CEP Calgary x March: Bees and other pollinators

Did you know that pollinators are necessary for three-quarters of our major food crops? The majority of our vitamins and minerals come from fruits, vegetables and nuts and these all use animal-mediated pollination. Even the food that livestock eats (alfalfa hay) needs pollination. There are also an estimated 300,000 species of flowering plants that require animal pollinators. Although honey bees are often the first to come to mind, there are a variety of other pollinators – insects, birds and even bats.

Pollination is a win-win situation for both bees and humans – they require plants for their own protein and carbohydrate needs and hop from plant to plant, thus pollinating as a by-product. Hand pollination of crops is costly, time consuming and not as effective. The supercolony of honey bees is a mind-blowing concept – from social healthcare to how they develop work regimes – and there is a lot to be learned from bees.

Bees and other pollinators are dying from multiple and interacting causes – diseases, parasites, pesticides, herbicides, crop monoculture and flowerless landscapes. Join us at our March event to learn about what is being done to protect these species, what you can do as an individual and meet other like-minded environmental professionals.

Meet your speakers:

Darrell Chambers - Key Accounts Manager: Bayer Crop Science Inc.

Darrell Chambers has worked in the Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) market for close to 25 years. He has worked for an application company, a distribution company and 2 large herbicide manufacturers. Darrell currently works for Bayer Environmental Science* a division of Bayer Crop Science. Darrell has a passion built around customer focus. Darrell and his wife Sarah, live on their horse ranch south of Calgary. Darrell hobbies include hunting, golf and supporting his wife in her endurance riding passion.

Nichol Ruth Piniak - Beehive architect and advocate

Since early childhood Nichol has been using Autism to navigate the world; unable to learn in conventional institutes she turned to her surroundings and creativity. The internet became a life changing tool which continues to expand her skill set. Nichols strengths are primarily building and construction, this is an area of giftedness in the Autism Spectrum.

Nichol has a life long interest and special connection to animals in general, her first experience with honeybees was during her teens. Many years later an opportunity to rescue a swarm presented, she cant explain why but she just did it. It was then Nichol decided bees were rewarding clients and her skill set was perfect for making positive changes.

Nichol explores beehive design and is gravitating towards natural husbandry. She explores what the bees do in nature for health and longevity, incorporating those concepts into easily managed hive designs. Nichol hopes to rebuild trust in nature and mutual respect among beekeepers.

Alexandria Farmer - Biology Instructor: Department of Biology at Mount Royal University

Alexandria has been a biology instructor at MRU for more than 20 years. She did her graduate studies at U of C in Ralph Cartars lab studying how clearcut logging in the eastern slopes of Kananaskis affects bumble bee distributions, abundance and used nest boxes to study their colony success. She’s also volunteered with the Alberta Science Network since 2010 teaching school groups about bees and other insects. Alex has been giving bee talks on native bees (and garden and yard care for their success), and also bumble bee nest box workshops, since 2010. She also co-founded the Alberta Native Bee Council in 2017. She has 3 kids and her family love to hike whenever they aren't in hockey rinks or on rugby fields!

*About Bayer Environmental Science:

For more than 25 years, Bayer has been actively involved in finding solutions to protect honey bee health through research to better understand the impact of various factors on honey bee populations. In collaboration with IVM (Integrated Vegetation Management) partners, they have just recently developed a Pollinator Site Value (PSV) Index to measure the value of the pollinator habitat before and after habitat restoration.