<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#954F72;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style></head><body lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">I’m very pleased to be able to introduce six new members of Xerces’ pollinator team. It is amazing to be able to add so many people, and is thanks to the support of our partners at General Mills and the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The new staff bring a diverse range of skills and experiences, including prairie restoration, native plant propagation, research into ground-nesting bees of blueberries and the impacts of land-use change on honey bees, organic farming, habitat creation on farms, and more.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Matthew</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">***********************</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><a href="https://xerces.org/2017/06/22/xerces-pollinator-team-grows-again/">https://xerces.org/2017/06/22/xerces-pollinator-team-grows-again/</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:20.0pt">Xerces’ Pollinator Team Grows, Again</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">By Matthew Shepherd, Communications Director</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">I have to admit to having worked at the Xerces Society for longer than anyone else. When I joined, there were five people on the staff and I was the only person in the nascent pollinator program. How things have changed: The Society has gone from strength to strength and the pollinator program has staff based across the United States—and we’ve just added six new program staff!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">This has happened thanks to a partnership between General Mills and the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, which was announced just after Thanksgiving last year. General Mills and the NRCS together made a five-year, $4 million financial commitment to support the creation and protection of pollinator habitat on America’s farmlands. Our six new pollinator conservation specialists are here to make that dream a reality.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">This week, our new staff gathered in Minnesota for an orientation to their new jobs and to meet other Xerces staff that they’ll be working with on a daily basis. (They were joined by Vicky Wilkins, who is taking a one-month sabbatical from her job in Britain to learn about Xerces work. Until recently, Vicky worked at Buglife, but she is now with Flora & Fauna International.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">The new pollinator staff will be based in NRCS offices around the country and will collaborate with NRCS staff to provide individual consulting to farmers on habitat restoration and pollinator-friendly farm management practices, and serve as advisors to staff of other conservation agencies. The end result will be thousands of acres of new pollinator habitat. We thank General Mills and the NRCS for making this expansion possible.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">The Xerces Society has become a trusted source for science-based information and advice. This influx of new talent adds to that and brings our pollinator program staff to two dozen, cementing it firmly as the largest and most experienced pollinator conservation team in the world!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">MEET OUR NEW POLLINATOR STAFF</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Ben Carlson</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> comes to us from the U.S. Geological Survey at Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, where he investigated the impact of land-use change and USDA conservation program land on the health and productivity of commercial honey bees. Prior to that, Ben earned a masters degree in natural resource management from North Dakota State University, and gained experience of restoring native prairie habitat. He will be based in North Dakota</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Dave Williams</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> brings more than two decade’s experience of prairie restoration in an array of landscapes, including public parks, right-of-ways, farms, and private lands, most recently as the Restoration and Research Manager at the University of Northern Iowa. Dave received an MS in biology from the University of Northern Iowa, with an emphasis on prairie ecology. He is also an accomplished author, with titles including The Tallgrass Prairie Guide to Seed and Seedling Identification and Tallgrass Prairie Center’s Guide to Prairie Restoration in the Upper Midwest. He’ll be based in Iowa.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Eric Venturini</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> has a background in native bee research and consulting in northern New England. He has studied nesting of mining bees, undertaken bumble bee surveys, and trialed organic methods for establishing wildlife plantings. Eric received a masters degree in ecology and environmental sciences from the University of Maine, and subsequently worked there as an assistant research scientist. Through his consulting company, Eric has worked with growers to plan and install on-farm pollinator habitat. He’ll be based in Maine.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Karin Jokela</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> straddles the fields of pollinator conservation and agriculture. With an MS in ecology and evolutionary biology from Iowa State University, she has conducted native plant and bee surveys for the Minnesota Biological Survey, and most-recently worked for Great River Greening, where she helped landowners to design, implement, and evaluate habitat restoration efforts. Karin and her husband are also organic vegetable farmers, and Karin manages a small native plant nursery on their Sogn Valley Farm, adding another farming family to the Xerces team. Karin will be based in Minnesota.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Kathryn Prince</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> is joining our staff in California. Kat’s initial focus will be on the San Joaquin Valley, providing technical support and training focused on pollinators, other beneficial insects, and monarch butterflies and assisting conservation planners with creating or improving habitat on working lands. Kathryn holds an MS in entomology and agroecology from the University of Wisconsin, with a focus on the role wild bees in vegetable crop production. She has also worked on projects involving conservation biological control and IPM.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">RaeAnn Powers</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> is a Nebraska native whose work has taken her to the shores of Alaska with the National Wildlife Refuge system and the lakes of northern Minnesota as a canoe guide, before returning to the prairies of Midwest, where she has worked with Nebraska Natural Heritage program, the Nature Conservancy, and Prairie Legacy Inc., a native seed farm. RaeAnn has an MS in ecology from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, and will be based in Nebraska.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p></div></body></html>