Bee Campus USA

UC Davis is the first University of California campus to be certified as an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program.

Designed to marshal the strengths of educational campuses for the benefit of pollinators, UC Davis joins more than one-hundred-fifty other cities and campuses across the country united in improving their landscapes for pollinators.

Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA are initiatives of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon, with offices across the country. The mission of these initiatives is to galvanize communities and campuses to sustain pollinators by providing them with healthy habitat, rich in a variety of native plants and free of pesticides. Pollinators like bumble bees, sweat bees, mason bees, honey bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, hummingbirds and many others are responsible for the reproduction of almost ninety percent of the world's flowering plant species and one in every three bites of food we consume.

Learn more: UC Davis Blossoms as Next Bee Campus USA in the nation

Bee Conservation Resources

Pollinator Plant Lists
Academic Research
Student Opportunities
- UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden Learning by Leading™ Teams
- UC Davis Student Farm internships
UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden in partnership with local University of California Master Gardeners:
- Why Plant for Pollinators? (PDF)
- Gardening for Bees (PDF)
Xerces Society:
- Bumble Bee Conservation Page
- How to Make and Maintain Nests for Native Bees (PDF)

Bee Campus USA Committee & Charge Letter

Rachel Davis (Committee Chair) GATEways horticulturist Arboretum and Public Garden (APG); (sustainability staff/grounds staff) ramdavis@ucdavis.edu

Neal Williams Pollination Ecologist (faculty) nmwilliams@ucdavis.edu See more information here: https://beebiology.ucdavis.edu/

Amina Harris Director, Honey and Pollination Center (other staff) aharris@ucdavis.edu See more information here: https://honey.ucdavis.edu/

Christine Casey Academic Program Management Officer, Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven cacasey@ucdavis.edu See more information here: https://beegarden.ucdavis.edu/

Andrew Fulks Assistant Director Arboretum and Public Garden (sustainability staff/grounds staff) amfulks@ucdavis.edu

Tyson Mantor Associate Director of Grounds, in partnership with Arboretum and Public Garden (sustainability staff/grounds staff) tomantor@ucdavis.edu

Lara Hsia APG Learning by Leading™ Habitat Horticulture Co-Coordinator (student) lghsia@ucdavis.edu

Ivette Rivero APG Learning by Leading™ Habitat Horticulture Co-Coordinator (student) icrivero@ucdavis.edu

RE: Bee Campus USA Committee

Dear Colleagues:

As UC Davis grows and evolves, we strive to develop our campus into a living laboratory that encourages people to observe and interact with the landscapes around them. By joining the Bee Campus USA community, UC Davis can enhance our initiatives toward sustainable landscape practices. The Bee Campus USA certification will also support more opportunities for student and community engagement for creating pollinator habitat. Our campus would be the first UC to gain this certification. UC Davis has already set up initiatives that align with the commitments for the Bee Campus certification.

The Bee Campus USA Committee is charged with fulfilling the seven Bee Campus USA Commitments:

1. Establish/maintain a Bee Campus USA Committee or Subcommittee comprised of the landscape director and other staff, administrators, faculty and students, charged with overseeing your pollinator conservation and education efforts. This Committee fulfills this first requirement.

2. Develop and maintain a Campus Pollinator Habitat Plan to include a locally native (indigenous to your ecoregion), pollinator-friendly plant list with regional sources for such plants and a least toxic integrated pest management (IPM) plan.

3. Host campus event(s) each year to raise awareness of the importance of pollinators and to acknowledge the institution’s certification as a BEE CAMPUS USA institution.

4. Annually sponsor and track student service-learning and/or service projects to enhance pollinator habitats on-and off-campus. Service learning projects may or may not be part of courses.

5. Biennially offer a pollinator protection course and/or workshop and/or incorporate pollinator protection topics into the curriculum.

6. Post signage regarding pollinators to educate the campus and broader community about pollinator-friendly landscaping principles.

7. Maintain a webpage on the institution’s website to share your Bee Campus USA news and activities.

With support from committee members and campus partners, these requirements can be accomplished through Arboretum and Public Garden resources and the Learning by Leading program.

Rachel Davis will serve as the convener of the committee. We request that annual updates on the progress of Bee Campus USA be provided to us.

We are excited for the opportunity to join Bee Campus USA, an initiative where institutions can collaborate and support one another to make an impact.

Sincerely,