Bee Friendly Resources
One of the best ways to provide habitat that encourages bees and other wildlife is to make your yard more natural. Ecologist Doug Tallamy says that over 80% of the land in America is privately owned. If you and I and our neighbors simply improved our own back yard habitat, our impact across the country could be gigantic! Some of our students at Clark College do an activity in the spring where they plant native flower seeds in 10% of their yard—even little patches help the creatures that need pollen, nectar and food.
If you are thinking about creating some wilderness in your yards, here are some resources to get you started:
Web Pages
The Xerces Society
The Xerces Society is the organization that sponsors Bee Campus. Their site has all kinds of information about bees including:
Backyard Habitat program
The Backyard Habitat program is designed to help gardeners create habitat in their yards. The Portland Audubon Society and Vancouver’s Columbia Land Trust have advice, how-to info and even a backyard certification program.
Vancouver Bee Project
The Vancouver Bee Project aims to help bees throughout Vancouver. This grass-roots program (really they are a flower-roots program 😊) has workshops, advice, education and more for people wanting to create habitat for bees.
10 things to get you started
On 10 things to get you started Doug Tallamy has put together things each of us can do to restore biodiversity.
Videos
With comments from our Bee Campus coordinator, Steven Clark.
North American Bee Diversity and Identification
I like this Xerces Classroom video. It gives some basic information about how our native bees are different from honey bees. Then, Matthew Shepherd gives us a thumbnail sketch of some common native bees. This video is make by the Xerces Society and Xerces is the organization that manages Bee Campuses!
North American Bee Diversity and IdentificationPollinators Best Hope
This inspiring video by Doug Tallamy makes the point that the best way to help our native pollinators is by making pollinator habitat in our own yards.
Pollinators Best HopeBumble Bees and Community Science
Another video by the Xerces Society—the group that sponsors Bee Campus. Rich Hatfield introduces viewers in a citizen science effort to observe bumblebees. Bumblebees are large, gentle and easy to identify. This video gives information about bumblebees and how people can participate in a valued science effort.
Bumble Bees and Community ScienceHow lucky are you?
More lucky than a four-leaf-clover is finding a native bee nest. This is not easy. But in this interesting video, a man has successfully built a space for native bumblebees and after two years, the bees have selected it for a home! To sweeten the pot, you can see inside the nest.
Look inside a bumblebee nestThe Solitary Bees
Bees are so different from humans and other vertebrates that it can be hard to wrap your brain around the many differences. But this video is a nice introduction to solitary bees. [Most non-honeybees are solitary so a solitary bee is like saying a native bee.] Wonderful images of mason bee nests.
The Solitary Bees