[Pollinator] Fwd: FW: SSRS Article - Chippewa National Forest Buzzing with Fuzzy Bees

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____________________________________
 From: lstritch at fs.fed.us
To: lda at pollinator.org, jt at pollinator.org
Sent:  10/17/2011 3:35:34 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: FW: SSRS Article -  Chippewa National Forest Buzzing with Fuzzy Bees



From: Schultz, Jan  
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 10:42 AM
To: Stritch,  Larry
Subject: SSRS Article - Chippewa National Forest Buzzing with  Fuzzy Bees 
This Success Story Report was sent to you by: _jschultz_ 
(mailto:jschultz at fs.fed.us)  
fyi

This and other articles may be found in Region 9's  :
_Success Story Reporting  System_ (http://ssrs.r9.fs.fed.us/) 
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Chippewa National Forest Buzzing with  Fuzzy Bees

   
Region 9 ¡­  10/07/2011
The Norway  Beach Visitor Center Naturalist focused on bees this summer, 
asking  By: Melissa Rickers (R09_Chippewa)  
Before traveling to northern Minnesota to work as the  summer Naturalist at 
the Norway Beach Visitor Center, Amanda Keith was a  college student in 
rural northeast Ohio. She was " a little obsessed  with honeybees". As part of 
a student-run campus program, she helped  maintain three hives and sold 
honey to the college community. She  learned to appreciate the bee's innate 
skills for foraging and producing  the most delicious honey.

Amanda was hired through the Student  Conservation Association program. As 
lead naturalist at a busy summer  Visitor Center, she led 8 programs each 
week, quickly learning about  Minnesota wildlife, Anishinabe culture, and 
native wildflowers. A month  into teaching environmental education programs, she 
began focusing on  bees again, asking "How could Minnesota have its 
plentiful wildflowers  and berries without honeybees?"

She discovered thirteen native  species of bumblebees that pollinate 
everything from bluebead lily to  blueberries, as well as many Minnesota food 
staples. Because of the bee  activities and displays at Norway Beach, we all 
began to noticing the  bumblebees hanging around the Forest. Even the Visitor 
Center front lawn  was covered with fuzzy bees as the clover bloomed! 
Bumblebees with neon  yellow, shaggy coats and others with bright orange, fuzzy 
stripes  (probably the common eastern bumblebee, Bombus impatiens, and the  
tri-colored bumblebee, B. ternarius) wandered from clover to clover. The  
presence of the bees brought comfort to Amanda, so far away from home.  She noted 
"Even if new places are hard to get used to, there'll always  be bees". 

Her bee programs were popular with Norway Beach  campers. There was "Build 
a Bee Condo", "The Bumblebee Shuffle" and  "Wildflower Pollinators". Who 
knew that building homes for bees out of  hollow reeds would be such a hit! 
Summer visitors learned that most  pollinating species, especially bumblebees, 
are in rapid decline because  of pesticides and habitat loss. For hands-on 
learning, the VIC installed  two small pollinator gardens, thanks to a 
pollinator grant obtained by  Forest botanist Tom Heutte. The gardens highlighted 
native wildflowers  and the insects that pollinate each species. 

It was the summer  of bees. Amanda enjoyed the hikes and tours in a 
remarkable forest that  she had never known before. This Forest (and its bees) 
simply grew on  her. As an "outsider Ohioan," she said "I had the most to learn 
and am  glad to leave with such deep-felt appreciation for Minnesota's fuzzy 
 bugs." The garden at Norway Beach Visitor Center is one of four  
pollinator gardens on the Forest, (including Cut Foot Sioux Visitor  Center, 
Blackduck and Deer River Ranger Stations. ) Though it is the  newest and smallest, 
the "Beach Garden" is already increasing our  awareness of local pollinators 
and sharpening our ability to identify 13  different bumblebees!  


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