Carmen Kock.
Friends of SDPB Welcome New Staff
ET Board Meeting
Carmen Kock has joined the Friends of SDPB staff as Membership Specialist. Carmen manages donation details and member accounts. Carmen grew up in Chancellor and is a graduate of Lennox High School and Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Most recently, Carmen was a database analyst/gift processing specialist at Good Samaritan and Sanford Health foundations. “After college, I moved to Burke to teach band,” says Carmen. “At that time, my TV got only one commercial network but both South Dakota and Nebraska Public Television. Those years, especially the 2000 election, are when I became a public broadcasting fan.” Carmen lives in Sioux Falls and enjoys reading, gardening, teaching piano and traveling to national parks in the western United States.
The SD board of Directors for Educational Telecommunication meets Friday, Oct. 29, 1:30 CT. The meeting is scheduled to take place at SDPB’s Sioux Falls Studios, 601 N. Phillips Ave. More info: (605)677-5862
(Bee Aware continued from p. 5)
Well, first step is preventing them from getting into your house,” says Bachmann. “A lot of people want to know, ‘What can I spray?’ But that’s not the best first question. I try to get people to walk it back, and figure out what really is the root of the pest issue, and then how can we best manage it. Definitely, pesticides do end up being a solution in some cases, but they’re not always the first thing that we reach for.” Adee says most of the agricultural producers he’s met are cognizant and receptive to IPM, but it may require patience and pivoting. “Sometimes you just get caught in a hurry,” says Adee. “But you’ve got to look at the stress of the immediate compared to the longterm. Some years it’s harder to implement than others. What blew up this year was spider mites, but we got calls from very conscientious producers to help us work with them on controlling spider mites so they could protect their soybean crops and we could protect our honeybees.” South Dakota participates in BeeCheck and DriftWatch, a voluntary registration service where pesticide applicators, beekeepers and crop growers can map and communicate spraying, hive and crop locations. Adee says he has a lot of hope and optimism for producers who are harnessing
creativity into regenerative agriculture. He references the Jorgensen Ranch near Ideal, South Dakota, winners of the 2015 Leopold Conservation Award. “Their efforts in conservation are exceptional. And what really inspires me is the soil health movement and the South Dakota Grassland Coalition. We’ve got top-notch producers in South Dakota who really get the value of whole ecosystems. I think we’re starting to get the changes we need for bees that will benefit all agriculture.” Bachmann urges backyarders to educate themselves on identification as the first step toward pest management that doesn’t encourage habitat decline. “A lot of these native bee species are not going to be aggressive,” says Bachmann. “Stinging is not their first line of defense. Honeybees, bumblebees, social wasps, they’re protecting resources so they kind of come out swinging if their nest is disturbed. But our ground-nesting solitary bees, you’re not encountering them necessarily near their nest, and that nest is not a thing full of resources that they’re defending aggressively.” She cites resources like the Ask Extension at Extension.sdstate.edu and garden lines where users can submit pictures and questions, as well as citizen science apps like iNaturalist and BugGuide.
Like Adee, Bachmann is encouraged by increasing interest in pollinators and pollinator conservation. “Rotary groups and community volunteers want to get grants to build pollinator gardens,” says Bachmann. “It’s not just scientists who think its important for their communities. I think that’s a real success.” Plans for a state bumble bee survey are in the works. Adee’s wishlist includes beneficial plant selection on hunting and Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land. Bachmann says neighboring states do more with roadside pollinator habitat initiatives. She’d like to reach a point where insects like the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee and American Burying Beetle, the only insect currently on the Critically Endangered Species List, generate interest and action. “Right now the biggest incentive is self-interest, obviously,” says Adee. “But the more you look at the positives of maintaining landscapes that produce more nectar and pollen for our beneficial insects, and the value of our beneficial insects to us and agriculture, the more we realize we need them.” Nature My Garden of a Thousand Bees premieres Wednesday, Oct. 20, at 7pm (6 MT) on SDPB1 and SDPB.org
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