Gardening for Bees: Library Lecture now arranged by Xerces and HMEG

Gardening for Bees: Pollinators are essential to the health of our ecosystem and also to the integrity of our food supply. Elaine Evans from the University of Minnesota and the Xerces Society will present information on how your garden can benefit from having a healthy pollinator population. You will also learn what steps to take to encourage native pollinators in our gardens. Made possible by the Hamline Midway Environmental Group (www.hmeg.org) and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (www.xerces.org).

Note, this lecture is part of the Library's spring gardening series.

Date: March 2nd, 2011
Time: 6:30-7:30 pm
Location: Hamline Midway Library

Elaine Evans Conservation Consultant, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Portland, OR, and PhD Candidate at the University of Minnesota. She completed her B.S. in Biology in 1993 from Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA and her M.S. in Entomology at the U of M, St. Paul, 2001, where she studied the impact of floral resource competition between honey bees and bumble bees on the reproductive success of native bumble bees as well as tomato and cranberry pollination and bumble bee rearing. A summary of bumble bee rearing is in the book ―Befriending Bumble Bees: A Guide to Raising Local Bumble Bees. (ALA Godort 2008 Notable Government Document Award Winner) She also authored a chapter on bumble bee pollination in a forthcoming book on bees by fellow Xerces staff member Eric Mader. The focus of her work is to promote conservation of native pollinators. Elaine has worked as a Conservation Consultant for the Xerces Society, a non-profit insect conservation organization, where she worked for Xerces since 2007 studying declining North American Bombus populations. She is currently studying native bee populations in North Dakota.