This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
The title of this article probably is an overstatement. Perhaps instead it should have been 'a small subset of people in Reno, and possibly in Vegas (because everything you can think of exists there) celebrated pollinators for a week. And what week was this, I hear you say? Well, in case you missed it, National Pollinator week this year was June 16th - 22nd.
There's something rather endearing about having a proclamation by the Governor telling us we now officially should celebrate pollinators for one week a year.
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But it really happened. However, since Nevada announced it's pollinator week, there have been no celebrations of pollinator week! What is this travesty, I hear you cry? Well, despair not, because this year, researchers at the University of Nevada in Reno organised a number of events to celebrate all things that pollinate.
The week started with an event held at the Discovery Museum in Reno. There, us bee researchers alongside Nevada bugs and butterflies chatted to children and their parents about native pollinators (mostly bees for us) and showed them a bumblebee colony from our lab.
Later that week the Great Community Food Coop in Reno held a local honey-tasting event where people had the opportunity to meet their local beekeepers and there was a great talk from a PhD student in my lab about Nevada's local pollinators (i.e. NOT honeybees). It was great to chat to people about their own experiences with their local pollinators as well as setting straight some of the misinformation out there about colony collapse disorder.
On a larger scale, it was really exciting to hear about Obama signing his presidential memorandum for pollinators, and Michelle Obama getting involved in planting a garden in the White House Garden to support bees and butterflies.
I'd recommend anyone who's keen on their pollinators to think about getting involved next year!