this monarch initiative into my schoolyard habitat program and so I went there.

After work, I drove out there and I found the patch it was still there remarkably as a long railroad track and I found fish stars, instar caterpillars, and monarch caterpillars there. I go, whoa, we have monarchs here in Clamette Falls and so that's when it all started and then yeah, I've been collecting seeds, working with our local nurseries and gardeners and garden clubs and master gardeners and private landowners and schools to plant milkweed for monarch butterflies.

Speaker 1: And you were describing that this is on the flyway to California for the Western population.

Speaker 3: Yes, so Clamette Falls is a very important place, or Southern Oregon in general is a very important place for migrating monarch butterflies. We have the fourth generation here, probably third and fourth generation that come here in the Clamette Falls area and they actually, the fourth generation is the fourth, the generation that overwinners in the coast of California region, and last year I tagged 114 butterflies from my little patch, my little, it's about nine by five patch of narrow-leaf milkweed in my yard and from that I got 114 adults that I controlled reared and of those 114 I had five tag recoveries in the coast of California last winter. I'm working collaboratively with the Western population monarch study through Dr. David James at Washington State University. So he's got a couple of papers coming out on citizen science and the importance of citizens getting involved and tracking and learning more about the life histories of monarch butterflies. So it's a great little fun project for families to get involved with plant milkweed and they will come back hopefully.

Speaker 1: I'm so impressed with everything I see in Clamette Falls. You guys are all working really hard and getting a lot done.

Speaker 3: Well thank you. It's great to have you here teaching us about native bees and pollinators.

Speaker 1: My pleasure and enjoy. I'm having a great time here. I guess we should get back and catch some bees with some of the people out there. Sounds great. I'm here with volunteer extraordinaire Rich Little. Rich you are doing this great display here on native bees at the Corvallis farmers market. Tell us a little bit about what you're going to be telling people today.

Speaker 4: Well I'm hoping that we can show people basically some of the differences between a bee and a wasp. Yeah, so many times people are at the picnic and they blame everything on the bees when it's really the wasp.

Speaker 1: They do. It's true. Yes. How are you going to show people that?

Speaker 4: I'm going to show them because I have a display here that shows various types of wasps that we have here in Oregon and Maryland. It displays these shows of various types of bees and you can see some of the physical differences between them.

Speaker 1: The display is really stunning. You've got not only a lot of beautifully pinned specimens but also some of the nest material as well.

Speaker 4: That is correct. So each bee has a different nesting system and I have several of them here so people can see.

Speaker 1: It's a national pollyre it's a big event that happens right around the country. Are there other key messages that you're trying to get across? You're also part of the bee atlas so you've been working with a lot of dedicated volunteers.

Speaker 4: Yes I think the pollinator national pollinator week is very important because it gives us an opportunity to remind people what the role the pollinators play in their health. Yeah because they are worried about having the right kind of food for themselves and their family. Pollinators are behind a big part of that.

Speaker 1: That's so true and I guess being here at the Corvallis Farmers Market one of the most remarkable farmers markets. This is when I got here from Canada this was like three-four blocks of paddus here from right across the valley.

Speaker 4: As a matter of fact you just made me think if you wanted to see what this farmers market would look like if the pollinators were not around you'd have to step over several streets where no market.

Speaker 1: That's right you should use that today. You want to see what it's like without the pollinators going down on the other side of the highway there.

Speaker 4: If you're interested in beekeeping we happen to be right next door to the Lynn Benton Beekeepers Association and down from that it's a master gardeners group for Benton County so if you have any questions about bee pollinators plans come on down.

Speaker 1: This is a great thing about this event at Corvallis. I remember it happened last year as well as master gardeners the beekeeping association and the Oregon Bee Project together one little station you get a lot of information on bees.

Speaker 4: Right you will be delighted to see you all down here. It's a great day too beautiful day.

Speaker 1: It looks like people are starting to arrive so better let you go. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. My pleasure. Okay, we're at the Corvallis farmers market with Tim Whiteronic from Lynn County Beekeepers. Lynn Benton. Lynn Benton. Lynn Benton.

I like that going together. So tell us a little bit about what you're going to be doing here. They're just setting up. Tell us what you're planning to do here at the farmers market.

Speaker 5: Well we're going to have a display with an observation hive, a frame of honey information on bees, and just some pictures showing you know if we didn't have our bees what you know the grocery stores would look like. Yeah. Without all the fruits and vegetables we didn't have our bees.

Speaker 1: You've been tabling at pollinator week for a couple of years now what are some of the common questions that you get from people what are people kind of curious about?

