Bees

The Xerces Society has been protecting invertebrates since 1971. With staff biologists across the United States, Xerces runs the largest pollinator conservation program in the world, which includes protecting the 3,600 native bee species in North America. Native bees face many of the same threats as the European honeybee – pesticides, disease, and loss of habitat and forage – and like the honeybee, native bees pollinate billions of dollars worth of crops annually in the U.S. Some crops, like watermelon, eggplant, and tomato, can only be pollinated by native bees.

As part of protecting our native bees, Xerces helps farmers restore wildflower habitat around their farms. The restored land becomes a home for native bees, which often live solitary lives and build nests in the ground, and it provides a more diverse diet for commercial honeybees that visit those farms. Xerces has restored over 422,000 acres of native wildflower habitat that supports bees. Alongside this restoration work, Xerces conducts numerous education and training programs. Xerces has trained more than 80,000 individuals on how to restore and protect pollinator habitat.