What a line-up!

Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, has organized a fantastic group of speakers for the UC Davis Speakers' Stage at the California Honey Festival, set Saturday, May 6 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in downtown Woodland. The event is free and family friendly.

Harris, who co-founded the California Honey Festival in 2017, is an expert on all things honey. And she knows her bees. She's the co-owner of Z Food Specialty and The HIVE, Woodland.

Harris founded the Honey and Pollination Center in 2012 and plans to retire at the end of June. Don't expert her to retire, however, from the Apis mellifera world!

The UC Davis Speakers' Stage will be just west of First Street, Harris related. It will be a'buzzing.

One of the speakers is Sanmu "Samtso" Caoji of Tibet, China, a 2022-23 Hubert Humphrey Fellow at UC Davis. She's the founder of the Shangri-la Gyalthang Academy, and CEO of the Cultural Information Consulting Company. 

Caoji will speak at 2:30 on "Empowering Women to Become Beekeepers and Bread Winners for Their Families While Keeping Bees in the Wild." Read her biography here.

What's the Humphrey Fellowship? President Jimmy Carter established it in 1978 to honor the late Hubert Humphrey (1911-1978), vice president under the Lyndon Johnson administration. The fellowship program "brings accomplished mid-career professionals from countries with developing and emerging economies to the United States for professional and leadership development," according to UC Davis Global Affairs.

Global Affairs reports that "As a Humphrey fellow at UC Davis, Samtso intends to obtain public nutrition in depth, conduct marketing strategies on add-valued agro-products and dive into Geographic Information System mapping skills to document various Tibetan herbal medications and nutrition for its people, and inventory local vegetation in natural biodiverse beekeeping zones in western China."

The speakers will deliver 20 to 30-minute talks, starting at 10:30 a.m.

10:30 a.m.: Pollination ecologist and professor Neal Williams, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who will discuss "Native Bees and their Conservation"

11 a.m.: Kitty Bolte, GATEways horticulturist, UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, "Planting Your Garden to be a Welcoming Space for Pollinators"  

12 noon: Amina Harris,  director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, and co-owner of Z Food Specialty and The HIVE, Woodland, "Let's Learn to Taste Honey."

1 p.m.: Wendy Mather, co-program manager of the California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMPB), "So, You Want to Be a Beekeeper?" 

1:30 p.m.: Jean-Philippe Marelli, senior director of Integrated Pest Management for Mars Wrigley Confectionery (also a journey level master beekeeper and Melipona beekeeper in Brazil), "Stingless Bees: The Amazing World of Melipona Bees"

2 p.m.: Cooperative Extension apiculturist/associate professor Elina Lastro Niño of Entomology and Nematology, and director of the California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMPB), "What Our Bee Research Is Teaching Us."

2:30 p.m.: Sanmu "Samtso" Caoji, a 2022-23 Hubert Humphrey fellow, and founder of the Shangri-la Gyalthang Academy, and CEO of the Cultural Information Consulting Company, "Empowering Women to Become Beekeepers and Bread Winners for Their Families While Keeping Bees in the Wild"

3 p.m.: Rachel Davis, coordinator of Bee City USA Woodland and chair of Bee Campus USA UC Davis (and GATEways Horticulturist for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden), "Woodland Is a Bee City; UC Davis Is a Bee City--What This Means to Our Communities"

UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology communications specialist Kathy Keatley Garvey will provide a background slide show of images of honey bees and native bees.

The UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program,  founded in 2016 by Niño,  provides a program of learning, teaching, research, and public service. They offer comprehensive, science-based information about honey bees and honey bee health.  Since 2016, the organization has donated 32,000 hours of volunteer time and served 186,630 individuals in education, outreach and beekeeping mentorship. Read more about their classes and their work on their website.

Following the California Honey Festival, an after-party will be held from 5 to 9 p.m. at The HIVE Tasting Room and Kitchen, 1221 Harter Ave., Woodland.  It will feature pollinator-inspired food, drinks, and dancing to the music of Joy and Madness, an 8-piece soul and funk group.  Tickets are $20 and will benefit the California Master Beekeeper Program. "Each ticket includes entry to win a bountiful Yolo County food and drink basket (value $500)," Harris said.  More information is on this website.

If you haven't signed up for the Seed Pile Project,  it's not too late.

Those who live in the Sacramento area (including Davis) and the East Bay, are invited to register for the citizen scientist project sponsored by UC Davis doctoral alumnus Billy Krimmel, ecologist and founder of Miridae Living Labs, West Sacramento.