Speaker 5: What plants they can put in their yard and you know what they can do to get started in beekeeping so that's what we're here for is to you know people that are interested in starting to beekeeping you know about giving them information about our club and what you know we can provide to help them be successful with their bees.

Speaker 1: You guys got a really great one-pager on plants to plants but what do you tell people when they come? I imagine you get lots of people like I want to start beekeeping you what do you tell them?

Speaker 5: The biggest thing is we tell them to you know to start coming to the meetings and also to be sure to take a go to a bee school so that they're before they get their bees so that they kind of have an idea of what to expect and be successful.

Speaker 1: So last question is how are the bees doing in this part of the world this year? How are honeybees doing? They seem to be doing pretty good.

Speaker 5: The people I've been talking to have been getting quite a bit of honey on their hives. My mine are doing really good so it sounds like they're doing good. Bees and blackberries are kind of on their way out but there's still some out there.

Speaker 1: You were telling me you also had some bees on vetch this year and they're just packing it in.

Speaker 5: Oh yeah they're bringing in lots of honey.

Speaker 1: We'll have a great year and thanks for being such an advocate for National Pollinator Week. You bet. All right okay we're at the Eugene Science Center with Pam Levitt of Lane County Beekeepers. Tell us this is a real exciting this is uh we're the thick of National Pollinator Week and uh you guys have a great display here. Tell us a little bit about what's going on in your display.

Speaker 6: All right well we started planning this probably about five months ago.

Speaker 1: Yeah you guys are one of the first people to respond.

Speaker 6: Yes we were just so excited to be able to do this and we took it to our board and we talked to the Lane County Beekeeper Association Board and said we got to do this. We hit up Glory Bee to give us we had the idea of the hide boxes to stencil effort kids to paint and then be able to donate those to the Oregon Bee Project at the Oregon State Beekeeper Association and a meeting at the end of October. Nice. So we decided to do that and then we talked about all the other things that

Speaker 1: we could do. So I'm looking I'm looking over so the boxes are right there and kids have been coming up and they've been painting on the box and so you've got butterflies, you've got bees, you've got some cool phrases on there.

Speaker 6: Yes we do. We have ladybugs and butterflies and honeybees and flowers and we've kind of layered it like the flowers start at the bottom like they would be growing on the ground and the next layer of the box has bees and flowers and then the top layer is all just flying things that fly and they've all been stenciled. One of our members actually our treasurer came to my house one day and found some stencils so she and I spent probably three hours stenciling all of these things on those boxes. And then we brought it today for the kids to paint. We found the markers are actually oil-based Sharpies, and they're great. So they're not going to just wash away when whoever buys this, hopefully for a lot of money, to go, because the money will all go to the Orgabee Project. It should stay painted for a long, long, long time.

Speaker 1: Well, that's one thing that some of the other activities we've been talking about this week is having things that are kid-friendly. We did a Play-Doh activity here where people were building a bee, and the one thing I realized is that Play-Doh can become very messy very quickly. But with the markers, that allows people to really kind of quickly adopt a little motif to draw, and then they can go on and enjoy some of the other activities.

Speaker 6: Yes, yes, they can. Well thought out. That's very cool. Well, I love it that you sat here and talked about the different parts of a bee, and the little girl who made the bee, and then put the flowers, and she put the underneath.

She said that was the honey. That's amazing. And the ability, the beauty of what you've done with the Play-Doh, whether it's what you want to do or not in the future, is that their imaginations can really dictate what they're going to do. Oh, yeah. That's what we did, I think it's wonderful, but it is stenciled.

You know, so I mean, it's already kind of pre-done what we wanted them to paint. But this, I think this is, I don't think you should, I don't think you should stop. I think you need to buy Play-Doh in a lot bigger containers. Maybe that's what you'll use the money for, from our hives.

Speaker 1: The Play-Doh fund. Yes, the Play-Doh fund. Well, I also, beekeeping clubs around the state, but also the nation get involved in doing activities, outreach activities. It strikes me that beekeeping clubs have a lot of responsibilities. They have to train new beekeepers, but they also have to train the public and talk to the public.

Speaker 6: We do. We feel it's very important for the Honey Bee that people get educated about the plight of the bees and encourage people. One of the things that I loved a number of years back, Dr. Ramesh Sagali came to one of our meetings and he said, you know, I'm not so sure that the Honey Bee will become extinct, but he held, and of course, this audience at Lane County Beekeepers, three-quarters of us all have gray hair. And he goes, but beekeepers may. And so it really triggered the need to get involved where children can become knowledgeable about bees and not wait until the retirement years to say, oh, I'd like to be a beekeeper. We want to trigger that interest in beekeeping in young people.

