Join Xerces Society Endangered Species Conservation Biologist and Monarch Overwintering Specialist, Ashley Fisher, to learn about radio-tracking monarchs. Radio-tracking is a new technology that answers long-held questions about the western monarch movement and habitat use. See this technology in action and how it will help conserve our precious western monarchs. The webinar takes place February 20 at 1 pm Eastern.
This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.
Most people are familiar with certified organic foods. But what about ornamental plants in our built environments, and so-called “native” or “pollinator friendly” plants meant to provide wildlife benefit? The ornamental plant industry includes both floriculture (cut-flowers) and horticulture (nursery plants). In both industries, most plants are produced using high levels of synthetic pesticides and herbicides, with little regulatory oversight. Some growers promise “spray free,” “neonic free,” or “pesticide free” stems or plants, but these are informal promises that have no process for verifiability.
In this January 14 Xerces Society webinar, Matthew Dell, owner and general manager of Treadlight Farm, discusses why organic certification makes sense for ornamental plant production, especially for native plants, and the opportunities and challenges organic certification presents.
The project is a collaboration between Xerces Society and Treadlight Farm and is supported by the Carroll Petrie Foundation. This event is intended for ornamental plant, native plant, and retail nurseries but anyone with an interest in the topic is welcome!
This January 14 webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar. Learn more and register today!
The Xerces Society will present the third of a series on bumble bee identification, this time covering the Midwest and Great Plains. We will cover the basics of bumble bee anatomy, introduce the different bumble bee species that may be encountered in the region, and discuss key characteristics to look out for when identifying bumble bees to species and sex. While this webinar series is geared toward Bumble Bee Atlas volunteers in the Midwest or Great Plains, we welcome anyone interested in learning more about bumble bee identification. Registration is required to attend. This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar. The live presentation on Zoom will be December 20 at 1 pm Eastern. We will cover the following species: Black-and-gold (B. auricomus), American (B. pensylvanicus), Southern Plains (B. fraternus), yellow-banded (B. terricola), lemon cuckoo (B. citrinus, pictured below), Ashton’s cuckoo (B. bohemicus), and variable cuckoo (B. variabilis) bumble bees.
Join Executive Director Scott Black online on December 5 as he explores the impactful work of the Xerces Society in 2024. From creating pollinator habitat and advocating for pesticide reduction to launching community science initiatives and educational programs, Xerces has achieved remarkable progress in invertebrate conservation.
This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.
Even amongst other bugs, spiders are often overlooked and misunderstood. But these ancient, diverse, and wonderfully weird creatures have a lot to teach us. And the best group of spiders to start with might be jumping spiders: they are colorful, clever, and even cute! Join The Xerces Society and spider scientist Dr. Sebastian Alejandro Echeverri on September 5 as he shares the incredible superpowers, dramatic lives, and unexpected beauty of jumping spiders! You will meet species that you can find in both your local gardens and across the world, and discover what makes them special.
We will also explore the surprising ecological connections between spiders and other wildlife, as well as how to observe and interact with these animals at your comfort level. There will also be a Q&A session, so bring questions about spiders and other arachnids!
This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this Zoom webinar. Free. Learn more and register at https://www.xerces.org/events/webinars
When you think of bees, you probably imagine the things they do on sunny days, like flying around and pollinating flowers. But this is only half of the story, as most of the 20,000 species of bees found around the world nest belowground, and spend the majority of their lives in darkness. What are they doing underground? How do they navigate their burrows and communicate with other bees? What happens when it rains? There are many interesting questions surrounding this lifestyle, and also plenty of uncertainties remaining to be resolved about subterranean living. In this webinar, we will learn about the diversity of ways that bees live and reproduce belowground, and we’ll ponder some of those unsolved mysteries. We’ll also talk about how the belowground lifestyle affects threats to bees, such as exposure to pesticides and pathogens. This webinar will cover some bees you may be familiar with, such as bumble bees, but we’ll be focusing our time on soil-nesters who we generally know less about, including the many solitary bees that do not live in colonies.
This October 19 webinar from 1 – 2 will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.
Learn more and register here today! Xerces Society speaker Leif Richardson is a conservation biologist who coordinates the California Bumble Bee Atlas project. His research focuses on the ecology, distribution, and declines of North American bumble bees. Leif previously worked as an environmental consultant, studying pesticide risk to bee pollinators, and as an ecologist for Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. He is co-author of a range of scientific publications on bees, including Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide (2014, Princeton University Press), the standard reference manual on this group of insects. He is an expert in the inventory and identification of bumble bees, and has extensive experience training others to collect bumble bee distribution data in the field. Leif holds a Master’s degree from the University of Arizona and a PhD from Dartmouth College.
Mosquitos are a nuisance at best and health risk at worst, so it’s understandable why many people turn to insecticides to try and control these pests. Though spraying may seem like a quick and easy way to deal with mosquitos, it’s often an ineffective control strategy. Worse, these insecticides are toxic to pollinators and other beneficial insects. Join Aaron Anderson, Xerces Pesticide Program Specialist, to touch on the risks that mosquito spraying poses and discuss practical, alternative methods of mosquito control in residential landscapes.
This Xerces Society webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar. The live presentation will take place March 2 at 1 pm Eastern.
The Xerces Society and University of Nevada researchers recently sampled milkweeds from 33 retail nurseries across 15 states, finding an average of 12 pesticides per plant. Milkweed is the primary food for the caterpillars of monarch butterflies, which have dramatically declined and are the focus of intensive restoration efforts. This study was the first to examine pesticide residues in commercially produced nursery plants from the perspective of monarchs. Meanwhile the Pacific Northwest is facing the establishment of the emerald ash borer, an insect that has devastated ash forests across the U.S. Yet the pesticides most often used to ensure the trees’ survival are toxic to Lepidopterans (butterflies and moths). Join Sharon Selvaggio and Aaron Anderson with the Xerces Society to learn why the milkweed study findings raise concerns, what you can do to increase your probability of buying pollinator-safe plants, the risks of the insecticides used to fight EAB, and some solutions that may slow the EAB spread while minimizing harm to butterflies and other insects that use ash trees.
Click here for more information and to register. The webinar will take place February 14 from 1:25 – 2:25 and is sponsored by the Xerces Society.
Come join Kass Urban-Mead, Xerces Pollinator Conservation Specialist, NRCS Partner Biologist, on January 26 online for an adventure exploring how wild bees use the woods–from the leafy forest floor to the tippy top of the canopy. Although we usually think of bees busy in our gardens, flower patches, and meadows (which is true!), that is not the only place they are found. In fact, in the northeastern US up to 1/3 of our wild bee species may rely on forest habitats for at least a part of their life cycle. Some are specialized to only collect pollen from spring ephemerals on the forest floor, while others nest in stumps, logs, and leaf litter deep in the woods, and orchard pollinators use forest canopy pollen before the orchards bloom. We will discuss the changing nature of forests on our landscape and how this is likely to affect different groups of bees. Finally, we will highlight ways in which forest management for healthy, diverse, climate-resilient woods is crucial not just for birds and other wildlife, but also for the bees.
This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.
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.
