Foundation Helps Fund Program for Bee Awareness
Pollinator Week Spotlight: Healthy Hive Foundation Helps Fund Academic Bee Research at San Francisco State University, Partners with Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center on Educational Programing
AUSTIN. June 23, 2020 - It’s National Pollinator Week (June 22-28), and the Austin-based Healthy Hive Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to increasing bee awareness and promoting safe environments where bees can thrive through education, research and preservation, is sharing updates including:
Good and Bad News for Bees: San Francisco State University (SFSU) releases preliminary findings this week from a before-after control impact study which was partially funded by the Healthy Hive Foundation. Gretchen LeBuhn, PhD, wanted to understand if pre- and post-fire plant-pollinator networks will assist in appropriate restoration of plant communities and guide future fire management to positively impact wild bees. Conducted over the past two years, the research reveals that while bee populations held steady after the intense 2017 wildfires in Napa and Sonoma counties, they have significantly declined over the past 15 years. With the study, SFSU Biology Professor and Director of the Great Sunflower Project,
“The good news is, this new study reveals that bees are actually resilient when it comes to forest fires. However, it also provided shocking data confirming there is a large decline in bee populations and species types when comparing populations in the exact same areas during the same week on the calendar from 15 years ago. I felt a huge amount of stress when we discovered the significant decline from more than 80 bee species down to approximately 55 today,” said Dr. LeBuhn. “I’m particularly surprised because the areas we studied are agricultural and have not experienced any much landscape change, further confirming that farming practices are now more detrimental to bees.”
Healthy Hive Foundation’s founder, Mikaila Ulmer who is also the founder and CEO of Me & the Bees Lemonade, will be interviewing Dr. LeBuhn to kick off her “Bee Fearless” talk show series on Instagram Live today, Tuesday, June 23 at 1 p.m. CT. Tune in at @mikailasbees to learn more about the research firsthand and get tips for what anyone can do this week during National Pollinator Week and year round to help save the bees. The interview will be posted on Me & the Bees Facebook page for viewing anytime.
Amplifying Bee Awareness & Education: The Healthy Hive Foundation is proud to announce it will become a sponsor of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin to collaborate on a variety of projects, including adding bee education into the curriculum of its virtual youth programs this summer. Mikaila will be working with young learners the week of July 6 on an interactive educational project. The Foundation and the Wildflower Center will also work together to incorporate bee education into its popular Tuesday Twilights events. Separately, Mikaila’s company will be making an in-kind donation of Me & the Bees Lemonade for events at the Wildflower Center.
“We are thrilled with Me & the Bees/Healthy Hive Foundation's sponsorship of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center,” said Leslie Zachary, Interim Director of Development for the Center. “Mikaila's passionate interest in native plants, pollinators and education align perfectly with the mission and goals of the Wildflower Center.”
“This research and education work is exactly what we envisioned supporting by creating the Foundation, which is dedicated to increasing bee awareness and the number of safe environments for bees to survive and thrive. By bringing attention and awareness to the fact that bees are critical to the environment yet are on the verge of extinction, working with SFSU and the Wildflower Center will help save bee populations,” said Mikaila. “What an honor to be able to help advance the work of Dr. LeBuhn so she can make sound scientific conclusions about the decline in populations of several bee species, and what a privilege to partner with one of my favorite places, the Wildflower Center to support their education and advocacy work right here in our hometown.
The Healthy Hive Foundation was created in 2016 to further the mission of Me & the Bees Lemonade as it donates a portion of net profits to help educate consumers about the bees’ role in the ecosystem and the alarming decline in their population. Me & the Bees Lemonades is celebrating ten years in “buzzness” and its all-natural lemonades can be found in Austin at chain retailers including all H-E-B, Whole Foods Market, and World Market stores, as well as at Callahan’s, Fairmont Hotel, Hoover’s, Mozart’s, Quickie Pickie and Uchi, among others.
Please follow the foundation on social media at: Instagram-@healthyhivefdn or Facebook-Healthy Hive Foundation.
Gretchen LeBuhn, PhD is a Professor of Biology at San Francisco State University and the Director of the Great Sunflower Project (Instagram: @greatsunflower, Facebook: The Great Sunflower Project), the largest citizen science project focused on pollinators with over 100,000 members. She is an ecologist and conservation biologist whose work focuses on understanding the relationships between changing landscapes and biodiversity and using this information to promote conservation and sustainable management. Her current research focuses on the role of management promoting biodiversity in grasslands and forests of California, the role of green space in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services in cities and understanding the effects of climate change in montane meadow communities. Her work ranges from the development of mathematical models to citizen science to field studies. She was elected to the California Academy of Sciences in 2006 and was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services report on pollinators and pollination services.
The Healthy Hive Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to increasing bee awareness and promoting safe environments where bees can thrive through education, research and preservation. It was created in 2016 by the Founder and CEO of Me & the Bees Lemonade, Mikaila Ulmer, and her family to further her company’s mission as to help educate consumers about the bee’s role in the ecosystem and the alarming decline in the bee population. Please visit www.healthyhivefoundation.org or follow the foundation on social media at: Instagram-@healthyhivefdn or Facebook-Healthy Hive Foundation.
Kate: katelowery5@gmail.com 512.657.0925
D'Andra: D@meandthebees.com 512.689.2203
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