Since the lives of Oregon bees are integrated with the lives of Oregonians, any effort to keep the state’s bees healthy necessarily involves a lot of people. The Oregon Bee Project was initiated in 2017 and involves Oregon State University (OSU) Extension Service working closely with other state agencies (e.g., by the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) and Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF)). The project emerged out of the recognition that many Oregonians are already taking steps to protect bees. What was missing was a way to connect these individual efforts and build upon them with additional resources.  The Oregon Bee Project links people together on an ongoing, collaborative, and state-wide basis, including growers, beekeepers, pesticide applicators, entomologists, government agencies, educators such as the Extension service, gardeners, landscapers, and all others who are actively engaged in caring for our bees. Donations to this account will be put towards our statewide efforts to put new tools in the hands of Oregonians to keep the state pollinator friendly.The Pollinator Health Research and Extension program, run by Andony Melathopoulos in the Department of Horticulture, focuses on designing, developing, implanting and evaluating a state-wide pollinator health program. The focus of the program is not restricted to the Oregon’s four managed pollinator species (honey bees, alfalfa leafcutter bees, orchard mason bees and alkali bees) but also to the state’s rich endowment of wild species. The program is currently working on:

  1. improving training and education material for pesticide applicators to increase their knowledge of activities that increase exposure risk to pollinators.

  2. Developing training and education material for landscapers who are looking to incorporate pollinator habitat into their designs.

  3. Research to better understand how pollinators use habitat fragments and how this influences their exposure to pesticides.