Bee City News USA June 2025

Posted in: Madison Park
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June 2025 | View as Webpage

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Happy Pollinator Week!

It's Pollinator Week! This can be a great time to kick off summer Bee City activities! Whether your committee is tabling at the farmers market or holding a movie night, we've got the resources to help you out.

 

We have free videos you can screen, printable outreach materials, and a fresh batch of social media content for you to share far and wide. Since last month, we added some new event and activity ideas, too. Enjoy!

 

Check your Pollinator Week Promo Kit

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NEW Renewal Report Data Gathering Resource

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Carly made a spreadsheet so you can track your accomplishments for next year’s report.

 

Option One: Follow the link below. Note: due to the type of Excel file, these have to be shared as zip files. To open a zip file download file and right click, select Extract File, Save, then open.

 

 

Option two: Login to your Bee City/Campus account. Go to "My Profile" and click on your “Renewal” tab.

 

For help opening a Zip file, read Carly's blog post

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Affiliate Spotlight: Apex, NC — Pollinators in the Peak

Is your community interested in creating your own local pollinator habitat certification program? Many Bee Cities find it to be an effective way to expand habitat and grow community. Check out Apex's NC's Bee City Spotlight to learn how their Pollinator Habitat Certification program allows homeowners, schools, businesses, and community groups to certify their native pollinator habitats. The certification is available in three tiers — Egg, Caterpillar, and Butterfly — each with their own requirements. Read more

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Bee City Los Alamos County Celebrates First Anniversary Of Local Pollinator Protection

Bee City Los Alamos marked its first anniversary as a Bee City USA affiliate, celebrating a year of dedicated efforts to protect and promote native pollinators in Los Alamos County. With strong support from Los Alamos County, the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC), and an incredible network of community volunteers, the initiative has made significant progress in fostering a more pollinator-friendly environment. Read more

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Just Released: State of the Butterflies Report

As U.S. Butterfly Populations Plummet, Scientists Map a Road to Recovery

 

A new report released by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation provides a roadmap for recovering butterfly populations across the U.S. The report is a response to a recent study published in Science that found populations of butterflies across the United States are experiencing dramatic declines – an astonishing 22% decline in abundance from 2000 to 2020. That means that for every five butterflies seen 20 years ago, now there are only four. Read more

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Join the Buzz: How You Can Help Bumble Bees This Summer

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We have a special guest blog post this week from Molly Martin, former coordinator of Bee City USA! We hope you enjoy reading about this fun opportunity. - Laura Rost, National Coordinator, Bee City USA & Bee Campus USA

 

Summer is here — and that means flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, and you (yes, you!) have the perfect opportunity to make a difference for some of North America’s most important pollinators: bumble bees.

 

If you’re part of a Bee City USA or Bee Campus USA community, you already know how vital pollinators are to healthy ecosystems and vibrant communities. But did you know you can take your commitment one step further by becoming a volunteer with the Bumble Bee Atlas? Read more

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Rescheduled: How Nurseries Can Provide Pollinator-Safe Plants: A Talk with MNL’s Greenhouse Manager

Thank you for your patience as we rescheduled our webinar with Ridge Campbell. We're back on for July 22nd. We hope you can join us!

 

How Nurseries Can Provide Pollinator-Safe Plants: A Talk with MNL’s Greenhouse Manager 

July 22 @ 10 AM PT / 11 AM MT / 12 PM CT / 1 PM ET

Register for free

 

How do you ensure your pollinator plants are bee-safe? Many pesticides are harmful to pollinators, but are permitted for use in nursery plant production, even on plants attractive to bees and butterflies. Plants can retain some pesticides long after they are applied, creating a hazard for visiting pollinators sometimes even after being planted in gardens and parks.

 

Come to this webinar to hear the story of how Minnesota Native Landscapes, Inc. (MNL), a large Midwest native plant nursery, collaborated with the Xerces Society to grow native plants without toxic pesticides. Ridge Campbell, Greenhouse Manager at MNL, will relate MNL’s experience growing 30,000 native plants for Xerces, while strictly limiting more than 100 insecticides and fungicides considered harmful to bees and butterflies. In this webinar, you can learn what it takes to make a “contract grow” succeed for both the grower and the buyer.

 

This webinar is a collaboration between Xerces Society and MNL and is supported by the Carroll Petrie Foundation. This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

 

 

Past Webinar Recordings

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our online events the past few months. It's been really excellent to see such a high level of engagement, including all of your thoughtful questions and comments. We appreciate you! If you missed our ground nesting bees webinar or your regional meeting, here's how you can watch them:

 

Webinar: Learn about Ground-Nesting Bees with Cornell’s GNBee Project

 

Regional Meetings -- that's a wrap!

Our spring 2025 regional meetings have concluded. Unlike past meetings, we are making these private going forward. That means these are not posted to YouTube. If you would like to watch your regional meeting, listed below:

  • North Central
  • Northeast
  • South/Southeast
  • West

Please email Carly and Laura at beecityusa@xerces.org for the recording.

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WI Pollinator Health and Awareness Bills

Wisconsin State Representative Lee Snodgrass has introduced a package of Assembly bills that would improve pollinator health and awareness about the importance of pollinators. The bills represent a range of strategies to help pollinators, from curbing pesticide use to raising state conservation funds through a new license plate program. Check them out (pdf)!

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Upcoming Events

June 6 - Aug 6

Proposal Window Open: Xerces Southern California Residential Habitat Kits

June 16 - 22

Pollinator Week!

June 21 @ 10 AM - 2 PM ET

Manassas, VA Bee Festival

June 21 @ 9 AM - 3 PM PT

Vancouver, WA Pollinator Festival – Featuring Keynote Speaker Dr. Robert Michael Pyle

June 29 @ 9:30 AM – 2:00 PM ET

Southeast Bumble Bee Atlas Training Workshop - Charlotte, NC

July 10 @ 10 AM PT / 11 AM MT / 12 PM CT / 1 PM ET

Monarchs and Pesticides: Understanding the Risks, Creating High-Quality Habitat

July 19 - July 27

National Moth Week

 

July 22 @ 10 AM PT / 11 AM MT / 12 PM CT / 1 PM ET

Rescheduled!: How Nurseries Can Provide Pollinator-Safe Plants: A Talk with MNL’s Greenhouse Manager

Aug 3 - Aug 9

National Farmers Market Week

Aug 14 @ 10 AM PT / 11 AM MT / 12 PM CT / 1 PM ET

The State of The Bees

 

Aug 22 - Aug 23

Great Southeast Pollinator Census

 

 

 

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Have a event, funding opportunity, or volunteer opportunity you would like us to promote? Email beecityusa@xerces.org. If you have a Bee City/Campus login: you can add events here.

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Application and renewal fee address:

The Xerces Society

??‹PO Box 84274

Seattle, WA 98124-5574

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Contact:

beecityusa@xerces.org

503.212.0894

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Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA are initiatives of the Xerces Society.

 

The Xerces Society is a donor-supported nonprofit organization that protects our world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats.

 

Your tax-deductible donation will help grow and sustain that essential work.

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Become a member

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