Speaker 1: That's fantastic. So what have been some of the memorable things that you people have asked you today?

Speaker 6: Oh, wow. What have they asked us today? I think they asked you the best questions. The gentleman who was quite interested in the bumblebees was great. Oh, yeah. And I think just the sheer fact that right here on the grounds of the Science Center, you were able to take your net and go along that little free waterway there that it actually will flow back into Alton Baker and then into the Willamette River. And you were able to find all these really fascinating bees.

Speaker 1: There were some pretty crazy bees out there.

Speaker 6: Then you shared with us.

Speaker 1: I think that in the audience, I think the people that came really enjoyed those. And I saw those people holding them and they were just loving it. It is one thing. I imagine you run into that all the time. People encounter bees and they're maybe scared of them and kind of like breaking that down for people.

Speaker 6: Yes. Yes. And I think it is very true. I just got a call yesterday because when they Google beekeeping in Lane County, Lane County beekeepers, my number comes up. And it is just our home phone. But anyway, when I answered the phone, she said, Is this the beekeeper's?

And I say yes. And she says, I have a tree that has ivy growing up, which that's not good for the tree. But she says, every once in a while, these bumblebees, a bumblebee comes out of it.

And she said, is there some way that somebody would like to come? I don't want to hurt them. But somebody came and got the bumblebees. And I said, so what are the, what's the problem with the bumblebees? And she said, well, there really is one.

Yeah. And I said, you know, they are so gentle. I said they're little gentle giants. And I said, they're not, they can sting, but they're not likely to sting you. And I said they're not like a honeybee swarm that's going to come out in massive numbers. And she said, no, no, this just an occasional one comes and goes. I said, why don't you just let them be there? That's great.

Yeah. And she said, well, you know, my daughter who's 23 said she'd like to maybe someday be a beekeeper. I said, well, bring her to the event. So I told her where we were going to be today. And I don't know if she's going to come.

Speaker 1: Fantastic, Pam. Well, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Welcome. Okay. I am at the Eugene Science Center with the Allison Center from the North American Butterfly Association. Hi.

Speaker 7: Yeah, we're having a good time here learning about pollinators.

Speaker 1: Well, we've done, we've talked with Snap before. We had an interview with you, but tell us a little bit about what you're telling people who come by the table today.

Speaker 7: Well, today we're emphasizing education and we have educational materials for young and old. So from two years old up to a hundred, we have different interesting things.

Speaker 1: If you're one year old, forget it. We don't have anything for you.

Speaker 7: Well, you could still have fun if you're one.

Speaker 1: You could. I can see right there you've got lots of great coloring pages for people. And there's a great one over there showing different life cycles of the monarch.

Speaker 7: And yeah, we have a monarch life cycle wheel that you could make. We have some information if you want to plant a garden for butterflies or bees are both. We have charts on what you can plant. And we have T-shirts if you want to show the world that you love butterflies. We have some colorful butterfly T-shirts.

Speaker 1: I'm going to get one. I remember the last time you came into my office with the interview. You also had that shirt, I believe.

Speaker 7: Yes, I think I chose the same one today. Yeah, I went back and forth on whether would it be the Ackman Blue or the Claudius Parnation.

Speaker 1: And you chose the Ackman blue. So what is the kind of key message you want to get out to people National Pollinator Week is kind of a call to action and getting people to do things. What's the kind of message that you're getting out to people today?

Speaker 7: Well, depending on the butterfly species, some are doing just fine. Like the swallowtails that you might see flying around. The big yellow and black striped butterflies. But then others like the monarchs, probably people have heard in the news, are not doing as well. And so we have different things you can do to help monarchs. We have milkweed seeds available. We have information on how to grow it because the milkweed seeds need to actually be cold and wet for a while. So you either need to plant them directly in the fall. Or if you want to get started in the spring, then you need to put them in the refrigerator, you know, damn paper towel. For a few months or weeks during the winter.

Speaker 1: Okay, habitat, you're telling them to do stuff, you're telling them how to plant stuff?

Speaker 7: Yeah, so one thing Naba found in, I think it was in Florida, was that there was a rather rare butterfly not doing so well because its host plant was, you know, disappearing through development. But then just by great good fortune, that plant caught on with people as a garden plant. And so many people planted in their garden that that butterfly rebounded.

So that's one message we'd like people to know. It's not to despair, but that everybody with a little garden with a few native species and some nectar plants can actually make a difference. It has actually been shown to make a difference for butterfly species that enough small gardens add up to a good habitat.

