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Beekeepers in Training

CALLING ALL FUTURE BEEKEEPERS

Parents keep reading! Your child may be able to join in on the fun as well!
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THE METRO-ATLANTA BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION

A One Day Only Introduction to the Fundamentals of Beekeeping

EVENT TIME & LOCATION:

January 25, 2020 at the Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in Atlanta 

WHAT KIND OF INFORMATION WILL YOU RECEIVE?:

Throughout the ~ 8 hr session, you will get to hear from experts in the field of beekeeping, entomology, and botany! This informational experience will set you on the path to becoming a beekeeper yourself as you will learn valuable skills such as when to set up your hive, where to get your bees, and how to care for them. As a bonus, you will receive a 1-year membership with the Metro-Atlanta Beekeepers Association!

WHO CAN COME?:

Anyone is welcome to come, however, parents should be cautious about registering their child as this is an all day event.

WHAT IS THE FEE?:

The fee per person is $105 dollars and you should look to register before December 15, 2019

                                                                          Register Here!

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Pollinators: Climate Change and Policies

As Winter approaches the City of Atlanta is experiencing a colder Autumn when compared to last year’s temperature (September 2017: Earth’s 4th Warmest September on Record). The 2018 Hurricane season brought devastating consequences for NC, FL, and other parts of the world. For human and material losses we have the data; for the ecological damage, we are still counting. In some cases, the full extent of environmental damage will not emerge for months or years. These scenarios are a constant reminder that we have to try to understand that climate change (increasing temperature trends with erratic behavior cold to warm and vice-versa recorded since 1910 to present) is a reality that affects every single living form on this planet.

In 2018 several interviews and research studies took place around the globe on climate change and pollinator recurrence. One, in particular, caught my attention a few months ago: “Unusually Hot Spring Threw Plants, Pollinators Out of Sync in Europe” This article not only gives us a look into research on how pollinator specific relationships can be altered by climate change, but how all species react differently to its effects. We might think that planting a pollinator garden will serve to support a healthy environment for animal pollinators but it is not as simple as that.

In the US, former President Barack Obama established a Federal Strategy to Promote the health of honey bees and other pollinators in a Presidential Memoranda in 2014. As a quick Civics lesson reminder, an executive memorandum does not have to be submitted to the Federal Register, making them more difficult to pursue and accomplish, this means that is up to the citizens and researchers to keep working on this initial plan.

In May 2015, the Pollinator Research Action Plan was published. The first of three priority research themes is to:

“Develope the taxonomic capacity to establish a system of surveys and assessments that provide statistically-defensible estimates of change, distribution, abundance and health of pollinators”.

This means that institutions or citizen science initiatives on pollinator conservation should use standardized methodologies, that accurately provide baseline data in pollinator status and trends in specific areas of interest. Correct identification of pollinator communities is key; training the new generation of invertebrate taxonomists is an essential and ongoing effort. The Atlanta Botanical Garden has been working on baseline sampling in several City Paks and its grounds in the Midtown location, and training interns in native bee identification in the past months! No wonder we have been so busy!

Long-term data collection studies are essential for finding trends in insect-plant relations and climate change. Data from this surveys establish a baseline of information for the native pollinators present in introduced pollinator gardens, naturally occurring woodlands or a managed landscape such as the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Study case: Specialized Pollination of the Early spider-orchid (Ophrys sphegodes), similar studies can be done at the end of the ABG sampling in 2019.

We still have so much to do, the work never ends!

 

 

 

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STEM Events at Pollinator Gardens

This year has had so many exciting projects and one of them ‘Pollinators in Parks’ – in collaboration with Park Pride and supported by the Home Depot Foundation, has been educational and environmentally conscious. As you might remember, 5 pollinator gardens where built in five different community gardens across Atlanta. Two of the five pollinator gardens where chosen to host an educational event for two different school grades and two different schools which were neighbors of the gardens.

