Science Pub: Pollinators, People and the Planet: A Love Story

Plants have been using colorful flowers and nectar to seduce pollinators for millions of years. Even though we are beginning to understand that one in every three bites we take is dependent on a pollinator of some kind, conventional landscaping and agriculture often have invisible “Keep Out” signs where pollinators are concerned. Join Phyllis Stiles, founder of Bee City USA, to learn why and how Bee City USA affiliates are changing the way they landscape to welcome at-risk pollinators with the goal of reversing their global declines.

Phyllis Stiles was named the 2015 United States Pollinator Advocate of the Year by the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, Phyllis Stiles is founder of the Xerces Society’s programs Bee City USA® and Bee Campus USA, which launched from Asheville in 2012 and now extends to more than 130 cities and campuses from coast to coast. An Asheville resident since the 1970s, Stiles has spent her career serving communities from West Africa to the Mississippi Delta, and non-profit organizations in fields ranging from natural resource and farmland protection to civic leadership development. She enjoys hiking, trying to speak French and playing her upright bass.