Speaker 1: And I guess that's the trick in education, is you do have a number of species of concern, and really those host plants are very specific. And like for some of the bees at the table next door here that we're, we have a lot of generalists.

Speaker 7: Yes, that's right. Some butterflies like the gray hairstreak are more general, but other butterflies like the monarchs do need the milkweed. Another educational point is that if you're growing host plants expect that caterpillars will eat them, that's what you want.

That's the point. Yes, we have heard of some stories where people may, there's all these little things crawling and eating our plants. You want to say, no, that's good. That was why you planted it. So your butterfly garden may not always be spectacular. It might be a little raggedy. And you might have that for some bees like leafcutter bees. You might have, these cute little round holes in your rose leaves.

Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. Seems like you've got a color that's come up to your table. So thank you so much for taking the time and thank you so much for contributing to Oregon Polymater Week.

Speaker 7: Well, thank you. Thanks for coming by and talking to us.

Speaker 1: Okay, I'm at the High Desert Museum with Margaret Marshall and you are doing a monarch activity here. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing.

Speaker 8: Well, there's a widespread concern about the diminishing of the monarch migration. The western migration in the last 10 years has been reduced by 90%. And so volunteers here in the band area have been involved in planting wayside gardens. It's essential for the butterfly larvae to feed on milkweed. So in the gardens that we're establishing both in the community and on our private property is an effort to grow milkweed and other pollinator plants that will attract the butterflies. So we're referring people to the Wayside Garden program, which exists throughout the United States. And we've been successful in many respects here in the band area. One school, the sister's middle school actually had a butterfly that they tagged. Migrate was spotted in California.

Speaker 1: Oh, and that's what the book there, the name of the book.

Speaker 8: Journey's Flight. Journey's Flight is a book that was developed by a teacher, Suzie Wert, and an author in the community. And it's available through what is it, the big book of Amazon.

Speaker 1: Amazon, right. Yeah, so. And we have to have her on one of the shows in the future.

Speaker 8: Yeah, oh, that'd be great. Well, she's worked with Professor Dr. James from Washington, Wazoo, Washington State. And they have a program to restore minor populations there among the inmates. So it's something that's really grabbed people's attention. And we hope that more people become involved.

Speaker 1: And I see you're also giving away some seeds today. So for people who are coming by, you've got lots of literature, but also some CPACs with the host plant, the milkweed.

Speaker 8: Seed packets have been prepared by volunteers like me. They're grown by the U.S. Forest Service at the Clarno Garden and also by private gardeners who have contributed their seed to the extract, was an extractatory organization here in Bend.

Speaker 1: Well, Margaret, it looks like we're starting to get a wave of people here. And I noticed some people are trying to pick up some of these, these great coloring pages that you have. So we should probably let you get back to it.

Speaker 8: Okay, be sure to the Marnark Waystations. Go to www.marnarkwatch .org.

Speaker 1: And get your waystation up and running. Right. All right. Thanks, Margaret. We're at the last event in Oregon Pollinator Week. I'm here with Louis Shirley, who is the Curator of Natural History here at the High Desert Museum.

And we've seen a lot of people come through. There's lots of, there were lots of bees here at the High Desert Museum. And I get, you know, some people, I was my first time at the High Desert Museum. Tell us a little bit about the museum. It's a unique museum in Oregon.

Speaker 9: The High Desert Museum tries to connect visitors to the natural and cultural history of the region. We're highly interdisciplinary because of that aim. And we are not what people may typically expect from a museum in that we also have a live wildlife collection here. All native mammals, reptiles, fish, and birds. We have a raptor center, an otter exhibition, a bobcat, and porcupines on display as well.

So we really have that diversity and try to connect people and give them hands-on, memorable experiences with wildlife. And we also have a living history area where folks can connect with 1904 characters who stay in character while you're interacting with them. And it really sort of takes people into history, living history. And so they have a very immersive experience here. And our aim really is to sort of deepen people's understanding and appreciation of this region, kind of with the hope that then that will lead to stewardship and engagement, whether it's political, whether it's planting something in your garden, but inspiring people to take actions that are meaningful to them, but based and inspired on what they've encountered here at the museum.

The high desert is really unique, it's a broad region, but it's unique in its characteristics, it supports an abundance of life and we want to connect people just how special this region is.

Speaker 1: And the one thing I experienced today was lots of people coming by who had subscriptions who were here. They come once a month with their families, lots of kids. We had some pollinator activities in the museum, but we walked out where we are standing right now. We're in, right in this ecosystem.