The goal: to see the dynamics of native plant seed dispersal in human-dominated landscapes. "Sign-ups are open until mid-January or until we run out of seed packets!" said Ashley Hong, Seed Pile Project intern.

Miridae has extended the time frame from December to mid-January to drop the seeds.  

Miridae is working with pollination ecologist Neal Williams, professor, and urban landscape entomologist Emily Meineke, assistant professor. Also on the team is assistant professor Haven Kiers of the Department of Human Ecology, who specializes in landscape architecture and environmental design.

Here's what you do: 

1. You sign up here
2. You get 3 free packets of native wildflower seeds
3. You drop them somewhere in your neighborhood or commute
4. You DO NOT water or maintain them
5. You monitor them once a month until May using the Miridae app and "tell us what you see"

"We encourage folks of all ages to participate, and we provide resources such as seedling identification guides to help you identify the species in your seed piles," Krimmel told us. "This is a great project for school classes and scout troops in addition to individuals."

It works like this: "Community participants to drop small piles of local, California native seeds in urban areas where they live or work, then monitor the results through repeated observations," as Krimmel explained.  "Using data from participants on the conditions under which certain species of these locally adapted seeds spread, survive, or die, we can gain a better understanding of which native species to incorporate into the built environment and where to put them for the greatest ecological benefit and resilience."

What's in the wildflower mix?

Sacramento Region seed mix:

• Eschscholzia californica, California poppy                       
• Phacelia imbricata, Imbricate phacelia
• Clarkia unguiculata, Elegant clarkia            
• Lupinus microcarpus var. densiflorus, Dense-flowered lupine
• Madia elegans, Common madia
• Helianthus annuus, Sunflower                              
• Nemophila menziesii, Baby blue eyes

East Bay Region seed mix:

• Eschscholzia californica, California poppy      
• Phacelia californica, Rock phacelia     
• Hemizonia congesta ssp. luzulifolia, Hayfield tarweed
• Clarkia purpurea, Purple clarkia    
• Lupinus bicolor, Miniature lupine             
• Nemophila menziesii, Baby blue eyes

 Happy seed-piling!

Want to join the 2022-23 Seed Pile Project, a community science initiative by Miridae Living Labs of West Sacramento and UC Davis faculty that aims to better understand the dynamics of native plant seed dispersal in human-dominated landscapes? 

If you live in the Sacramento area (including Davis) and the East Bay, ecologist Billy Krimmel, a UC Davis doctoral alumnus and founder of Miridae Living Labs, invites you to participate.

1. You sign up here
2. You get 3 free packets of native wildflower seeds
3. You drop them somewhere in your neighborhood or commute
4. You DO NOT water or maintain them
5. You monitor them once a month until May using the Miridae app and "tell us what you see"

It works like this: "Community participants to drop small piles of local, California native seeds in urban areas where they live or work, then monitor the results through repeated observations," Krimmel said. "Using data from participants on the conditions under which certain species of these locally adapted seeds spread, survive, or die, we can gain a better understanding of which native species to incorporate into the built environment and where to put them for the greatest ecological benefit and resilience."

"The basic goal is to learn which species can thrive in human-occupied spaces, especially transportation corridors," said Krimmel, who received his doctorate in ecology in 2015, studying native plant-insect interactions with major professor Jay Rosenheim, distinguished professor of entomology.  "This year we are collaborating with UC Davis entomologists who will use these seed piles to learn about how certain urban conditions impact native bee species."

Miridae will be working with two UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty, pollination ecologist Neal Williams, professor, and urban landscape entomologist Emily Meineke, assistant professor. Also on the team is assistant professor Haven Kiers of the Department of Human Ecology, who specializes in landscape architecture and environmental design. 

"We encourage folks of all ages to participate, and we provide resources such as seedling identification guides to help you identify the species in your seed piles," Krimmel said. "This is a great project for school classes and scout troops in addition to individuals."

The seed packets will contain Arroyo Lupine, California golden poppy, Phacelia ciliata, Bolander's sunflower, Madia elegans and Nemophila.

A kickoff gathering is set from 4 to 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 17 at the Jackrabbit Brewing in West Sacramento where participants can pick up their seed packets, meet other participants, and perhaps buy a native plant and/or beverage. "There will be other pickup options as well," he said. 

