Webinar – Still Growing: Pollinator Habitat Maintenance Tips

Planting flowers can be a feel-good community activity, but who is sticking around to upkeep that new garden? Quality pollinator habitat needs a game plan for long-term success. 

Join Xerces Society staff Kaitlin Haase and Stefanie Steele as they share their on-the-ground experiences with pollinator plantings. They will review common challenges, offer best practices, and share resources to help your plantings thrive. Bee City and Bee Campus case studies will be highlighted and we’ll have a Q&A at the end. This will be an interactive webinar, so please bring your issues, advice, and achievements. Participation is encouraged! 

This free Bee City USA webinar is hosted by Xerces Society and will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel on the Bee City USA playlist. Auto-generated Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.

Guest Speaker Bios

Kaitlin Haase
Pollinator Conservation Specialist
Southwest

As the Southwest Pollinator Conservation Specialist for the Xerces Society, Kaitlin works to create climate-resilient, connected pollinator habitat in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. She collaborates with and educates public and private urban land managers in New Mexico and the desert Southwest on pollinator-friendly practices for landscaping, gardening, and open space restoration. She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Northern Arizona University, where she studied impacts of drying on aquatic invertebrate diversity in natural and human-made ponds. Before graduate school, she worked as an ecological science technician in a variety of systems across the US, including predator-prey ecology in Michigan, riparian restoration in Virginia, and rare species monitoring in Massachusetts.

Stefanie Steele
Pollinator Conservation Specialist
NRCS Partner Biologist
Urban and Small Farms
Michigan

Stefanie is the Xerces Society’s Pollinator Conservation Specialist for Urban and Small Farms in Underserved Communities and a NRCS Partner Biologist in the Upper Midwest – Detroit, Michigan area. Through this work, she provides technical assistance, planning, and education on incorporating pollinator and other beneficial invertebrate habitat in small urban agricultural areas and community gardens in historically excluded communities. Her work supports projects including the Xerces Habitat Kit Program, People’s Garden Initiative, and NRCS Conservation Programs through the USDA Farm Bill.

Stefanie received a master’s degree in biology from Portland State University where she studied the nesting habits of cavity nesting bees and wasps in the Portland, OR area and completed a multi-year study surveying the solitary bees in Portland’s urban core and their floral use. Since graduating, she has worked on numerous research projects studying diverse bee communities, and she has a deep knowledge of the taxonomy and ecology of native bees. While in Portland, OR, Stefanie worked with several urban gardens, orchards, farms, and restoration areas to help incorporate pollinator habitat in these spaces. Originally from Cincinnati, OH, Stefanie has a strong knowledge of the Upper Midwest local plant communities and is excited to be back working with urban communities in the Midwest.