Bug Banter with the Xerces Society

Photography is a powerful tool to tell stories and change perspectives. This is especially true when it comes to insects and invertebrates—animals that are often overlooked and misunderstood. How can we use photography to share the story of these creatures we love and inspire others to save them?
To share his experience and photography tips is Clay Bolt. Clay is the Manager of Pollinator Conservation and Great Plains Communications for the World Wildlife Fund. He is also an award-winning conservation and natural history photographer. Clay focuses on native bees and other overlooked species. His work has been featured in National Geographic, The New York Times, and National Wildlife Magazine. He is a Senior Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers, a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, a past president of the North American Nature Photography Association, and a multi-time honoree in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Between 2015 and 2017, Clay played a notable role in the successful campaign to protect the rusty-patched bumble bee under the Endangered Species Act—the first native North American bee to receive federal protection. In 2019, Clay was part of the team that successfully went in search of the world’s largest bee, Wallace’s giant bee, which had only been recorded by a western scientist once since it was first described by Alfred Russell Wallace in 1858.
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Cover photo: © Clay Bolt
Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.

In almost every episode, we’ve talked about what people can do to help invertebrates, whether that’s planting habitat, reducing pesticide risk, or simply paying closer attention to the living world around us. The success of conservation requires various involvement from community members, volunteers, and professionals. In this episode, we’ll be talking about what it can look like to make conservation part of your work life. We’ve invited several Xerces staff members to talk about how they got here, what they’ve learned, and what advice they might give to people interested in pursuing a career in conservation. 
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Photo: Michele Blackburn/Xerces Society
Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.

On Bug Banter we talk a lot about what people can do to help invertebrates and nothing is more inspiring than hearing one person's successful journey to creating a wildlife haven in their own backyard.
Joining us to share his experience and tell us about his incredible space is Elliott Gordon. Elliott has been a Xerces Ambassador since 2022, based in New Mexico. At his home in suburban Albuquerque, he stewards a high-quality, pesticide-free landscape of diverse native and xeric plants and tries to document all of the wildlife that it supports. He is a member of the brand-new New Mexico rare arthropod technical council, formed to identify species of conservation concern in the state. He also volunteers for the New Mexico backyard refuge program, New Mexico butterfly monitoring network, Pollinators in the Neighborhood (which helps support Albuquerque’s Bee City USA initiatives), and the University of New Mexico’s museum of southwestern biology as a beetle researcher.
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Cover Photo: Elliott Gordon
Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.

Seed collecting is a hands-on way to learn and care for native plants, plant communities, and the insects that live among them. So who can collect seeds and how do you do it? How do you store the seeds and when is the best time to plant them?
To answer these questions and take a deep dive into seed collection is Eric Lee-Mäder and Stephanie Frischie.
Eric has a background in conservation, commercial horticulture, and the nursery industry. Eric was previously the co-director of the Pollinator Conservation team at Xerces focused on large-scale habitat restoration for bees on farms across the U.S. and Canada, and helped develop seed production for native plants important to pollinators. Eric now works full time co-running his family business, Northwest Meadowscapes Conservation Seed Company.
Stephanie is an Agronomist and Native Plant Materials Specialist at Xerces. Stephanie brings technical expertise on native plant materials, native plants, and plant-insect interactions to her work across conservation agronomy; plant ecology; ecological restoration; and native seed production, use, policy, research, and quality — all to improve the supply and growth of important plant species for restoration of insect habitat.
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Photo: Eric Lee-Mäder/Xerces Society
Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.

The rusty patched bumble bee is a gorgeous bee, richly colored in yellow and black with a distinctive rusty brown marking on its back. It holds a special place in history: In January 2017, it became the first bee in the continental U.S. to be listed under the Endangered Species Act, and in May of this year, 1.5 million acres of land were designated as critical habitat, the largest area of critical habitat ever declared for an insect. 
To tell us the story of how this bumble bee went from unknown to icon are two people who played a central role in the years-long effort, Sarina Jepsen and Rich Hatfield. 
Sarina is the Endangered Species Program Director here at Xerces, and has worked on the protection of many different invertebrate species, including bees, butterflies, tiger beetles, fireflies, and freshwater mussels. Sarina co-founded the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission’s Bumblebee Specialist Group, an international network of scientists who aim to evaluate the extinction risk of bumble bees worldwide.
Rich also works at Xerces, where he is a Senior Conservation Biologist on our Endangered Species team and Bumble Bee Conservation Lead, which means he manages all aspects of the Xerces Society’s work on bumble bees. This includes coordinating the Bumble Bee community science projects, including the Bumble Bee Atlas. Rich is also working to understand the threats to bumble bees and actions we can take to protect them, and advocating for their protection. 
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Photo: Rich Hatfield / Xerces Society
Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.