When she’s not working, volunteering, fiddling about the garden, photographing nature, being a pollinactivist, blogging about social and environmental justice, or pawning her eco-children’s book, Kenda, a former Monarch butterfly docent, gets her kicks hanging with her husband, her dog, and the pollineighbors. 
The Jville Market was fluttering with excitement Sunday, July 8, for the Jacksonville Pollinator Society’s (JPS) 2nd annual Pollinator Appreciation Day Event.
JPS team members chatted with visitors while the children’s booth, run by our youth advocates, was abuzz with activity. Pollinator Project Rogue Valley (PPRV) educated folks about Nontoxic Rogue […]
#1: After careful deliberation in the wake of last fall’s City Council meeting in which only 50% of the councilors showed support for Jacksonville’s Bee City Certification, the Jacksonville Bee City committee has reorganized and changed our name to the Jacksonville Pollinator Society. The team is growing, and we are […]
There’s a lively and colorful movement growing here in Southern Oregon, and it embodies beauty and environmental stewardship with an intention to reverse pollinator decline.
It’s the Rogue Buzzway project sponsored by Pollinator Project Rogue Valley (PPRV), and you can bee a part of it. The Buzzway is a map of […]
A recent conversation with Dr. Elaine Ingham, Soil Scientist, Soil Life Consultant, and President of Soil Foodweb, Inc, brought to light the importance of soil health in relation to pollinator health.
Dirt is dead.
That sounds so Nietzsche-esque, but I’m not waxing philosophical. It’s scientific reality. Dirt is devoid of life, of […]
On Tuesday, October 17, roughly one year from beginning the process of working toward Jacksonville’s Bee City certification, the Bee City leadership team experienced another setback during our third council meeting.
After our team worked industriously to overcome council’s initial objections by generating financial independence, raising $2200, by creating self-reliance […]
Watching a monarch metamorphosis is mind-blowing. Work deadlines, family time, and personal care all take a temporary backseat to what I view as a mesmerizing marvel. The fact that a single egg, only slightly larger than the period at the end of this sentence, in four days, turns into the […]
John Muir’s quote speaks to the interconnectedness of all things. Humans to nature, nature to earth, earth to the universe, and the cosmos back to humans. Take for example the zeal surrounding the solar eclipse uniting us all under one sky to witness the moon’s passage over the sun. Something exceptional transpires when we grasp […]
Monarch butterflies have been on earth for roughly 175 million years, but it’s only since the 1990’s that their numbers have declined by 80%. In 25 short years, 560 of the 700 million Monarch butterflies in North America have disappeared.
Being in the presence of a Monarch has brought me great […]
She rested gently in his soft, young hand
In awe, he stared, at a smallness so grand.
What have we done? In earnest he pleaded.
They forgot, she whispered, how much we are needed.
But I don’t understand, he stuttered through tears.
You’re not to blame, she said, it’s been going on for years.
How can […]
Pollinator protection does not have to be relinquished in exchange for managing mosquitoes. The impact of mosquito spraying on pollinators is long-lasting. Studies show wild bee populations are even more susceptible to pesticide exposure than honey bees due to biological and habitat differences.
Fortunately, here in Oregon, we don’t have to […]
They’ve been around for more than 100 million years. They’re most active at 80°F and unable to function below 50°F. They can sense the lactic acid and carbon dioxide from an animal’s breath up to 100 feet away. The females beat their wings 500 times per second producing a piercing […]
We pull them, mow them, dig them, stomp them, spray them, shout at them, and lament how they are a nuisance in our lives.
Dandelions.
An underappreciated and underutilized plant in our society, the dandelion in the Asteraceae (aster or sunflower) family, is one of the most nutrient-packed foods on earth and […]
At first I thought they were flies. Tiny, black, wings. Two of them I found legs-up in the windowsill. They were swept away with nary a thought. Until I saw another one on the floor. The dustbuster was poised to devour this third creature when something caught my eye. Movement. […]
Jacksonville was bursting with magic that brisk December evening. White lights and pine swags, staples of a vintage Christmas, on each door and window beckoned passersby indoors for cozy warmth. The scent of holiday charm filled the air.
I walked into old city hall, sat, and anxiously waited to deliver my […]
In October, two girlfriends swept me away to a swank resort in Arizona for an early milestone (more like mileboulder) birthday celebration. I felt loved and pampered. Miravel offers top-notch service with fine accommodations and accoutrements tending to all of life’s comforts. Evening landscapes are replete with stunning high-desert […]
He looked like something out of the cartoons, a dazzling green blubbery caricature of himself. Given his lazy, lumbering gait, this little guy was in no hurry to get to his destination.
I inspected him closely, intrigued by his suction cup feet, the wrinkles in the fern-green folds of his skin, […]
I was walking downtown one bright mid-July afternoon and came upon a bee in the middle of 3rd Street. She was on her back spinning frenetically. I reached down and as her little legs grasped my pinky, I wondered, “Was she battling the residual effects of a recent mosquito spray?” […]