PolliNation Podcast

It’s festival season! If you're near Portland or Vancouver, WA, you won’t want to miss the Vancouver Pollinator Festival happening this Saturday, June 21st at Marshall Park. Our guest, Kyle Roslund, founder of the Vancouver Bee Project, joins us to share what’s in store—from garden tours and hands-on activities to a talk by renowned lepidopterist and Xerces Society founder, Dr. Robert Michael Pyle. Pollinator Festival info: https://pollinatorfestival.org/

This week we delve into the fascinating world of bee communities in disturbed forests with Dr. Graham Frank, a recent PhD graduate from Oregon State University. Dr. Frank shares key insights about how bee communities are influenced by different types of disturbances, and what this means for forest management. Frank, G.S., Rivers, J.W., Verschuyl, J., Best, L.R., Betts, M.G., Kroll, A.J., Swanson, M.E. and Krawchuk, M.A., 2025. Comparison of Early Seral Forest Bee Communities Following Clearcutting or Wildfire Depends on Stand Age and Nesting Guild. Journal of Forestry, pp.1-45. Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44392-025-00016-1

In this episode of the Commercial Beekeeping Zone on PolliNation, we hear from Curtis Miedema, a second generation beekeeper from Barhead, Alberta, and President of North America's only beekeeper's commission. Curtis shares insights into stationary beekeeping and how he fits queen production into an operation focused on honey production. He also discusses the collaborative nature of the Alberta beekeeping community and the role of the Alberta Beekeepers Commission. Links: https://miedemahoney.com https://www.albertabeekeepers.ca

We hear from Lincoln Best and August Jackson from Oregon State University this week about an initiative to inventory the bees of National Wildlife Refuges in Region 1 by Master Melittologist volunteers. Link to year 1 report: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/technical_reports/xd07h2826

The attention to California almonds, means the pollination of Washington State tree fruits is often overlooked. But the massive pollination effort in Washington is a huge effort and may be facing potential problems. Harry and Andony catch up with commercial beekeeper Tim Hiatt to discuss tree fruit pollination, as well as Tim's efforts to advocate for beekeeping in the Washington legislature.

This week on PolliNation Itai Kanot and Shelbi Perkins from BeeHero discuss how their in-hive and in-field sensors are improving pollination efficiency by providing real-time data on bee colony strength, benefiting both growers and beekeepers. BeeHero: https://www.beehero.io/

Dr. Diana Cox-Foster joins us to discuss her and her team's research at the USDA on honeybee and native bee competition. From lab tests to field studies, they uncover the effects of this competition on pollination.

Queen Bee Honey Company in Alpine, Oregon built up from a Datsun pickup truck to a commercial beekeeping business. In this episode we hear about how Karen Finley built her business and the increasing problem of lack of summer forage for honey bees in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

The BEEvent, hosted annually by the Linn County Master Gardeners, provides gardeners and small farmers with essential knowledge and practical tools to support and protect bee pollinators. This week, Master Gardeners Ranee Webb and Rich Little join us to share what's in store for this year's event. Register for BEEvent: https://www.linnmastergardeners.com/beevent Information on Mason bees and BeeNotes: https://www.linnmastergardeners.com/pollinator-info

While there has been a lot of attention to the plight of wild bees, we are increasingly discovering that there is a lot more that we don’t know. A state checklist of bees is a great starting point for taking stock of what we do know. This week I am joined by Chanda Bartholomew, who is an Entomology Collection Taxonomist with the Pest Program in the Plant Protection Division of Washington State Department of Agriculture. She is the lead author of “An annotated checklist of the bees of Washington state” that was published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research in November of 2024. Link to the article: https://jhr.pensoft.net/article/129013/

This week on PolliNation, Fred Weisensee from Dancing Oaks Nursery in Monmouth, OR shares tips on creating a pollinator rock garden using native and exotic plants inspired by Oregon's high-elevation landscapes Dancing Oaks Nursery: https://dancingoaks.com/?srsltid=AfmBOop6NnUpe5hUTS6OTTJ6rIc96DsuGBJ5Ndz3YCq_cjGiagJD2ZFT

Karen Pedersen is a fifth generation commercial beekeeper and apiary owner in Cut Knife, Saskatchewan, Canada. Pedersen Apiaries make hundreds of pounds of honey bee colony, while wintering single brood chamber colonies outdoors when temperatures are -30F below. She also leads an impressive stock improvement program. Harry and Andony find how she does it in this week's episode. Pedersen Apiaries website: http://www.pedersenapiaries.ca Bee Maid Honey Coop: https://www.beemaid.com Harvesting Honey: https://youtu.be/CNc-AfvCgLA?si=I867-OJNHnC4qaA6

In this episode we learn about an effort to map pollinator habitat, as well as their stories, in Southern Oregon. The Southern Oregon Buzzway is a collaboration between Southern Oregon University and Pollinator Project Rogue Valley. Pollinator Project Rogue Valley: https://www.pollinatorprojectroguevalley.org/ Southern Oregon Buzzway Map: https://www.pollinatorprojectroguevalley.org/rogue-buzzway-maps Dr. Jamie Trammell's work: https://sou.edu/academics/environmental-science/faculty/e-jamie-trammell/

This week on our Commercial Beekeeping segment, Nick VanCalcar from VanCalcar Apiaries in Amity, Oregon joins us to discuss the importance of doing your own fabrication in beekeeping operations.

There are over a thousand species of bees in the Pacific Northwest. However, The resources available for someone to tell the bees apart is lacking for this region. In this episode we hear from the team that is working to solve this problem. Carol Yamada, Lincoln Best, August Jackson, Jim Rivers, Joshua Dunlap & Joe Engler discuss their publication of four new taxonomic keys for the bees of the PNW.

Early reports are that there may be a large loss of commercial honey bee colonies across the U.S. this winter. In this episode we are joined by co-host Harry Vanderpool to talk with Russell Heitkam. Russell is a second generation beekeeper and Northern California queen, queen cell, package, and nuc producer. He also brokers about 7,000 hives from Oregon and Washington for almond pollination.

Filter strips surround agricultural fields and reduce soil loss and pesticide effluent reaching streams and rivers. They can also host flowering plants that bees and butterflies like. We talk to Dr. Amy Toth about whether these narrow ribbons of land can actually benefit pollinators. Toth Lab website: https://www.tothlab.org/people Episode 246 on filter strips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MIcDh_SreU

This week we kick off our new segment on commercial beekeeping with our new co-host, Harry Vanderpool of Vanderpool Farms in Salem, OR. Harry shares his beekeeping journey and what it takes to run a successful operation.

What does it take to create a certified pollinator pathway? This week on PolliNation, Colleen Rockwell, the Environmental Committee Chair for Milwaukie's Rotary Club, shares how Milwaukie became only the second certified pollinator pathway in Oregon. Learn more about the Pollinator Pathway in Milwaukie here: https://www.pollinator-pathway.org/towns/milwaukie Also, if you are interested in the fundraiser in Portland for the Oregon Bee Atlas, register here: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/master-melittologist/events/bees-bottles-biodiversity-fundraiser-oregon-bee-atlas

The last record of the Leafcutter Bee (Trachusa gummifera) in Marin County was in 1977. That is, until the One Tam Community Science Program had a documented sighting of it nearly 47 years later. This week we hear from Sara Leon Guerrero, a manager of the One Tam Community Science Program through the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Sara tells us how One Tam is leading the way in bridging ecological data gaps, implementing long-term monitoring efforts, and fostering curiosity and community participation. Learn more about the Tamalpais Bee Lab here: https://www.onetam.org/tamalpais-bee-lab