Krimmel founded the company, located at 1385 Terminal St., West Sacramento, with the intention of “creating habitat for native species within human-occupied areas and engaging people with the species interactions occurring in these habitations.” Its mission: "To strengthen connections between people, native plants, and wildlife through design, construction, outreach and research."

The name, Miridae, is Latin for a family of insects known as “plant bugs,” or mirids, which Krimmel researches. One of the most well-known mirid is the lygus bug, a serious pest of cotton, strawberries and alfalfa. 

Miridae won the highly competitive 2020 Award of Excellence for Communication from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) for its Seed Bank Living Wall at DPR Construction, Sacramento.   The ASLA awards, judged by a jury of professionals, honor the best in landscape architecture from around the globe.

Of his company, Krimmel says: “We create habitat for, and engage people with, native plants and the wildlife they support. We do this by tying together design, science, and high-quality construction to create landscapes that are beautiful, resilient, and ecologically powerful.”  His goal, with each project, is to “come one step closer to creating a network of habitat gardens and migration corridors to support resilient populations of native species.” 

Krimmel may be reached via his website www.miridae.com or on Instagram. 

UC Davis doctoral candidate Maureen Page, who  investigates the impacts of increasing honey bee abundance on plant-pollinator interactions and plant pollination, will present her exit seminar on "Impacts of Managed Honey Bees on Plant-Pollinator Mutualisms" at 10 a.m., Thursday, May 26 in 122 Briggs Hall and via Zoom. 

The Zoom link: 
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/92038151658. (Contact Page at mpage@ucdavis.edu for the ID number and passcode.)  

Page studies with major professor and pollination ecologist Neal Williams of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Her work suggests that honey bees reduce pollen and nectar availability in flowers, leading to competitive displacement of native bees.

"Competitive displacement of native bees may in turn decrease plant pollination because native bees are often more effective than native bees as pollinators," Page says. "My research suggests that such changes are already occurring for Camassia quamash (small camas) following honey bee introductions in the Sierra Nevada."

Page is scheduled to receive her doctorate in entomology in June 2022 and then begin a postdoctoral fellowship with assistant professor Scott McArt at Cornell University, where she will investigate patterns of interspecific pathogen transmission and how more sustainable beekeeping practices might mitigate the negative effects of competition. McArt recently delivered a seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology on "Pesticide Risk to Pollinators: What We Know and What We Need to Know Better." 

In July 2019, Page collaborated with colleagues at Cornell and the University of Minnesota to present a workshop on the intersections of science and social justice, aiming to make science more open and accessible.

Page holds a master's degree in entomology (2019) from UC Davis and a bachelor's degree in biology (2016), cum laude, from Scripps College, Claremont, Calif.

Highly recognized for her work, Page received a three-year $115,000 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, funded by the Department of Defense. She was one of 69 recipients out of more than 3600 applicants. She earlier won a campuswide 2016-17 Graduate Scholars Fellowship of $25,200; a Vansell Scholarship in both 2018 and 2019; and Davis Society Botanical grants in 2017, 2018 and 2019. A 2018 Duffey-Dingle Research Fellowship also helped fund her research (optimizing pollinator plant mixes to simultaneously support wild and managed bees). 

Active in the Entomological Society of America and the Ecological Society of America, Page scored a second-place award for her project, "Optimizing Wildflower Plant Mixes to Support Wild and Managed Bees" in a 2021 student competition hosted by the Entomological Society of America.  She also presented “Impacts of Honey Bee Introductions on the Pollination of a Sierra Wildflower" at the August 2020 meeting of the Ecological Society of America, and "Can Visitation and Pollen Transport Patterns Predict Plant Pollination?" at the April 2019 meeting of the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America.

A strong supporter of community outreach and STEM, Page has been active in leadership activities in the summer program, Girls Outdoor Adventure and Leadership (GOALS) since August 2017.  The free program targets underrepresented teens. Page has served as a program co-organizer, mentor and lecturer.  She helped organize the 2021 summer program, led a lecture on introductory data analysis, and assisted students with their community science project (identifying pollinators in urban gardens).

Page was also active in Center for Land-Based Learning, serving as a mentor in the Student and Landowner Education and Watershed Stewardship. She mentored high school students, engaging them in hands-on conservation science at Say Hay Farm in Yolo County, and teaching them about how wildflower plantings benefit bees.

Page and postdoctoral researcher Charlie Casey Nicholson of Williams lab co-authored the November 2021 cover story, A Meta-Analysis of Single Visit Pollination Effectiveness Comparing Honeybees and other Floral Visitors, in the American Journal of Botany