On October 6, our first STEM Event took place at Grove Park Community Garden. Harry Clements, the garden coordinator, assisted with a tour of the community garden. Park Pride Visioning Team (Andrew White, Teri Nye and Betty Hanacek) organized an interactive game about pollen and pollination for the kids. The Atlanta Botanical Garden Conservation team (Chelsea Thomas, Emily Coffey and I) organized three different activities related to Pollinators, community gardens, and Habitats of Georgia. The Habitats of Georgia activity was aimed at the importance of ecosystem interaction through amphibians and reptiles of GA.

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Chelsea Thomas ABG Amphibian Program Coordinator, teaching kids about the importance of these animal species.

The West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA) contributed with an interactive program on the vital importance of water. Grove Park is adjacent to the Proctor Creek. Darryl Haddock of WAWA supervised this activity as well as the completion of this first STEM Event.

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Darryl Haddock WAWA teaching kids about the importance of water in the City.

We had around 107 students of third grade from the Woodson Park Academy. Several teachers chaperoned their students while they were divided into groups to participate in each activity.

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Teri Nye-Park Pride explaining rules for pollinator game to kids!

On November 17, our second STEM event took place at Gilliam Park Community Garden. Debra Brook and Lee Watts from Gilliam Community Garden assisted with this event by teaching the students about Gilliam’s Rain Water Catchment System and their composting system area.

Park Pride and volunteers from the Atlanta Botanical Garden helped with the planting activity. Kids planted around 200 winter greens! These included collards, mustard green, cauliflower, green and red cabbage, mizuna, kohlrabi and lettuces, romaine green and red, green leaf and butterhead. Our own Carrie Radcliffe taught them about medicinal herbs of GA. Chelsea Thomas supported our second event, this time bringing only one friend, ‘a Salamander’, due to cold weather that day.

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After a catch and release activity with entomological nets, students had the opportunity to see some pinned specimens, like native solitary bees, flies, wasps, and beetles.

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We had around 100 9th grade students from Martin Luther King Jr Middle and several teachers as chaperones. We have some insightful students who were asking hard questions to our educators!

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Lee Watts teaching about composting and its importance at small scale

Both events were successful and action-packed!

‘Pollinators in Parks’ as a project is coming to an end, but the goals that were set exceeded our expectations. As we all know, everything that starts has to end but is all about transformation and progress. The next stage of this project will be surveying all five pollinator gardens and plus Linsday Street Park and Vine City Park for native bee communities. I can’t wait to tell you about what lives in our City Parks!

 

 

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Georgia Power for Pollinators

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Deborah Harris and Atlanta Botanical Garden Pollinator Restoration Coordinator Melina Lozano Durán initiated a partnership last summer with Georgia Power ISA Certified Arborist Utility Specialist Kym Stephens and Wildlife Biologist Jim Ozier to create a pollinator habitat on a power line right-of-way.  Georgia Power proposed a project at Morgan Falls Park.  The planting site is not open to the public. Nevertheless, the habitat is likely to attract many bees and butterflies which may be seen by people using the park.  If this site is successful, we propose to expand the project to other areas.

The area is located between the Morgan Falls Overlook Park and the Morgan Falls River Park/ Dog Park, where the most extensive and oldest hydroelectric project in Georgia was built (100 Morgan Falls Road, Sandy Springs, GA).  The right-of-way site is relatively level at the top where the planting took place and then slopes down to the river.  The level planting site is well-drained and has clay soil.  Georgia Power mows the area every three years, and chemical control is applied about a year after mowing to suppress invasives like kudzu.

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Vegetation in the area includes Johnson grass and other invasives.  Some other plants noted in the area include Big bluestem, common lespedeza, wild aster, Queen Ann’s lace, wild mint, hydrangea, sorrel, wild onion, ragweed, horseweed, and clover. Several of these plants are already foraging sources for many insect pollinators, even when some can be considered invasives, and are controlled with herbicide on right-of-ways. 

