Chapter Events

Presentation Title: The Benefits of Bees and Other Pollinators

Speaker: Kelly Ksiazek, M.S.

Program Description

Bees, butterflies, and even bats provide the very important service of pollination, which supply people with a wide variety of food and commercial products. With natural habitat or living space for pollinators becoming scarce and some pollinator populations on the decline, conservation efforts in urban and agricultural habitats are becoming more widespread. In the Chicago region, planting native prairie species promotes local pollinator diversity by increasing livable habitat for plants that provide nectar and pollen resources to pollinators. Even new types of gardens, like green roofs, are now starting to include native plantings. Pollinating bees, birds, and other mobile animals move pollen between many types of gardens and landscapes, including those in which we live.

Please join the Lake-to-Prairie Wild Ones for this presentation with Kelly Ksiazek, plant ecologist, as she describes the role of pollinators, provides an overview of their importance, defines how pollinator ecology research in cities and suburban areas are contributing to large biodiversity conservation efforts, and suggests how people of all backgrounds can get involved with pollinator protection in their local areas.

Biography

Kelly Ksiazek is a plant ecologist, teacher and PhD candidate in plant biology and conservation at Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden. Her broad interests are in urban ecology, pollination biology, green infrastructure and environmental education. Ksiazek completed her undergraduate work in biology at the University of Illinois in Urbana/Champaign and graduate work in secondary science education at Northwestern University. Her plant biology and conservation M.S. research documented the importance of pollinators to the reproduction of native forbs on green roofs. In 2013, she was awarded a Fulbright/Germanistic Society of America Fellowship to investigate patterns of green roof plant and insect community structuring in northeastern Germany. She is currently a third-year Phipps Conservatory Botany in Action Fellow and designs curriculum to teach youth and the general public about the ecological benefits of native plants and pollinators in urban environments. Ksiazek?s current research is examining how green roofs can be used to support pollinator biodiversity and conserve native prairie plants in Chicago.