Several UC Davis scientists, including Professor Lynn Kimsey,  and Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology,  weighed in on "The Plight of the Pollinators," in an informative article by Ula Chrobak in the March edition of UC Davis Magazine, edited by Jocelyn Anderson. 

Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, specializes in Hymenoptera. One of her activities: she hosts the annual Robbin Thorp Memorial Bumble Bee Contest contest to determine who can find the first bumble bee of the year in the three-county area of Yolo, Solano and Sacramento.  

Niño, the statewide Extension apiculturist, serves as the director of the California Master Beekeepers' Program, and faculty director of the UC Davis Bee Haven. 

Also featured were Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, who has monitored the butterfly population of Central California since 1972; and avian veterinarian and hummingbird expert Lisa Tell, a UC Davis professor of veterinary medicine and author of a newly published children's poetry book, "If Hummingbirds Could Hum," that relates how to attract hummers.

Some resources mentioned:

• What to plant to attract bees and other pollinators: See the UC Davis Bee Haven website, directed by Niño and managed by Chris Casey. The Haven, located on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus, is open year around, from dawn to dusk.
• What to plant to attract butterflies: See Art Shapiro's website, Art's Butterfly World 
• Sign up for bee classes with the California Master Beekeepers' Program, launched and directed by Elina Lastro Niño
• See pollinators and other insects at the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology, home of a global collection of 8 million insect specimens. (The Bohart, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, is temporarily closed due to COVID-19 pandemic precautions) 

Photographs for the UC Davis Magazine article are the work of Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and an avid pollinator photographer.

UC Davis Magazine, which has been covering the campus community since 1983, is printed in March and September. A yearly subscription is $12.