 

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Plant list was acquired from Chattahoochee Nature Center

 

This project started at the end of June, with several meetings onsite through the next months. The site was prep October 17 by Tri Scapes, and on November 3 the following group met on site to plant!  Melina Lozano Durán (ABG), Chris Barrow (Volunteer), Kym Stephens (GA Power), Terry Wright (Tri Scapes), Deborah Harris (U.S. FWS), Henning Von Schmeling (CNC), and Brooke Vacovsky (Blue Heron Nature Preserve). 

Seed mix will be incorporated later this month. 

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Clean up before planting
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Spacing plants and planting

According to Kym Stephens plants are looking right, we have had some rainy days, and luckily winter will be cold enough so they can survive. Tri Scapes will be spraying herbicide on the sides of the plantings to ensure invasives will not drown our newly pollinator suitable planted species.

 

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Pollinator Conservation through grassland restoration at Panola Mt

 

The Conservation and Research Department at the Atlanta Botanical Garden has been working with partners and other organizations for more than 20 years, in restoring habitats, conducting research on endangered plant species, and ways to reproduce and establish them into their natural habitat.

Panola Mountain State Park is just one of many partners who has benefited from our Conservation efforts through the years.

On April 29, in coordination with Panola Mountain State Park Manager Wayne R. Fuller, DNR-GA Northern Resource Manager Phil Delestrez, US-Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist Deborah Harris (who provided the funding), and Atlanta Botanical Garden Pollinator Garden Coordinator Melina Lozano Durán, we planted around 200 plants, all of them pollinator friendly. Luckily for us, we had the fantastic help from Troop 106 of the Cub Scouts Pack 21.

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Phil Delestrez giving a brief explanation of how planting should be done. He positioned all plants by groups after plants were delivered to the park

 

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Troop 106 of the Cub Scouts Pack 21, learning through planting on a restored area for pollinator insects!

 

30 Symphyotrichum novae angliae – New England Aster
20 Muhlenbergia capillaris – pink muhlygrass
5 Asclepias verticillata – whorled milkweed
13 Aquilegia canadensis – Eastern red columbine
50 Rudbekia fulgida – orange coneflower
57 Asclepias tuberosa – butterfly weed
3 Baptisia alba – false indigo
5 Eutrochium fistulosum – Joe-pyeweed
6 Monarda punctata – spotted beebalm
6 Vernonia noveborascensis – ironweed
6 Yucca filamentosa – Adam’s needle
6 Coreopsis grandiflora – large-flowered tickseed

This short plant list will benefit several insect pollinator species like bees, flies, and butterflies. It will equally help birds like hummingbirds which are pollinators and eat insects as part of their diets.

The Power Flight is a grassland restoration area that came to be part of Panola Mountain State Park in 2001 through a River Care 2000 grant. It had a total acreage of 180 acres and used to be a fescue pasture land.  In 2001 Elaine Nash from the Native Plant Society and Phil started restoring the hill top. Between 2005-2006 Nathan Klaus from NRCS (Non-Game Conservation Section) took over the project and started eliminating exotic plants and restoring grass through the use of prescribed fire to maintain the ecology of the area.

This area is used for bird-watching, butterfly walks, and dragonfly programs, “It is also a unique outdoor classroom to discuss native grassland and meadows” Phil Delestrez commented.

Planting was done in about a 5-acre area. We will be monitoring the plants, especially Asclepias tuberosa, which is a plant species of importance for the Monarch butterfly.

 

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Measuring pollinator diversity at urban parks.

Pollinator gardens are an important addition to urban landscapes as they provide a green-way corridor that connects pollinators to their habitats. Two of Atlanta’s newest urban parks; Lindsay Street Park and Vine City Park have  recently had pollinator gardens designed and installed by the Atlanta Botanical Garden. These parks not only give a place for pollinators to rest and feed, they also provide the surrounding Atlanta neighborhoods with important community green space.

Monitoring pollinator abundance and biodiversity in new pollinator gardens is a critical step in understanding how often pollinators are visiting, and what kinds of pollinators are using the garden. This kind of monitoring can drive garden management, and also direct future pollinator garden installation.

