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--></style></head><body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="WordSection1"><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Xerces Goes Island Hopping for Bees </span></b></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Eric Lee-Mäder, Pollinator Program Co-Director</span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">How do you restore a 50-acre native wildflower meadow for bees on an island in the middle of the Columbia River?</span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">It’s simple. Working with the Port of Portland, and seed company Pacific Northwest Natives, we loaded up a barge with a tractor, a truck, a drill seeder, hundreds of pounds of seed, and half a dozen tough farmers, then we floated out to the island and started planting.</span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Special credit goes to our fantastic crew, contractors, plant ecologist, and pollinator ecologists, who between them can calibrate a 1,000-pound drill seeder, get us unstuck from sandbars, make emergency welds and equipment repairs in the middle of nowhere, and formulate complex seed mixes designed to support dozens of local species of bees and butterflies.</span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">In addition to the seeding, more than 2,000 camas bulbs are also being planted.</span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Stay tuned for future updates on this project, and expect a massive wildflower show in spring 2016!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Go to <a href="http://www.xerces.org/blog/xerces-goes-island-hopping-for-bees/">http://www.xerces.org/blog/xerces-goes-island-hopping-for-bees/</a> to see photos!</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Matthew</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">________</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Matthew Shepherd</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">, Communications Director</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation </span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Protecting the Life that Sustains Us</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Stay in touch: </span><b><span style="color:red"><a href="http://www.xerces.org/"><span style="color:red;text-decoration:none">xerces.org</span></a></span></b> <b><span style="color:#17365d"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Xerces-Society/193182577358618"><span style="color:#17365d;text-decoration:none">Facebook</span></a></span></b> <b><span style="color:#984806"><a href="http://www.xerces.org/enewsletters/"><span style="color:#984806;text-decoration:none">E-newsletter</span></a></span></b> <b><span style="color:#0070c0"><a href="https://twitter.com/xerces_society"><span style="color:blue;text-decoration:none">Twitter</span></a></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">628 NE Broadway, Ste 200, Portland, OR 97232-1324, USA</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Tel: (503) 232-6639 ext. 110; Toll free: 1-855-232 6639 ext. 110; Cell: (503) 807-1577</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#0070c0"><a href="mailto:mdshepherd@xerces.org"><span style="color:#0070c0">mdshepherd@xerces.org</span></a> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. To join the Society, make a donation, or read about our work, please visit <span style="color:#0070c0"><a href="http://www.xerces.org/"><span style="color:#0070c0">www.xerces.org</span></a></span>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p></div></body></html>