[Pollinator] Media Advisory: NAPPC Award Winners

Thu Oct 19 14:40:13 PDT 2017

*[image: Inline image 1]*
Tom Van Arsdall  TVA at pollinator.org 703.509.4746
October 19, 2017

*2017 North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) Award Winners*

2017 Pollinator Advocate and Farmer-Rancher Award winners from the United
States, Canada and Mexico were honored by the North American Pollinator
Protection Campaign (NAPPC) at an October 17 reception opening the
coalition’s seventeenth annual conference. The reception was held at the
U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, DC, from 6-8 pm. All winners were in
attendance except for the awardee from Mexico, who had a representative
deliver an acceptance speech on his behalf.

NAPPC is a growing, collaborative body of diverse partners, including
respected scientists, researchers, private sector stakeholders,
conservationists and government officials working to find common ground on
innovative initiatives that help pollinators. “We are pleased to be able
to recognize the outstanding efforts of these special individuals, who are
leading by example in taking innovative actions that help make the North
American landscape a better place for our pollinating partners” says Val
Dolcini, President and CEO of the Pollinator Partnership, which facilitates
NAPPC.

*A brief description of award winners and their actions follows:*

*2017 NAPPC Pollinator Advocate – United States*
*Nikolas Liepins*, founder and COO of Bee Kind MN, gives age focused
presentations to youth in local schools and scouts groups. After starting
out as a project for his FIRST®Lego® League Team at Saint Paul Academy and
Summit School, where his bee houses were a component for the competition
solution, Nikolas took it upon himself to establish the 501c3, Bee Kind MN.
He makes several resources available to the general public on his website
including plant lists and bee house building instructions. He has also
presented and held activities at Aldo Leopold Weekend at the Minnesota
Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Landscape revival EXPO, and Pollinator
Party in the twin cities area. In addition to education, Nikolas has
partnered with 3M and Target Center to promote biodiversity by placing
native bee houses across their campuses. On his website, 140 bee houses are
registered from the United States, Canada, and France, and he provides free
seeds for pollinator plants to all who register their bee houses in
Minnesota.
**
*2017 NAPPC-NACD Farmer-Rancher - United States*
*Brendon Rockey* of Rockey Farms is known for growing its specialty
potatoes and quinoa. Under Brendon’s direction, Rockey Farms has become a
leader in using a biotic approach to farming. Brendon uses biological
inputs like companion crops, livestock, green manure fields, and flowering
strips instead of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. These
inputs are all part of a system that supports soil health and attracts
pollinators as well as other beneficial insects that act as a defense
against aphids and thrips. Four-row flowering strips in his fields serve as
nectar hubs, and helped give his 90 seed potato lots a perfect inspection
score under biotic Integrated Pest Management last year. Brendon also uses
nectar plants in his potato greenhouse to create pollinator habitat and
eliminate the need for insecticide. He has begun incorporating a legume
heavy mix of companion crops that fixes nitrogen, mobilizes phosphorus, and
creates more pollinator habitat. During the winter months, Brendon travels
North America to share his success, and in 2017 went as far as France and
Belgium. The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD)
co-sponsors this award with NAPPC.

*2017 NAPPC Pollinator Advocate – Canada*
*Dr. Cameron Cartiere and Nancy Holmes *of at Border Free Bees provide a
model for how communities can come together to create and preserve
pollinator habitat and understand the scope of pollination systems. For the
last three years, this project has been influential in biodiversity
conservation in the province of British Columbia, particularly in the
municipalities of Richmond in the Vancouver area and Kelowna in the
agricultural valley of the Okanagan. It has created over 40 projects,
events, and educational experiences in these communities, ranging from
major plantings and significant art exhibitions to smaller community
gatherings and projects. Although Border Free Bees is in its last year, the
projects will continue into 2018 including projects that are being
developed in Idaho and Mexico.

*2017 NAPPC Farmer-Rancher - Canada*
*Antony John* of Soiled Reputation has been supplying south- western
Ontario for over 20 years with over 50 varieties of gourmet organic
vegetables. It was also the host farm for former Foodtv show “The Manic
Organic”, demonstrating the principles of organic gardening and associated
benefits. Antony was trained as a wildlife biologist, and his farm is run
as an ecosystem where maximizing biodiversity is the paramount objective.
In addition to being certified organic, the farm is certified bee-friendly.
A 2-acre meadow is home to 24 bee hives, and is used as a breeding station
to produce more queens for other bee yards. Flowering plants can be found
in the huge native garden, interspersed through crops, and in buffer strips
that flower throughout the growing season, providing a consistent food
source for pollinators. Legumes are also interseeded with crops and planted
in buffer strips for nitrogen fixation and pollination. Grass strips and 20
acres of legumes in rotation provide further cover and food.

*2017 NAPPC Pollinator Advocate – Mexico*
*Eduardo Rendon Salinas* began his work with monarchs in 1993 as part of a
research team that systematically monitored monarch overwintering forests
in Mexico. Since then, he has continued to monitor the monarch population,
first as Assistant Director of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve
(MBBR) and, since 2004, as Director of the Monarch Butterfly Program for
WWF. With MBBR, his research led to the increase of protected area from
16,110 to 56,259 hectares. He also established the baseline of forest cover
in core habitat areas. In 2009, he was instrumental in working with the
indigenous community to develop a community surveillance strategy that
resulted in the eradication of clandestine logging in the MBBR core area.
In 2013, Eduardo organized the First International Symposium on Research
and Conservation of the Monarch Butterfly, and he has been instrumental in
coordinating three more symposia. To date, he has coordinated the
reforestation of 11,637 hectares of forests in the Monarch Region with 13
million native trees, 12 million of which have been produced in a network
of 13 community nurseries established by WWF and its national and
international partners.

The formal NAPPC conference, hosted by the American Farm Bureau Federation,
took place October 18 and 19th. Timely topics included pollinators and the
Endangered Species Act; pathogens, pesticides and pollinators; the critical
role of state apiarists; managing roadsides for pollinators; Palmer
Amaranth and the CRP; Canadian agriculture and pollinators; the Million
Pollinator Garden Challenge; the current state of the beekeeping industry;
and reports from honey bee health researchers on projects funded through
NAPPC. Task forces worked to select consensus-based projects and desired
outcomes for the coming year. Additional information about pollinator award
winners from 2017 and previous years is available at
http://pollinator.org/awards.

*See the full release with photos at:*
http://pollinator.org/assets/globals/2017-NAPPC-Awards-Media-Advisory.pdf

-- 

Kelly Rourke

Program Coordinator

Pollinator Partnership

423 Washington Street, 5th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94111

e:  kr at pollinator.org

w: www.pollinator.org

p: 415.362.1137

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