“Bees Beyond Honey” with Sam Droege

In the February 2025 Wild Ones webinar on “Bees Beyond Honey, Understanding Native and Managed Pollinators” hosted by Sara Ressing, Wild Ones Education and Program Coordinator, we were introduced to three pollinator experts: USGS Wildlife biologist Sam Droege, Crown Bees founder Dave Hunter, and Associate Director of the Pollinator Partnership Lora Morandin. Sam, Dave, and Lora explored the critical roles that wild native bees, solitary managed bees, and honeybees play in our ecosystem and discussed how we can support all pollinators in a balanced and evidence-based way. Each speaker provided a 10-minute educational presentation, followed by an informative panel discussion. In this multipart series, Wild Ones Chesapeake Bay will take a look at each of the panelists and additional resources they have to offer on their work with bees.

First up, Sam Droege, the leading voice in native bee conservation. Sam started off by explaining that there are an estimated 4000 native bees in North America, many of which do not have names. Hence, 4000 is an estimate. In the eastern forests, we have roughly 400 species. Each bee species has a very specialized association with flowers, which he would address, but first we much realize that “whatever you know about honeybees, that does not occur and work as a natural history element in our native species. So you may have to forget everything you know about bees.” And while honeybees are magical in their own way, what we know about honeybees does not apply to native bees.

To support native bees, you need to recognize that native bees have tight relationships with the native plants they evolved with, so the objective is to provide native plants to support species level of bee/plant interactions. And to do that is easy. Sam advises:

Select flowering plants native to your ecoregion.
Select a diversity of plants. “The more diverse those plants, the more bees are brought in because many of those bees have a very short list of plants that are appropriate. And each plant has a relatively short list of bees that are doing the pollination on that plant.”
Select different colors to attract different species of bees.
Select different floral shapes. “All the shapes of flowers that you see, those are designed not by people in florist shops, but they’re designed by nature and they’re really being designed by a dance between bees and plants.”
Select plants with differing bloom times, as many bees species are out for a only limited time during the growing season when their specific plant is blooming. The rest of the year, their young are in nests waiting for the subsequent year.

Bees are picky. Sam introduces us to a website put together by Jared Fowler with three regions – eastern, central, and western – that illustrates bees that are the most specialized, meaning they are only gathering pollen from a particular family, genus, or species of plant. “And by planting those as your first cut, you’re lifting a lot of the conservation species, the species that are the least common because many, if not most, of the least common bees are the highly specialized bees.”

Sam explains that the primary reason for the decline in native bees is manicured lawn, or turf. The more turf you can push away and turn into habitat with native plants, the better for bees. And remember to give the human presentations (the paths, the front, the driveway) a managed approach to show your intentions and to maintain the cultural environment at the same time, so “then you’re given a pass on all the remaining areas” of the property. Reminds me of the saying, “Business in the front. Party in the back.” Sam uses a weed wacker to clear paths and edit plants, reshaping his plantings as necessary by removing and adding plants. He encourages the use of 8-12 inches of arborist chips to establish new planting beds (no cardboard, please) and plants right into the chip that day.

What does Sam recommend as an easy, fast, high-impact lift, not super sophisticated, that most of us can do immediately? “Think about the environment that you own, maintain, control, or have access to, and think about why is it being mown in the summer during the growing season. Why not mow at one time in the winter, and you don’t even have to do anything. You can walk away, and it will be of great benefit to the environment immediately.”

Sam’s habitat is a “naturalized, nature-first kind of landscape” where there are woody plants and weeds that he is not interested in maintaining that he edits out once a year, simply repressing them to shift the balance to a more natural landscape. He wants the wild look, not the near and tidy look of plants in nice groupings within a pile of mulch. He wants the edges of his yard to merge with the natural environment, not just a pollinator garden isolated in the middle of the lawn. He wants his to be functional, to be giving back.

Photo courtesy of USGS Bee Lab on Flickr

In the panel session that followed the three presentations, Sam offered the following insights into the questions that Sara asked of each panelist. Note that these are excerpts of the answers and there is a wealth of additional information in the recorded webinar.

What does responsible management look like in practice?

“So, it is so situational, right? So in any of these kinds of situations, you’re going to be constrained by something, whether it’s cultural norms, homeowners association, farming practices, all these sorts of things. But the angle, in almost all cases, is because the conservation of bees is the conservation of flowers and the conservation of native flowers. So, the angle almost in all situations will be, how can I bring in more native bloom into the things that I do? And what are those opportunities? And you have your own set of limits and your own set of constraints, but a lot of times it’s like, hey, why am I mowing this back part of the field? Maybe I can let the ditches grow out a little bit more, that kind of thing.”

Can you share an example where just like a small change in management practices had a big impact on bee conservation?

“…An impact can be as small as I’m putting … a large potted … blooming native plant on my deck or on my balcony in my apartment. And they’ll find it up there. I think a study in Chicago said you had to go up 16 floors before bees couldn’t get up there. So really there’s no excuse to not bring in even just one clump of something or other into the environment.” Little things can add up. Consider working with counties, municipalities, and groups that manage/service large landscapes and move them away from “mow it” several times a year. Carving out part of managed landscapes and “putting it into periodic mowings, [that’s] great, great impacts. We see it all the time. Not even surprising.”

What’s one policy or program that attendees could advocate for in their communities to support native pollinator habitats?

“So I have to say I am a one trick pony. Stop mowing. I’m from the East, so we have a lot more things to mow. But …there’s some place that doesn’t need to be mown every single time…. And you’re saving money. You’re not polluting as much. You have created instant habitat. And as you know, it’s really just habit” to mow.

I’ve heard mixed opinions on insect hotels. What are the risks and benefits and what should people consider before installing one?

“I always tell people, if you get some kind of bee box of any kind, don’t put it in the back, put it next to your kitchen window. You want to see the action. Most of the good here is learning about bees, seeing them in action. ” He shares the story of his 80-year old neighbor that sits “on her porch and literally right next to her is a table and we put two or three 4 x 4’s on there filled with holes and she loves it. They just are coming and going. It’s not a stinging issue, right? So she just really enjoys the show. So that’s a good one.” Also, “if you’re taking down a tree, just leave whatever, you know, big chunks of wood on the ground. It doesn’t look like much but there’s a whole community of bees and many other insects that are using that….The functionality is to leave natural environments and not try to neaten them up.”

What is one key action, big or small, that attendees can take today to better support pollinators in their own communities?

“I think we all need to inspect our lives, so let’s not piddle around with small things. Think about your life, what you’re doing, and you now have this very simple model. If there’s more flowers in the world, there’s going to be more bees. Don’t overthink it, but do think as you go through the day and you making decisions, how am I increasing the number of those flowers? And then the obverse. How am I decreasing the number of flowers? Am I taking a environment and dumbing it down and decreasing its usefulness for pollinators by my actions? Think of your lawnmower. That’s all I’m going to say.”

Sam is very passionate about native bees and their associated plants and habitats. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Sam’s TEDs talk.

And If the “Bees Beyond Honey” webinar left you wanting to learn more from Sam, there are several inspiring talks available. For more information on plant and bee relationships, check out Sam’s presentation from November 2024 titled “Native Bees Need Native Flowers” in which Sam delves further into the concept that in the wild and in our yards, the conservation of native bees depends on native flowering plants and how you can help by planting the right flowers and flowering bushes.