As an initiative of the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Conservation department, pollinator monitoring was conducted at both Lindsay Street and Vine City Parks this summer to estimate abundance and biodiversity. The monitoring was done by a team of high school students from The Paideia School, Forsyth Central High School, Villa Rica High School,  and Mays High School. The student team of 12 was led by Garden’s staff, school teachers, and Spelman University student volunteers from the Greening Youth Foundation. The project  was funded by  the Captain Planet Foundation’s eco technology grant, which awards funds for inquiry based projects in STEM fields that address environmental problems.

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Students visually count and sweep-net for target species in the bioswale at Lindsay Street Park. Photo Credit: Karan Wood, Captain Planet Foundation.

 

Students coupled traditional pollinator visitation methods, with novel molecular biology techniques to identify, record and count the pollinators present at both parks. This pollinator record will drive management at this and other parks, particularly with respect to differences in pollinator abundance found between areas planted with native pollinator friendly plants and those planted with conventional landscape plants. Additionally the data will be used to show the importance of pollinator gardens in urban areas.

The more we understand the way pollinators interact with their habitats the better we become at providing efficient usable pollinator gardens. Take a look around your pollinator garden when its in full swing and note the species visiting, you might just learn a thing or two!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Buzz Flash Hive Mind

You have to Connect to Protect!

The buzz surrounding our declining pollinators keeps getting louder and louder. The recently developed UGA Public Service and Outreach program, Connect to Protect, joins the Greater Atlanta Pollinator Partnership (GAPP) in spreading the word about the loss of our native insect diversity and providing ways to get involved. Like GAPP, Connect to Protect focuses on the opportunity that our urban areas provide for constructing pollinator habitats. The idea is to create a connected network of beautifully designed and ecologically minded landscapes within our communities. Using native plants in our landscapes acknowledges the coevolutionary relationships that have developed among plants and their insect partners over thousands of years. As a result of these partnerships, many insects have high specificity to breed or feed only on particular native plant species or families. Increasing the diversity within our landscapes can create dramatic expressions of color and texture while providing resources for wildlife. The hope is to create corridors of native plant gardens through our urban environments.

Education is the other crucial piece of the pollinator conservation puzzle. What better way to ensure a future for our ecologically crucial insects than to teach children about the fantastic world of pollination biology? Connect to Protect organizes hands-on educational programs for elementary-aged children to learn in an informal environment while getting their hands dirty. Planting pollinator gardens at schools creates accountability with garden maintenance while providing an introduction into the various career paths that biological science offers. Installation of native gardens, coupled with education programs ensures that our communities are aware of the plight of pollinators and have ways to get involved that are both fun and ecologically beneficial.

This is a call to arms! Getting involved in conservation does not require a degree in biology, nor does it require large tracts of land. We can no longer rely solely on our dwindling wildlands to support insect and plant diversity. Small pockets of native plants have the power to transform our neighborhoods into ecological havens and change the way people think about our landscapes. By focusing on the inextricable relationship between plants and pollinators, the Connect to Protect program advocates for increasing both plant and insect diversity in our expanding urban areas.

Visit the State Botanical Garden in Athens, Georgia for the Connect to Protect Native Plant Sale. A variety of native wildflowers, grasses, and forbs will be for sale on October 6th, 7th, and 8th and October 13th, 14th, 15th.

Get involved, plant a garden, and spread the word!

Guest Blog written by: Lauren Muller, UGA College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. M.S. Candidate, Horticulture

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Urban pollinator parks – Vine City Park.

Standing in the shadow of Mercedez Benz Stadium in Atlanta is the newly renovated Vine City Park. A greenspace project for the Vine City community, planned and constructed by the Conservation fundPark PrideCity of Atlanta, Invest Atlanta, The Arthur Blank FoundationAtlanta Botanical Garden and many other volunteers and organizations. Almost 10 years in the making this space brings a much needed park to an urban space that was once blighted by abandoned houses, and overrun with kudzu.

