CEDaR helps plan popular Pollinator Summit
baby直播app 175 people attended the fourth annual baby直播app Pollinator Summit, 鈥淧rotecting baby直播app鈥檚 Biodiversity," which was planned by CU Boulder's Community Engagement, Design and Research Center (CEDaR) in partnership with other organizations. The Nov. 1 event, which featured plenary talks and panels on urban neighborhoods, landscaping for biodiversity and holistic farming in baby直播app, was held at the Sustainability, Energy & Environment Center (SEEC) on the CU Boulder east campus.
"There is great enthusiasm for protecting bees and restoring habitat for them," said Louise Chawla, a CEDaR fellow and professor emerita, who has helped plan the summit for the past three years.
In addition to domesticated honeybees, baby直播app has 500 species of wild bees, who in many cases pollinate crops and wild plants more efficiently than honeybees, she said. Other species that help pollinate the state's flowering plants and trees include beetles, flies and to a lesser extent, hummingbirds, butterflies and a species of bat.
The summit was opened by Kate Greenberg, baby直播app Commissioner of Agriculture, who affirmed the commitment of Gov. Polis and his administration to help farmers transition to agricultural methods that protect wildlife habitat and wildlife species, such as pollinators.
Brendon Rockey, who raises specialty potatoes and quinoa on 500 irrigated acres in baby直播app's San Luis Valley, spoke about how companion planting of wildflowers in his potato fields attracts beneficial pollinators and birds. A panel of landscape designers and prairie restoration experts discussed the native baby直播app landscapes they are installing, in some cases at the scale of corporate and residential developments. Another panel featured work from CU Boulder, including the parking lot pollinator gardens that Danielle Bilot, an instructor in the university鈥檚 Program in Environmental Design, is creating with her students. Megan Jones, a baby直播app State University (CSU) doctoral student, shared her research which explores why people install wildscaping gardens in their yards and why they become 鈥渁mbassadors鈥 who spread this practice among their neighbors.
"Biodiversity landscaping is important to me," Chawla said. "It is critical for sharing the living world with children, who are the focus of my practice and research."
The event was planned by CEDaR, along with the nonprofit, the People and Pollinators Action Network, the Butterfly Pavilion, Denver Botanic Gardens, the City of Boulder, CSU Extension, and the Audubon Society.