[Pollinator] NAPPC Provides Recognition to Pollinator Advocates, Farmer-Ranchers, DOTs, and Businesses in 2021 Award Ceremony

[Anthony Colangelo]

*The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) Provides
Recognition to Pollinator Advocates, Farmer-Ranchers, DOTs, and Businesses
in 2021 Award Ceremony*



On October 19, 2021, this year’s award winners from the United States,
Canada, and Mexico were honored by Pollinator Partnership and the North
American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) during the NAPPC
conference. By recognizing individuals or organizations that have
contributed significantly to the promotion and conservation of pollinator
species, NAPPC aims to encourage their activities and inspire future
actions in support of pollinators.



NAPPC is a collaborative body of diverse partners, including respected
scientists, researchers, private sector stakeholders, conservationists and
government officials working to find common ground to catalyze
groundbreaking initiatives that benefit pollinators.



“Each one of our awardees this year showcases a unique and meaningful
dedication to the protection and promotion of pollinator species. As we
honor their efforts, we hope others will be inspired to learn, plant,
study, and celebrate pollinators,” says Kelly Rourke, Executive Director of
Pollinator Partnership, which founded and facilitates NAPPC.



A brief description of award winners and their actions follows:



*2021 NAPPC Pollinator Advocate – United States*

*The Bee Cause Project* is a Charleston, SC based non-profit organization
that works to engage students of all ages within their own environments
through observation-based learning. Ted Dennard, a lifelong beekeeper and
the founder of Savannah Bee Company, and Tami Enright, a fellow beekeeper
and environmental educator, have dedicated their lives to protecting
pollinators, founding The Bee Cause Project and securing a national
partnership with the Whole Kids Foundation. The organization solicits honey
bee grant and observation hive program receives hundreds of schools’
participation applications annually, and *more than 550 schools and
organizations have received bee grants to date, impacting thousands of
children across North America*. They have also introduced digital hives as
an alternative for schools or community centers that cannot host a live
beehive, and have just launched a Pollinator Garden Grant for Libraries.
The organization’s goal is to be equally open and accessible to
everyone, *expanding
their educational offerings to the Open Educational Resources Commons (OER)*.
If a teacher is looking for a pollinator or bee-specific lesson that
addresses the STEAM standards for their class, they can search it in OER
and find free and printable versions of The Bee Cause project’s curricula.



*2021 NAPPC-NACD Farmer-Rancher - United States*

*Dan and Michael O’Laughlin* operate a 200-acre farm in Yamhill County, OR
that primarily grows tall fescue seed. There are few pollinator initiatives
in Oregon that the O’Laughlins have not supported or helped, including
having surveyed bees at over 1,500 locations for the Oregon Bee Atlas,
having worked with the county to establish trials assessing roadside
pollinator seed mixes, having created pollinator habitat at schools through
the State School Garden Network, and having served as leaders in the State
Pollinator Protection Initiative, the Oregon Bee Project. O’Laughlin Farm
has also made major strides to increase insect biodiversity. The farm
rarely uses insecticides owing to the high endemic populations of
beneficial insects and vertebrates, and insectary plantings are key to this
strategy. Many of the plants they use are important nectar and pollen
sources and butterfly host plants. They have also created a *1/3 mile-long
beetle bank* that also serves as a Monarch Waystation. They have worked
hard to *enhance their riparian areas* by planting key shrubs and trees;
they *rotate beneficial cover crops* for pollinators; they *maintain muddy
ponds* for social wasps; they have *enhanced their woodlands* by planting
early blooming trees. Among other initiatives, the O’Laughlin brothers take
their knowledge back to the community via a *100 person classroom* in their
barn equipped with dissecting microscopes. Michael alone has contributed
over *2,500 hours to train volunteers* in the Master Gardener program.


*2021 NAPPC Pollinator Advocate – Canada*

*Pollination Guelph*, founded in 2008, is an entirely volunteer-run
charitable organization that focuses on protecting pollinator habitats by
building and maintaining public and private gardens throughout Guelph, ON.
Several *notable projects include Eastview Pollinator Park, The Gosling
Pollinator Gardens at Hospice Wellington, Trans Canada Trail Pollinator
Gardens, and Clair Road Emergency Services Centre Pollinator Habitat
Meadow.* In addition to on-the-ground work, Pollination Guelph reaches out
to its diverse audience with numerous education initiatives and advocacy
campaigns through their website in the form of videos, web links,
downloads, factsheets, and newsletters on a wide range of topics. The
organization also hosts an annual symposium featuring workshops and
networking opportunities that is attended by people from all over Canada.
In addition, their Community Grant program enables other nonprofit groups
in Guelph to establish and maintain pollinator habitat. In 2021, this
program *provided a total of $10,000 to 16 local organizations.*