Speaker 9: Yes, so we're based in about 130 acres of Ponderosa Pine forest. And that's fantastic because people walk out of the museum, the main museum, and they're immediately immersed in the forest. We also have a riparian area, as you can see the aspen trees there, leading down to the otter exhibit. So it's a really nice natural setting and the perfect place for us to connect people with the outdoors.

Speaker 1: What, tell us about some of the, I saw you hovering around some of the pollinator activities today. What were some of the things that stood out in your mind, questions people had, or?

Speaker 9: Yeah, it seems like for a start it was really popular. I mean, every time I watched by tables or packs, people were asking great questions and really seemed engaged with this topic. A lot of people had questions about honey bees versus bumble bees versus other bees. And a lot of people are surprised to know that the honey bee is not native to this country.

So it's just interesting hearing those questions and the differences between bees and wasps also seem to be coming up a lot. And then people seemed, I heard a lot of people asking questions about what they can do to help. There was, you know, it's on Monarch table, for example, people would seem to be surprised that Monarchs were in trouble and asking a lot of questions about what they could personally do, which was really lovely to see.

Speaker 1: One conversation that we had early in the day when I first arrived was the High Desert Museum is really, really interested in this question of pollinators. Can you tell us a little bit about some of the plans for the museum?

Speaker 9: Yeah, of course. So I began, I've always personally had a great interest in pollinators and bees in particular, going back to my undergraduate days. And last year we began, we had a three-program series here at the museum.

It was supported by Oregon Humanities, so Grant from there made it possible. And we had a documentary screening, different discussions going on, and a walk around the museum to look at different pollinator host plants. And all of those events were really well attended. We had one lovely one where we had four different speakers, all local folks talking about what they personally were doing or professionally doing to support pollinators in this area. So really positive slant on the whole topic. Because of course, when you are talking about pollinators and their decline, it can be a bit depressing, but this is a really uplifting event.

And, you know, I came away from that series, I consider it to have been a great success. And I came from that thinking, okay, people are very interested in this topic, but there's a lot that folks don't know. And there's so much that we can teach people through pollinators, if you will. There are a lot of messages about ecology more generally that you can teach through pollinators on that topic. And that interest really heartened me.

I love to see people really engaged as they were in those programs. So that inspired us to think about what else we can do, not only to connect people to pollinator conservation and bee conservation in particular but what we can do as a museum to take more conservation actions and be kind of a role model for stewardship in this region. And so we are developing a plan to establish pollinator habitat on the grounds. We do have, as we've seen today, all of the bees we collected, we do have loads of different flowering plants that provide the host to these bees.

But we would love to have a sort of designated area where there is an abundance of different native species where the bees can find the pollen and nectar that they need. And so that will be sort of in the middle of the museum. That's going to be really visible to the public. We'll have some signage that talks about the importance of these species.

And again, saying what people can do at home to help as well. So I'm really excited about that initiative. And we also have a project that is a collaboration between the High-Diesel Museum and Discover Your Forest. And between the two of us, we're launching a program this year. It's a teacher professional development program. We are working with two local schools and teachers at those schools in order to help them establish their pollinator habitats. So we can use our plan as an example. We can take them to different pollinator habitats elsewhere and connect them with what they can do to do that on their school grounds. And then we'll provide ongoing support so they can maintain those gardens effectively as well.

Speaker 1: It's really great because one of the things that you notice is that people really wanted to know what to do and those two initiatives are really going to help people do that.

Speaker 9: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. And we also have daily interpretive talks here. And we hope to incorporate more information about pollinators into those talks. Fantastic. So it's simply a part of people's experience here at the High-Diesel Museum if they were to visit on a normal day. And then of course we have special initiatives like today where people can come and learn lots more as well. But sometimes it's just that sparking of interest. You know, you can give people very little information, but if they're interested, they will take it from there and they'll pursue that on their own and kind of go in their direction. And that's really what we aim to do here is just inspire that.

Speaker 1: That is fantastic. I really love that sentiment. I think there is, if people can just learn some basic skills, they can really innovate. Definitely. Yeah. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for hosting the final event of Oregon Pollinator Week.

Speaker 9: It's been a great success. Everyone's loved it. And I'm really grateful to your whole team for coming. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. Show notes with information discussed in each episode can be found at pollinationpodcast.oregonstate.edu. We'd also love to hear from you and there are several ways to connect. For one, you can visit our website to post an episode-specific comment, suggest a future guest or topic, or ask a question that could be featured in a future episode. You can also email us at [email protected]. Finally, you can tweak questions or comments or join our Facebook or Instagram communities. Just look us up at OSU Pollinator Health. If you like the show, consider letting iTunes know by leaving us a review or rating.

It makes us more visible, which helps others discover pollination. See you next week.