<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3243" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV><EM>Thanks to Chip Taylor for sending this:</EM></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Bumble Bee Crash. Bumble bees appear to have crashed in a number
of<BR>locations on the west coast, in some places in the east and here
in<BR>Lawrence, Kansas. I'm a long time bumble bee watcher and I haven't<BR>seen
a queen yet this year nor has one of my colleagues, Rudolf<BR>Jander, who has a
large garden devoted to attracting pollinators.<BR>Those of you visiting
prairies might look for bumble bees as they are<BR>important, and sometime the
exclusive, pollinators of many prairie<BR>plants. To identify bumble bees to
species please consult<BR>http://bumbleboosters.unl.edu/. We only have three
common bumble bees<BR>in this area, Bombus
fraternus<BR>(http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Bombus+fraternus),
B.<BR>impatiens
(http://pick5.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?search=Bombus+impatiens),<BR>and B.
pennsylvanicus (http://www.bumblebee.org/NorthAmerica.htm).<BR><BR>The local
bumble bee decline may be related to a series of warm<BR>winters with little
snow cover. Under these conditions predation by<BR>skunks and opossums of
overwintering queens, that tend to winter in<BR>abandoned mouse nests, appears
to be higher than in cold winters. The<BR>local decline may be due in part to
the 4-10 April freeze in the<BR>spring of 2007. The extreme conditions during
this cold period and<BR>the lack of flowers for the following month may have
eliminated many<BR>of bumble nests initiated in 2007. For more on the spring
freeze of<BR>2007, please
see<BR>http://monarchwatch.org/blog/2008/04/11/how-does-your-garden-grow-par<SPAN></SPAN>t-2/.<BR><BR>Chip</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face="Gill Sans MT" size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10">Laurie Davies Adams<BR>Executive Director<BR><B>Pollinator
Partnership </B><BR>423 Washington Street, 5th floor<BR>San Francisco, CA
94111<BR>415-362-1137</FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2
FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face="Gill Sans MT"
color=#0000ff size=4 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="14"><B><A
href="http://www.pollinator.org/">www.pollinator.org</A></B></FONT><FONT lang=0
face="Gill Sans MT" color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"></B><BR><A
href="http://www.nappc.org/">www.nappc.org</A><BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0
face="Gill Sans MT" color=#000000 size=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="12"><B><I>National Pollinator Week is June 22-28, 2008. <BR>Beecome
involved at <A
href="http://www.pollinator.org/">www.pollinator.org</A></I></FONT></B></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. <A title="http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4&?NCID=aolfod00030000000002" href="http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4&?NCID=aolfod00030000000002" target="_blank">Watch "Cooking with Tyler Florence" on AOL Food</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>