Welcome to Gardening for Hot People! This episode we talk about: bees, invertabrates, The Xerces Sociey, agriculture, millions of acres of American forests in danger, ways to save the bees, pesticides, avicide (gasp?!), Apple TV show Silo, The Beepocalypse, practical answers, honey bees, Bombus, how bees see flowers, why you should and shouldn't have a honey bee hive, and manage to keep things light even when this ish is serious.
Rosemary Malfi (she/her) serves as the director of conservation policy at the Xerces Society, a science-driven non-profit dedicated to protecting invertebrates and the habitats they rely on. At Xerces, she supports and advocates for policy solutions that promote the health of pollinators and other beneficial invertebrates. Rosemary holds a Ph.D. in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia (2015) and completed postdoctoral research positions in entomology at UC Davis and biology at UMass Amherst. Before coming to Xerces, Rosemary worked for the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA/Mass), where she spent two years coordinating a grassroots network of community groups dedicated to pollinator protection and pesticide reform in Massachusetts. She lives with her family in Salem, MA where she does her best to implement Cheryl's excellent gardening advice!
Show Notes
- It's actually 280 MILLION ACRES of forest in danger. NOT JUST 280 :(
- Extinct butterfly mentioned by Rosemary: https://www.xerces.org/about-xerces
- Donate to the Xerces Society here: https://www.xerces.org/donate
- Honey Bee vs. Native Bees Pictures: https://www.xerces.org/blog/want-to-save-bees-focus-on-habitat-not-honey-bees
- Brown-belted Bumble Bee (Rosemary's Fave): https://bugguide.net/node/view/3538
- Long-Horned Bee: https://bugguide.net/node/view/8019
- Colony Collapse Disorder: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/blog/silence-bees-mystery-missing-bees-covered-retroreport/
- Xerces Society Native Plant Lists: https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/pollinator-friendly-plant-lists
- Plant Magic Gardens Native Plant Design Packets: https://www.plantmagicgardens.com
Xerces sign-on letter for public to support listing the monarch butterfly as a threatened species under the endangered species list:
https://win.newmode.net/xerces-fws-monarch
Studies folks may want to check out:
- Koh et al. 2016, PNAS. Examines wild bee abundance loss across the US. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1517685113
- Van Deynze et al. 2024, PLoS One. Links pesticides to butterfly declines across the Midwest. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?
- Wood & Goulson 2017, Environment Science and Pollution Research. Summary of research on impacts of neonicotinoids: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28593544/id=10.1371/journal.pone.0304319
- Conserving Bumble Bees is an older Xerces publication that discusses the importance of bumble bees as pollinators, the challenges they face, and what we can do to conserve them. A sobering fact is that nearly a third of North American bumble bee species are in decline - some severely so.
- Also, from Rosemary: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/06/climate/us-butterfly-population.html?unlocked_article_code=1.104.2eFj.CsBM2syZ1Pgt&smid=url-share