[WEBINAR] Bee the Solution Year One Report

Join us to learn about bees and the results of The Bee Conservancy's 2025 community science program, Bee the Solution. Webinar Timestamps: Welcome (00:05) Bee the Solution Overview (00:43) Bees in the City Analysis (17:27) Pollinator ID (36:38) iNaturalist Training (41:44) The world’s 20,000+ bee species pollinate 80% of the world’s flowering plants and more than 130 crops in the U.S. alone. They are essential to the planet’s health and our food and ecosystems, but face decline due to factors like habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change. In 2025, The Bee Conservancy launched Bee the Solution, a community science initiative designed to fill critical gaps in biodiversity data by training participants to collect local insect and plant observations and add them to global databases. Crowdsourcing data enables large-scale contributions that scientists alone can’t make, fueling research, conservation, and advocacy. (Fun fact: the discovery of rare bees shut down Meta’s plans to build an A.I. data center in 2024!) Join us in this webinar to hear the story of our pilot year, buzzworthy takeaways, a whole lot of bee-utiful bees, and learn about how YOU can Bee the Solution through an iNaturalist training! Our special guest Ben Iuliano, PhD, of Baruch College, will share an analysis of our data, focusing on urban bee trends. Download our Bee the Solution Year 1 Impact Report here: https://mailchi.mp/thebeeconservancy.... Thanks to: OUR FUNDERS Through the NY State Pollinator Fund: The Office of the New York State Attorney General, The New York Community Trust; Con Edison Foundation OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS Cary Institute, City Parks Foundation Learning Gardens, Farragut Houses (NYCHA), Freshkills Park, Governors Island, Greenbelt Nature Center, Hells Kitchen Farm Project, The High Line, Hudson River Park, Ingersoll Houses (NYCHA), Kingston YMCA Farm Project, LifeSci NYC Internship Program, Liberty Park at the World Trade Center, NYC Parks Plant Ecology Center and Nursery, NYC Pollinators, NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program, Prospect Park Zoo / Wildlife Conservation Society, Randall’s Island Park as Lab, Rocking the Boat, Scenic Hudson, Seward Park Conservancy OUR SCIENTIFIC ADVISERS Ben Iuliano, PhD, Lecturer in Environmental Studies, Department of Natural Sciences, Baruch College; Sarah Kornbluth, MS, Field Associate Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History; Erin White, MS, New York Natural Heritage Program, Co-Founder Empire State Pollinator Survey; Matt Schlessinger, PhD, New York Natural Heritage Program, Co-Founder Empire State Pollinator Survey; Brian Spiesman, PhD, Department of Entomology, Kansas State University OUR COLLEAGUES, PEERS, AND BEE. F.F.s: Frank Beres, Betsy Jordan, Chris Kreussling, Tom Polk, Biana Varga