California Drought Edition 
 

El Niño and California's Bees: 
What to Expect After a Wet Winter
 

Excitement has been rising on the West Coast about the developing El Niño and the rains it will hopefully bring. El Niño – a weather pattern that begins with warming waters in the Pacific Ocean and carries with it the threat of severe weather and natural disasters – has a 90% likelihood of occurring this fall and winter, according to the National Weather Service. Many are likening this to the El Niño of 1997-98, when San Francisco received twice its average rainfall! Though it seems fairly certain that parts of the West and Southwest will experience colder and wetter seasons than usual, experts can’t say for certain how far north or east the stormy weather might travel, or how much rain a specific location will receive. 

But what might the rain mean for our bees? Not surprisingly, the bees are happiest when the plants are! Wet years mean more plant growth and flower production, which equal more food for our buzzing friends. Bees are able to sense wet seasons, and therefore time their emergence accordingly.  When late showers hit some of our plots in Southern California this year, Dr. Frankie and volunteers recorded the emergence of species that had not been present when the areas were dry. 

However, an extremely wet winter is not without its risks, especially when it’s on the heels of several years of severe drought. Overwintering bees have a moisture resistant coating on their eggs, but excessive, prolonged moisture might damage the eggs of ground-nesting bees. Gardens and beds are at a higher risk of erosion, and less tolerant plants might mildew. Warmer or cooler than average temperatures might affect certain species emergence times, so our bees may appear in an abnormal order next spring! Building a roofed bug hotel can offer some bees a dry place to winter (bottom right), and setting up a rain catchment system will allow you to save some of the water for the hotter months!

Its easy to look forward to the idea of rain, but until it shows, remember that we're in a drought! There are some techniques you can employ in your garden to make the most of our limited water! You can build berms around target plants to hold more water there so it can penetrate into the soil around the plants. You can also experiment with ollas, unglazed clay pots buried next to plants to water their roots. If that's too involved, you can simply float some wine corks on a shallow container of water (bottom left), which allows bees maximum access to the water, without the risk of falling in (and the wine corks reduce evaporation!). Happy Bee Gardening!

                                                                                                                                   -Written by Rylee Hackley

Bees in the City! 
 

Dolores Street Pollinator Boulevard:
An Urban Oasis for Bees 
 

     San Francisco’s Mission District has always been full of colorful people and places, but it’s about to get even brighter with the installation of a Pollinator Boulevard on Dolores Street between 13^th and Market. Patricia Algara, co-founder at BASE Landscape Architecture and participant in our 2015 Jepson Herbarium Native Bee Workshop, noticed the dead brown patches of lawn covering the median divides throughout San Francisco as the City has taken on water conservation measures in light of California’s extreme drought. She envisioned a transformation of this marginal public space into an ecological Eden, and decided to act.

     As cities have the potential to serve as havens for native pollinators, Patricia reached out to the City of San Francisco with the idea of transforming the withering medians into lush pollinator gardens. With their support, along with the support of the Prado Group, Whole Foods, and the Mission Dolores Neighborhood Association, Patricia and volunteers took the first steps to make this pollinator garden a reality by sheet mulching last month in preparation for winter planting. Soon, a variety of beautiful bee plants like Coyote Mint, Germander Sage, and California Poppies will cover the area and provide a variety of floral resources to the bees (and other pollinators) of San Francisco. Follow BASE Landscape Architecture on Facebook for updates and to hear about more volunteer days to help this garden realize its full potential as a beautiful, buzzing space.
 

-Written by Chris Jadallah