Come Join Us for an Engaging Walk and Talk on Native Plants and Pollinators Date: Wednesday, October 11, 2023 6 pm – A guided walk through the native plant garden 7 pm - Rhode Island's Native Bees and Planting for Pollinators by Steven R. Alm, Ph.
Walk around the native pollinator garden with Dr. Steven Alm, professor of Entomology at URI and Dave Vissoe, native plant garden developer at Kettle Pond/Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge. Discover native plants and learn about the plight of native bees. Native plant recommendations will be made specifically for yellow bumble bees, monarch butterflies and other pollinators. The discussion will be in the garden and inside the Kettle Pond Visitor Center.
There are approximately 250 native bee species in Rhode Island which did all of the native plant pollination here before the colonists brought over the European honey bee in 1622. Most bees are solitary, that is, the females each dig burrows and brood cells alone in the soil to provision with nectar and pollen balls for their larvae to feed on and develop into new bees. Social bees include bumble bees and honey bees. Of the 12 historically present bumble bees in Rhode Island, Dr. Alm was only able to find 7 of them in our recent survey.
This is a huge loss of free pollinator “services”. Our survey revealed that the yellow bumble bee is threatened with extinction if something isn’t done to reverse the trend. Dr. Steve Alm will provide some pollinator plant recommendations specifically for the yellow bumble bee, monarch butterflies and other pollinators.
Dr. Stephen Alm’s current research activity is focused on surveying the native bees of Rhode Island, selecting and establishing pollinator habitat to conserve native bees, and finding novel methods for control of varroa mites of honey bees.