Wildlife Biologist & Brilliant Photographer Sam Droege at Calvert Library for Native Bee Talk (press release)

January 25, 2017

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Robyn Truslow

410-535-0291

 

 

Master Gardeners of Calvert County have been offering presentations at Calvert Library locations since 2002 in an award-winning series now called Garden Smarter.  In 2017, they have an impressive lineup of presenters and workshops that focus on seed swap, shade gardening, herb spirals, tomatoes, mulching, pests, fungus, aquaculture, food forests, faerie gardens, bulbs and more. They are particularly excited to bring wildlife biologist and bee expert Sam Droege to Calvert Library Prince Frederick on Thursday, February 23, at 6:30pm. 

 

Maryland is home to over 400 different kinds of native bees.  Their populations are declining, and the primary cause is not the use of pesticides but the loss of native flowers.  As the number of people have grown in Calvert County so too has the footprint of residential landscapes; these homes have replaced native plant communities with areas either lacking flowers (i.e., lawns and hard structures) or installing plants of little value to native bees. Using gorgeous photos, Sam will talk about converting his acre of lawn into an integrated flower, vegetable and bee and bird habitat and will also discuss new tools for identifying native bees on the wing.  Right now the largest crop by acreage in the United States is lawn; you can replace and integrate former lawn areas into aesthetically acceptable naturalized landscapes and do your part to helpsave the world.

 

Sam has spent most of his career at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.  He has coordinated the North American Breeding Bird Survey Program, developed the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program, the BioBlitz, Cricket Crawl and FrogwatchUSA programs and worked on the design and evaluation of monitoring programs.  Currently he is developing an inventory and monitoring program for native bees, online identification guides for North American bees at www.discoverlife.org, and with Jessica Zelt reviving the North American Bird Phenology Program.  His group maintains high resolution photographs of insects and other macro natural history objects at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/.

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Robyn Truslow

Public Relations Coordinator

Calvert Library

850 Costley Way

Prince Frederick, MD  20678

410-535-0291

410-535-3022 (fax)

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