Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum
Atlanta, GA

Saturday, June 22nd, 2019
9:30 AM - 4:00 PM EST

Please join us to learn about bees and butterflies, and what you can do to provide the habitat they need in urban and suburban gardens and greenspaces.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

Introduction to Pollinator Conservation in Urban & Suburban Spaces

Pollinator Conservation and Threats

Pollinator Conservation Programs in Georgia

• Share and/or learn about some of the pollinator conservation work that is happening in your community.

Natural History and Identifying Pollinators

• An introduction to the life history of pollinators, plus pointers for  identifying some commonly encountered bees and butterflies.

Walk and Talk

• Let’s go outside to see what pollinators look like in real life, take a close-up look at some of them, and practice spotting good habitat—and what could be improved.

Giving Pollinators What They Need in Towns and Cities

• Where and how to improve towns and cities for pollinators by creating flower-rich habitat in urban and suburban spaces, from yards to parks—and everywhere in between.

Engaging Your Community

• Ways to broaden your efforts by engaging neighbors, friends, and others in pollinator conservation and citizen science.

Networking and Q & A

• Participants will have time to visit other organizations tables, ask Xerces staff questions, and network.

Please join us following the workshop for a walk on the BeltLine

INSTRUCTORS:

Nancy Lee Adamson, PhD, Pollinator Conservation Specialist, Xerces Society & USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Greensboro, NC. Nancy supports habitat restoration on farms and in communities in the southeast. She loves sharing her passion for native bees and plants and all the wildlife they support. She earned a PhD in entomology from Virginia Tech with research focused on native bees important for crop pollination. Along with work inventorying natural areas, collecting native seeds, propagating native plants, and restoring riparian habitat, she was a farm hand at Wheatland Vegetable Farms, taught handicapped children in Tunisia with the Peace Corps, and helped the Itzaj-Maya protect their communal forest in Petén, Guatemala.

Aimee Code, Xerces Society Pesticide Program Director. Aimee Code joined Xerces in 2013 to direct its new pesticide program. In that role, she has built a program focused on securing practices and policies that promote ecologically sound pest management. She and her staff evaluate the risks of pesticides, develop technical guidance, and advocate for actions that reduce reliance on and risks of pesticide use in both urban and agricultural settings. Aimee received her M.S. in Environmental Health with a minor in Toxicology from Oregon State University. 

Phyllis Stiles, Bee City USA Founder and Pollinator Champion. Phyllis joined Xerces in 2018 after merging the Bee City USA organization with Xerces. She launched Bee City USA in Asheville, North Carolina, in 2012. In 2015, she was named United States Pollinator Advocate of the Year by the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign. Stiles’ career stretches from West Africa to the Mississippi Delta, to non-profit organizations in fields ranging from natural resource and farmland protection to civic leadership development. 

Dennis Krusac, Regional Endangered Species Specialist and Pollinator Conservation Coordinator for the Forest Service Southern Region and co-developer of the Great Atlanta Pollinator Partnership. Dennis earned a B.S. degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Management from Michigan State University and has worked for the USDA Forest Service as a wildlife biologist for 39 years.  He has worked in Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. He has a passion for educating today’s youth about the environment and routinely works with inner-city minority youth on conservation education programs. 

Melina Lozano Durán, Agroecologist and native bee enthusiast. Melina discovered her passion for native bees in 2010 while leading a research project on a Native Bee database sampling for the National Park Service at Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. She has collaborated on a project with the Brosi Lab at Emory University in sampling the Atlanta Beltline for native bees and has surveyed native bee species/populations with the Atlanta Botanical Garden. She assists with pollinator education including blog posts and collaboration with partner organizations in the US and México, and is on hand to work with communities to spread the word about these fascinating creatures. As an Agroecologist, her professional interests lie in the fusion of agriculture, ecology, and pollinator conservation.

Peter Helfrich, Decatur’s Bee City USA committee chair, backyard beekeeper, and bee enthusiast. Peter is a member of the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association. He frequently speaks about honey bees, native bees and other pollinator species in city schools and helps to organize Decatur’s annual National Pollinator Week observance, as well as numerous other bee-related activities throughout the year.

Susan Meyers, co-chair of the Monarchs Across Georgia (MAG) committee of the Environmental Education Alliance of Georgia and Conservation Specialist for Monarch Watch. Susan volunteers full-time for monarchs and other pollinators. 

Karan Wood is Director of the Captain Planet Foundation. Captain Planet Foundation provides strategies, tools, resources, models, and grants to increase teacher capacity for empowering students to solve environmental problems.