*2021 NAPPC Farmer-Rancher – Canada*

*Shannon McNally *of White Church Farm manages over 33 hectares for
pollinators in Mount Hope, ON. Once a monocrop corn and soy farm, Shannon
has been hard at work planning for long term biodiversity. Each year, she
tries to restore areas by planting permanent, native species including *30
trees, acres of permanent pasture, and hundreds of perennial wildflowers*
last year alone. She has also planted *over 5 acres in permanent, mixed bee
forage, created clover pathways around the farm, cultivated diverse, mature
tree lines and hedgerows, and recently established a 2-acre permaculture
orchard.* Each year, the farm grows a succession of sunflower fields for
bee forage and bird seed and plants cover crop for pollinators. In the
coming year, Shannon plans to restore a riparian area with native trees and
shrubs as well as install a monarch focused garden featuring three milkweed
species.



 *2021 NAPPC Pollinator Advocate – Mexico*

*Especies, Sociedad y Habitat, A.C.* (ESHAC) is a nonprofit organization
that uses a human community-centered approach to implement projects that
promote the conservation of natural resources and endangered species while
promoting sustainable use of biodiversity. ESHAC has *implemented more than
30 projects in northeast Mexico, impacting more than 30,000 hectares of
priority area for conservation* in the region. Over the last five years,
ESHAC has been collaborating closely with Don Martin-CONANP to promote the
conservation of the Mexican long-nosed bat (*Leptonycteris nivalis*), with
special emphasis on protecting cave roosts and enhancing foraging habitat
along their migratory corridor. To date, they have *planted over 9,500
agaves near critical roosts and restored over 250 hectares of habitat*.
They have also worked with local communities to develop holistic management
approaches*, train 79 individuals form 5 communities* in sustainable and
regenerative agriculture and grazing techniques, and pioneer a drone-based
survey protocol to evaluate foraging resources for pollinating bats at the
landscape level.



*2021 NAPPC Farmer-Rancher – Mexico*

*Emilio Vieyra *owns and operates Mezcal Don Mateo de la Sierra to produce
one of the few environmentally friendly, sustainable mezcals. He ensures
that the areas where they grow agaves remain forested and was one of the
first to receive *recognition of Bat Friendly© practices*, keeping the
recognition each year since 2016. In keeping with this recognition, Emilio
allows *at least 5% of his agaves to flower* for bats and other
pollinators. The majority of bats visiting their plants are the *endangered
Mexican long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris nivalis)*, showing the impact of
their practices at the local level. Regionally, Emilio is educating his
peers and extending his practices to other mezcal producers. He also *hosts
practical seminars* covering all his production processes for bartenders
and others during the flowering season, creating many other promoters of
Bat Friendly© practices in the process.



 *2021 NAPPC Electric Power*

Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s (TRCA) *The Meadoway* is an
active urban restoration project in Toronto, ON that encompasses *200
hectares and 16 linear kilometers* of the Gatineau Hydro Corridor between
the Don River Ravine and the Rouge National Urban Park. The goals of the
revitalization are to create and maintain a diverse, native meadow habitat
for local wildlife and to create and active East-West link between Toronto
and the Rouge National Urban Park. Full project completion is expected by
the end of 2024, but by the end of 2021, *64 hectares will have been
restored, completing 70% of the project*. The Meadoway will connect *seven
rivers and ravine systems, 15 parks, 16 km of trail, 13 neighborhoods, over
200 hectares of greenspace, and more than 1,000 diverse species of flora
and fauna*. Corporate and community groups have also been engaged as
participants in stewardship activities including the planting of native
potted stock, garbage collection, invasive species removal, and
interpretive walks.



*2021 NAPPC Roadside Managers*

The *Nebraska Department of Transportation* (NDOT) includes environmental
stewardship as a goal within its mission statement and seeks to fulfill
this commitment by establishing desirable vegetation, managing roadsides,
and removing undesirable plants. A Roadside Development and Compliance Unit
focuses on an ecoregional approach to these activities to ensure that the
agency’s rights-of-way serve as pollinator habitat and are improved as
appropriate. Seed mixtures planted off highway *shoulders contain nearly
25% native wildflower seed*, and NDOT has been working with Nebraska Game
and Parks Commission to plant locally adapted high-diversity prairie seed
along the *321 mile-long Nebraska Cowboy trail*. NDOT has also taken great
care to *steward small white lady slipper orchid*, a very rare orchid
pollinated by halictine bees. In the Cowboy Trail project alone, *60 acres
and more than 15,000 milkweeds were hand planted*. NDOT has also funded
University of Nebraska research investigating wildflower islands’ effects
on pollinating species and pollinator use of roadside vegetation.



