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<DIV><FONT size=2>Here's a nice story about acceptance of bees by school kids
(and their parents). Apparently, the school is so enamourd by the bees, that
they are going to adopt them as their mascot!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Matthew</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>**********************************************</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>From: The Oregonian (Portland, OR)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/05/portlands_sabin_schoolyard_abu.html"><FONT
size=2>http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/05/portlands_sabin_schoolyard_abu.html</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=4>Portland's Sabin schoolyard abuzz with 'tickle'
bees</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>By </FONT><A
href="http://connect.oregonlive.com/user/kmuldoon/index.html"><FONT size=2>Katy
Muldoon, The Oregonian</FONT></A><FONT size=2> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>May 03, 2010, 1:27AM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Mace Vaughan is a bee guy. So how perfect is it that a year
ago he moved into a Northeast Portland home across from a schoolyard field abuzz
an estimated 20,000 native bees, known to the kids as "tickle bees" for the way
they feel when they land on your skin? <BR><BR>"On a hot day in the spring
you're just knocking into them all the time and you don't get stung," says
Vaughan, pollinator program director for the </FONT><A
href="http://www.xerces.org/" target=new><FONT size=2>Xerces
Society</FONT></A><FONT size=2> for Invertebrate Conservation. <BR><BR>Now,
Vaughan uses the story and photos of </FONT><A
href="http://www.pps.k12.or.us/schools-c/profiles/?id=279" target=new><FONT
size=2>Sabin Elementary School'</FONT></A><FONT size=2>s bees -- genus Andrena
-- during lectures nationwide, just as he will in a May 14 pollinator workshop
at the </FONT><A href="http://www.oregonzoo.org/" target=new><FONT size=2>Oregon
Zoo</FONT></A><FONT size=2>. Vaughan wants farmers, land managers, landscape
architects, gardeners and others to understand the ecological and economic
importance of North America's 4,000 native bee species; the Willamette Valley is
home to 250 bee species, and the deserts east of the Cascade Range hold 600 to
800 species. <BR><BR>By and large, they're misunderstood. <BR><BR>"If you say
bees," says Anne Warner, Oregon Zoo conservation manager, "people tend to think
wasps, and getting bitten, or honeybees, and being stung ... They think: Get
away from it or kill it." <BR><BR>In general, though, native bees are solitary,
gentle souls that, like those at Sabin Elementary, wouldn't harm a child.
<BR><BR>Plus, they're the labor force that keeps the natural world humming.
<BR><BR>Bees do the job for almost 70 percent of the world's flowering plants,
including more than two-thirds of the world's crop species that require insect
pollination to reproduce, according to the Xerces Society. <BR><BR>The society,
a Portland-based nonprofit working to protect invertebrates worldwide, puts the
economic value of native pollinators at an estimated $3 billion a year in the
United States. <BR><BR>Plus, seeds and fruit that result from insect pollination
feed birds and mammals, and bees themselves end up as food for animals, making
them a keystone species in many places. <BR><BR>"People don't necessarily
appreciate the important contribution that native pollinators make to general
ecological health and to the food that we eat," Warner says. "They're the unsung
heroes." <BR><BR>But bees are in trouble. <BR><BR>Catastrophes striking
honeybees -- from parasitic Varroa mites to the phenomenon known as colony
collapse disorder -- have been widely publicized. Non-native honeybees are
widely used in commercial agriculture. <BR>Less well-understood is how habitat
loss, pesticides and diseases introduced by trucking honeybees from farm to farm
may affect native bee species. <BR><BR>In January, the Xerces Society and other
conservationists submitted a petition to the </FONT><A
href="http://www.aphis.usda.gov/" target=new><FONT size=2>U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service</FONT></A><FONT
size=2>, asking for new regulations to protect wild bumble bees from threats
posed by commercial bumble bees. In February, a coalition of more than 60
scientists submitted a similar request based on research that shows steep
declines in populations of at least four species of formerly common North
American bumble bees; disease spread from commercially produced bees transported
throughout the country is believed to be a major threat. <BR><BR></FONT><A
href="http://www.xerces.org/western-bumble-bee/" target=new><FONT size=2>Western
bumblebees</FONT></A><FONT size=2>, once common in the Willamette Valley, rarely
are seen any more. <BR><BR>All of it led the zoo's conservation department to
team with the Xerces Society to spread the word about native bees, the threats
they face, and the value they offer to Oregonians. Lectures at next week's
workshop, $33 with reservations required, will cover habitat, bee biology,
identification, challenges and ways humans can make life better for those
hard-working native bees. <BR><BR>"Anything we can do in our own backyards to
make a bee friendly situation," Warner says, "will help in so many ways."
<BR><BR>-- </FONT><A href="mailto:katymuldoon@news.oregonian.com"><FONT
size=2>Katy Muldoon</FONT></A><FONT size=2>:
503-221-8526</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
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<DIV><FONT size=1><FONT size=1></FONT> </DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT
size=1>______________________________________________________</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><STRONG>The Xerces Society for Invertebrate
Conservation</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=1>The Xerces Society is an international
nonprofit organization that </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=1>protects wildlife through the conservation of
invertebrates and their </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=1>habitat. </FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial><FONT
size=1>To </FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=1>join the Society, make a
</FONT></FONT><FONT size=1>contribution</FONT><FONT size=1>, </FONT><FONT
size=1>or read about our </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1>work, </FONT><FONT size=1>please visit </FONT><FONT size=1><A
href="http://www.xerces.org">www.xerces.org</A>.</FONT></FONT><FONT
size=1></DIV></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=1></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1>Matthew Shepherd</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1>Senior Conservation Associate</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1>4828 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland, OR 97215,
USA</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1>Tel: 503-232 6639 Cell: 503-807 1577 Fax: 503-233
6794</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=1>Email: </FONT><A href="mailto:mdshepherd@xerces.org"><FONT
size=1>mdshepherd@xerces.org</FONT></A><FONT size=1> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT
size=1>______________________________________________________</FONT></FONT></DIV>
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