Boston Flora

Tag: Rich Hatfield

  • Thursday, November 10, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – We Need to Talk About Honey Bees, Online

    To help ensure healthy ecosystems and successful harvests, pollinator conservation is essential. For many people, pollinator conservation is synonymous with the honey bee and beekeeping, but the story is bigger than that; much, much bigger than that. As we work to conserve pollinators, we need to ensure that our efforts are best directed where they are needed most, and not just at what is easiest to accomplish. While honey bees are important for our current agricultural systems, their role in our natural areas, and even in our urban and suburban areas, is more complicated. Join Xerces Society Senior Conservation Biologist Rich Hatfield on November 10 for an honest conversation about the unseen consequences that a focus on honey bees can have, and how we can focus our actions in ways that will create positive change, for all pollinators.

    This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

    Click here for more information and to register.

  • Saturday, August 27, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Conserving Bumble Bees

    You have heard about the status of the European honey bee, and maybe even learned the fate of some of our 3,600 native bees. Fact of the matter is that bees are in trouble and in need of our attention. The good news is that there is much that you can do to help. Come join in this unique opportunity to learn from Rich Hatfield, Senior Conservation Biologist at the Xerces Society, about the status of our native bumble bees, the threats that they face, and what you can do to help. Included will be information on basic life-history and ecology, as well as learning which species are most imperiled throughout the eastern U.S. You will also learn about the threats they face, and what can be done in your yards to help protect them. A focus of the Arnold Arboretum workshop on Saturday, August 27 from 9 – 4 will be training participants how to identify the bumble bees in their backyard, and throughout New England. This day-long workshop will include classroom sessions in the morning, and a field trip to nearby habitat where we will practice bumble bee identification and survey techniques in more detail, while we sample the local area for foraging bumble bees. Participants will also be instructed in how to participate in a collaborative citizen science project called Bumble Bee Watch. This workshop is free and open to the public. Lunch will not be provided, so please bring a sack lunch. A recommended book for this workshop is Bumble Bees of North America by Williams, Thorp, Richardson, and Colla. Free, but registration required Register through the Xerces Society or call 503-232-6639.