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Two acre plot in 2004 where the Vine City Park now stands. Photo Credit: Park Pride

The new park provides the local community with a much needed play space, and an area to enjoy the natural environment. The Atlanta Botanical Garden (ABG) has installed three pollinator beds at the park, which have been maintained and are monitored for pollinator abundance and biodiversity. It is the hope of ABG and GAPP that urban pollinator gardens such as Vine City and Lindsay Street Park will become important links in a greenway that stretches across metro Atlanta to connect pollinators to their habitats.

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The Atlanta Botanical Garden team monitors pollinator diversity and abundance at Vine City Park

 

Co-blogged by GAPP + Jataysia Daniels, Greening Youth Foundation & Atlanta Botanical Garden Conservation Intern!

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Pollination with a purpose. Lindsay Street Park

Lindsay Street Park has had quite a transformation. This is the first park in English Avenue, a historic Atlanta neighborhood which is currently undergoing a large number of innovative community projects to revitalize the area. The renovation of the park was led by the Conservation Fund, with help from partners Trees Atlanta, Park Pride,  Atlanta Botanical Gardens, members of the English Avenue Community, and many other organizations and volunteers.

However this park is so much more than a pollinator garden, it’s a park with a purpose. Lindsay Street Park functions as an important place for the local community to gather and appreciate nature, in a neighborhood that is devoid of friendly green space. The park also serves to combat storm water runoff, and mitigate water pollution, issues that have been prevalent in the aging neighborhood.

Community members and project collaborators have been quick to comment on the importance of the Lindsay Street Park restoration, and the clear benefits it provides  to the English Avenue neighborhood. Greening Youth Foundation’s Whitney Jaye remarks that “we need green space and community input , to improve mental, physical and emotional health”.  Tony Torrence founder and CEO of the Atlanta Community Improvement Association  has also commented on the history of the neighborhood, the importance of the parks restoration, and its link to the local peoples culture and identity. Torrence remarks, “People used to be baptized in this creek, and now it is polluted”.

The park  aims to mitigate the amount of storm water runoff that reaches the Proctor Creek Watershed through rain garden plantings, implementation of a bioswale, and decreasing the amount of impervious surfaces present in the community.

The Lindsay Street Park success story hinges on the commitment of dedicated partners, and participation by the local community members, to build a truly exceptional green space that will benefit both pollinators and humans!

 

 

Photo L: Tony Torrence displaying a piece of history; a brick found on site made at the Chattahoochee Brick Company which often used forced convict labour to produce over 200,000 bricks a day. Images courtesy of Whitney Flanagan, Dr. Jennifer Cruse Sanders

Photo R: Dr. Jennifer Cruse Sanders from the Atlanta Botanical Garden and Greening Youth Foundation interns and employees Whitney Jaye, Alagia Felix, Micheal Hendrix, Cristha  Edwards, Idalis Boyd, and Jataysia Daniels plant milkweed in Lindsay Street Park’s pollinator garden. Images courtesy of Whitney Flanagan, Dr. Jennifer Cruse Sanders

 

Co-blogged by GAPP + Jataysia Daniels, Greening Youth Foundation & Atlanta Botanical Garden Conservation Intern!

 

 

 

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Georgia Butterfly Brochure

Do you want to know who is who in your pollinator garden? Well now you can thanks to The North American Butterfly Association ( Georgia- Piedmont Chapter), who have teamed up with Dr. Jaret Daniels and Monarchs acrossGeorgia to create a Georgia butterfly brochure.

With funding from Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites and the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service, This brochure is a step by step guide on how to properly identify butterflies.

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Knowing which butterflies are in your local area will help you, help them, by becoming informed about the butterflies specific host plants, and life cycles. This step by step guide is  broken up into three categories; brushfoots, whites/sulphurs/skippers, and swallowtails so that you can easily  identify butterflies in your local pollinator gardens!

Download the brochure here and start identifying your garden’s visitors today!

 

Co-blogged by GAPP + Jataysia Daniels, Greening Youth Foundation & Atlanta Botanical Garden Conservation Intern!