Pollination is a real business

There's more to beekeeping than wearing a bee suit and harvesting honey. Even milk production depends on bees, because cows eat alfalfa and bees pollinate alfalfa seeds. One third of the food we eat is directly or indirectly dependent on honeybees or pollination. If bees were gone, U.S. agricultural production would lose 20 billion dollars a year, with all the fruits, nuts, seeds and dairy products dependent on bees.

Randy Oliver the great wizard of bees and honey makes a return visit to Placer Nature Center’s 4th Friday Lecture Series on Friday, October 24, 2008 at 7:00 P.M.

Oliver is on the cutting edge of a movement to promote natural or non-chemical beekeeping. "I'm trying to shift the paradigm of the beekeeping industry," Oliver said. His interest in natural beekeeping began after the varroa mite, from Southeast Asia, wiped out most wild bees and 70 percent to 90 percent of domesticated bees worldwide in 1993. The disaster left only Australia and Hawaii unaffected by the mites.

How are population levels today? Is our food supply at risk? The varroa mite is not the only threat to bees anymore. Recently, honeybee populations have, due to parasitic infection, pesticide poisoning, and climate change, declined drastically in many parts of the country. In the last 50 years the domesticated honeybee population-which most farmers depend on for pollination-has declined by about 50 percent, scientists say.

Randy spoke to Auburn Audiences in 2004. Much has changed in since that time – in the not-too-secret life of bees. Randy will be speaking on the staggering problems being faced by honeybees, how they are evolving to solve them, and sharing fascinating new research, and how this all relates to humans and other species.

Bees, in the wild, are pollinators for a wide variety of flowering plants. These plants have, over time, evolved specifically to be pollinated by bees, and no other insect or artificial methods can take their place. Without bee pollination, they will no longer bear fruit. When we think of bees, we think of honey. Honey, as a food, is not the most important thing in our diet. So we may not know the full impact of the declining bee population.

So, don’t miss Randy Oliver, this Friday, October 24th, at 7:00 pm, in Unity of Auburn’s auditorium at 1212 High Street in Downtown Auburn, Randy will not only share the challenges facing bee populations but also share the almost unbelievable physiology and life cycle of these precious insects.

Randy Oliver is a commercial beekeeper from Grass Valley, and a bee researcher and writer. Randy has a Master's Degree in biological sciences, and corresponds with bee researchers and beekeepers worldwide. His website is at randyoliver.com.

Tickets are - General $10 / Students $5 / Placer Nature Center members $8.00. All proceeds benefit Placer Nature Center’s environmental education programs.

For more information about this presentation and future presentations in the Fourth Friday Lecture Series, Contact Leslie at events@placernaturecenter.org or 530-878-6053. Tickets may be purchased on line at www.placernaturecenter.org.

Placer Nature Center is the region’s preeminent environmental education organization operated and funded by contributions from members and patrons. All proceeds support efforts to teach science concepts to school children and the public to protect and heal the earth.