Our Nacogdoches PowWow theme: IT TAKES A VILLAGE: BIODIVERSITY of Pollinators, Plants and People
"It is that range of biodiversity that we must care for – the whole thing – rather than just one or two stars," says naturalist and conservationist, Sir David Attenborough.
BIRDS and BEARS, BATS and BUTTERFLIES, BEES and BLUEBERRIES... and more! Come learn about pollinators and the Texas plants and animals that depend upon them, the conservation challenges they are facing, and how YOU can help! The TEXAS POLLINATOR POWWOW brings you topics ranging from native plants and black bears, to hummingbirds and butterflies and bees, to urban and rural land management best practices by experts from around the state and beyond. Our community outreach and education focus is to the development of landscape-scale ecology in the pollination field. We are pleased to present to you some of the best and brightest of minds and committed professionals in pollination conservation today.
Joining us to speak on crucial pollinator topics, thus far, are: DR. DOUG TALLAMY (pollinators as wildlife food), DR. MERLIN TUTTLE (bats and their challenges), CLAY BOLT (bumble bee conservation), RICKY LINEX (floral hosts/pollinators), CLIFF SHACKELFORD (hummingbirds and pollination), LAUREN JANSEN SIMPSON (flower flies), DAVID WOLFE (Environmental Defense Fund), and SFASU's own DAWN STOVER (food prairies), DR. DAN BENNETT (solitary and social wasps), DR. CHRIS COMER (black bears and bees), DR. JOHN PASCARELLA (blueberries and wild bees), BEN PFEIFFER (firefly.org), DR. PABLO JARAMILLO-LOPEZ (what is REALLY happening on the ground in Mexico about the monarchs) and DR. ELLEN SHARP (anthropologist; the cultural and conservation blend of Mexicans, forests and monarchs)!
There will be MORE SPEAKERS as we approach the date, so please check back with us regularly. For the many of you who have been asking: YES! DOUG TALLAMY will be with us all weekend :-), Friday through Sunday. You will have plenty of opportunity to talk to him while he's out here on this side of the mighty Mississippi.
It is our desire that the general public be educated, edified, engaged and entertained, and that professional conservation staff and committed volunteers be enabled to network and make connections with others outside their own narrow focus while being provided with a popular venue to share their missions with the community at large.
There is FREE ADMISSION to the EXHIBITION HALL on both days (the 5th and 6th)! We will have a fantastic group of pollinator-related EXHIBITORS on hand both days to answer questions, provide resources, and showcase their organizations. There will be LIVE EXHIBITS featuring honey bees and native bats and two native butterfly tents, and native plants for sale. MONARCH CITIZEN SCIENCE will be taught on site in our MONARCH CENTRAL butterfly tents and exhibitors' square. If you love honey bees and want to know more about them, please visit our exhibitors' HONEY HOLE in the Hall. Desirable pollinator-related items will be available in our ever-popular, and choice, RAFFLE (your presence is required to win).
BRING THE CHILDREN TO THE EXHIBITION HALL - DR. BUG will be there (http://www2.sfasu.edu/forestry/faculty/kulhavy/drbug.html) ! Along with the BUTTERFLY TENTS and the HONEY HOLE! The Exhibition Hall is FREE all weekend!
There will be an invitation-only WINE AND CANAPE SOCIAL RECEPTION honoring conservationist and nature photographer, CLAY BOLT on Thursday, May 4th, at downtown's historic COLE ART CENTER. The invitation-only reception will run concurrently with opening night of the "POLLINATORS OF THE WORLD" art exhibit created by SFASU's DR. DAVE KULHAVY (Dr. Bug) and DR. CHARLIE JONES (contact Charlie to submit your entry by March 30, 2017 [email protected]).
The global art exhibit will be available to the general public beginning May 5, and run throughout the weekend of the PowWow, so if you are not on the invitation list, please be assured. You can make time to take in the pollinator art exhibit on your own Friday and Saturday, May 5-6.
The award-winning DAY'S EDGE PRODUCTIONS has provided three of their short films in the series on bumble bees which feature Clay Bolt, and they will be shown at the Cole Art Center social reception AND the PowWow conference: "Ghost in the Making", "The Effects of Fungicides on Bumble Bee Colonies" and "Tagging Bumble Bees to Study Their Movements".
There is an ADMISSION FEE to the conference SPEAKERS, and to our BAT NIGHT , May 5th (acoustical bat walk and mist netting stations with bat biologists in the US Forest Service's Experimental Forest) and our MOTH NIGHT /CAT WALK, May 6th (a state-of-the-art identification and photography opportunity at SFA's Native Plant Center). Bat Night will be co-led by Dr. Merlin Tuttle and Dr. Chris Comer, and Moth Night will be co-led by Dr. Doug Tallamy and Dr. Dan Bennett. Conference registration of at least one of the days (Friday, Saturday or both) is REQUIRED in order to be eligible to also register for Bat Night and/or Moth Night.
Our Sunday FIELDWORK DAY in the Pineywoods' bogs and old-growth forests of BOGGY SLOUGH is FREE (and will be ably guided by botanist/entomologist/wildlife biologist teams on May 7th). HOWEVER, Moth Night and the Bat Night, and also the Boggy Slough trip, will be STRICTLY LIMITED to those who pre-registered for at least one day of the conference.
We hope you can join us, and we look forward to seeing you there! Thank you for showing our pollinators your love! :-)
A pollinator conservation conference for Texas and beyond
When:
Friday through Sunday, MAY 5-7, 2017
Where:
MAY 5-6 - NACOGDOCHES CIVIC CENTER http://nacexpo.net/documents/Brochure_000.pdf Address and Directions at the bottom of this page: http://www.nacexpo.net/map.asp NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS
MAY 7 - BOGGY SLOUGH http://www.texashighways.com/history/item/7716-boggy-slough-conservation-effort-counters-forest-fragmentationhttp://www.conservationfund.org/projects/boggy-slough APPLE SPRINGS, TEXAS 75926
Why: To provide education, resources and networking opportunities to natural resource management professionals and volunteers- and the community at large- and to empower them all in conserving our pollinators and their habitats across the landscape
How: FIFTEEN speakers, THREE DOZEN or more exhibitors (including MONARCH CENTRAL and the HONEY HOLE), RAFFLE of choice pollinator-related items, MOTH NIGHT and CAT WALK, BAT NIGHT, and four teams of botanists/entomologists/biologists as trip leaders to the ecologically sensitive old-growth forests and bogs of the Pineywoods (BOGGY SLOUGH)
Please see all subpages (drop downs) for Conference Agenda, Speakers, Lodging, Contact Information and Registration. There are interesting, as well as important, links or info on each page.
