PolliNation Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

This week we hear about Oregon's Farm to School program and how it helps make the connection between Oregon agriculture and pollinators in the classroom.  We are joined by Rick Sherman (Farm to Child Nutrition Program Manager at the Oregon Department of Education) and Michelle Markesteyn (Farm to School Specialist at Oregon State University Extension), who also host a great podcast (available on YouTube, Spotify and iTunes).  

This week we talk about the upcoming (Sept 21, 2024) Oregon Honey and Mead Festival with organizer Sharon Schmidt (Cascade Girl Organization) and Marla Bull Bear, one of the presenters who is the Director, Lakota Youth Development and Honey Lodge Program. Details on this year's festival can be found at: https://www.cascadegirl.org

In this episode we hear from Susie Peterson who is the co-manager of the very popular Backyard Habitat Certification Program in Oregon. The program is managed in partnership with Portland Audubon and can help you better design your backyard for biodiversity. 

Honey bee queens are durable insects, but new research shows that the sperm they store can become quickly degraded by temperature extremes.

Pan traps are one of the key methods for surveying for native bees. They are cheap and easy to use, and they aren’t subject to the collector bias of studies that rely on netting. This week we hear about the limitations associated with using pan traps. 

Washington contended with two invasive insects in 2020. The first is well-known, Asian Giant Hornet, but the second less so, the common eastern bumble bee.  We caught up with the Washington Department of Agriculture for an update on both insects. 

It was hard to keep track of developments in bee health in 2020 because so much else was going on. In this episode we catch-you-up with a guest who wrote a post per day for since January showcasing what was new in bee health. 

The Washington State Legislature just received a set of ground-breaking recommendations on pollinator health from the state’s Pollinator Health Task Force. In this episode we hear about what is being recommended and the next steps towards addressing those recommendations.

Stem nesting bees like mason bees are particularly amenable to being introduced to distant lands. In this episode we hear about research looking into the impact of these introductions on native bee populations.

Devastating wildfires ravaged Western states this summer. In this episode we find out what is known about the effect of forest fires on bees, how bees respond to the land ravaged by fire and how you can help bees while also protecting your property from future fires.