*2021 NAPPC Lifetime Achievement*

*Peter Kevan* is University Professor Emeritus for the School of
Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph. He was Scientific
Director for the Canadian Pollination Initiative Strategic Network from
2009-2015 and has served on the executive Committee of the International
Union for Biological Sciences since 2009. He also serves as President of
the International Commission for Plant Pollinator Relations. Dr. Kevan
received his B.Sc. from McGill University in 1965 and his Ph.D. from
University of Alberta in 1970. He has had full-time appointments with the
Canadian Wildlife Service, Agriculture Canada, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, University of Colorado, and University of Guelph. Dr. Kevan
developed and taught pollination biology courses for undergraduate and
graduate students in Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia and is the
editor of several influential books including “Pollinating Bees: The
Conversation Link Between Agriculture and Nature” and “Practical
Pollination Biology”. He has authored *over 250 scientific papers and book
chapters and holds several patents*. He is a *pioneer in micrometeorology
of plants and insects* and was one of the first to ask questions about
pollination conservation in the 1970s. He is a *founder of NAPPC* and has
been instrumental in the many successes of this collaborative.



 *2021 NAPPC Business for Bees*

 The *Almond Board of California* (ABC) and the over 7000 growers it
represents are true leaders in pollinator conservation. For many years,
they have worked to improve habitat in and around orchards, supported
important research, and helped growers get credit for the practices they
already execute to improve bee health. In 2020, ABC launched its *five-point
Pollinator Protection Plan* aimed at protecting bees during the almond
bloom and beyond, reaffirming the industry’s long-standing commitment. This
plan includes: 1. *partnering with Pollinator Partnership’s Bee Friendly
Farming program* to integrate it with the California Almond Sustainability
Program’s bee health module, 2. implementing a series *of in-orchard
workshops* covering its previously developed Honey Bee BMPs, 3. improving
communication between beekeepers and farmers by *supporting the BeeWhere
app*, 4. *increasing on-farm floral diversity* by working with Project Apis
m. and others, and 5. *funding five new research studies* into honey bee
health.



The NAPPC conference, hosted virtually by Pollinator Partnership and the
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, is taking place October 19
– 21 and topics included the intersection of sustainable food systems and
pollinator health; predicting and managing bee health; creating resilient
food systems by supporting communities and pollinators; rewarding farmers
for the collective benefits of installing pollinator habitat; documenting
native bee populations; indigenous land practices and pollinator health;
communicating pollinator science to a wide audience; 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 2021 and
previous years is available at http://pollinator.org/awards.



*ABOUT THE POLLINATOR PARTNERSHIP (P2) AND THE NORTH AMERICAN POLLINATOR
PROTECTION CAMPAIGN (NAPPC)*

Established in 1997, P2, a 501(c)3 headquartered in San Francisco,
California, was incorporated in 1997.  P2’s mission is to promote the
health of pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through
conservation, education, and research. Visit www.pollinator.org for more
information.



P2 facilitates NAPPC, a tri-national collaboration working to promote
awareness and scientific understanding of pollinators; to gather, organize
and disseminate information about pollinators; to provide a forum to
identify and discuss pollinator issues; and to promote projects,
initiatives and activities that enhance pollinators.  NAPPC's mission is to
encourage the health of resident and migratory pollinating animals in North
America. NAPPC partners gather from throughout the North American continent
to raise public awareness and education and promote constructive dialogue
about pollinators’ importance to agriculture, ecosystem health, and food
supplies. NAPPC encourages collaborative, working partnerships among
participants and with federal, state and local government entities. The
annual conference strengthens the network of associated organizations
working on behalf of pollinators to promote conservation, protection and
restoration of habitat, and to document and support scientific, economic
and policy research. Information about NAPPC, including past
accomplishments and highlights of past NAPPC conferences, is available at
http://pollinator.org/nappc.

*Read the full press release at *https://www.pollinator.org/in-the-news.


Best,

Anthony Colangelo (he/him)
Communications Coordinator
Pollinator Partnership Canada

PO Box 73619

Wychwood PO

Toronto, Ontario

c: 647-895-2393

<https://www.pollinatorpartnership.ca/>
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