A Fresh Face for Bee City - Carlinville!

You may have noticed some changes to our website recently! We’re working hard behind the scenes to revamp and reinvigorate the work we’ve been doing for Bee City - Carlinville since 2019. Soon, you’ll be seeing more changes to the website and we will be picking up our activity on our Facebook and Instagram pages. All of this will be done in an effort to assist those currently helping out our local pollinators as well as helping those who don’t quite know where to start.

Bee City - Carlinville is also excited to share the formation of Bee Kidzzzz. Here we will help to educate our younger community members and future adults on what they can do to be Pollinator Protectors. We will include fun crafts and projects that can be done at home, but will also be helpful to our pollinator friends.

So much is happening with Bee City-Carlinville right now. We hope you’ll follow along and get involved. It’s going to be fun!

Bee City-Carlinville Certification Renewed

Thanks to the good work and active participation of our members, the clear articulation of our mission by our communications team, the stunningly effective coordination between Bee City and Bee Campus at Blackburn and especially the vision, constancy, planning and plain old hard work of our leadership, Bee City-Carlinville certification has been renewed and extended until February of 2023.

Zumm zumm to everyone involved!

Bees & Trees 2020: a Successful Online Video Collaboration

On November 11 Bees & Trees (& Flowers, too), an event conceived and developed by the ubiquitous Kathy Ruiter with technological support by Blackburn College, became a reality. The Zoom meeting brought together regional Master Gardeners, Carlinville Bee City, Tree City, Blackburn Tree Campus, Bee Campus and Environmental groups to share news about accomplishments, ongoing projects, and future plans. As a special treat Dr. John Marlin, a research affiliate at the University of Illinois, made a comprehensive presentation on pollinator-friendly habitats and plantings. As always, his presentation was both engaging and informative.

Blackburn created a video of the meeting, available at: https://youtu.be/iQJ1cgxBM4w and hosted by Ms. Ruiter.

A “video index” for those who would like to target particular content follows:

  • welcome: 0:01 (Kathy Ruiter)

  • introduction of presenters: 0:57

  • Bee City: 3:40 (Mary Tinder) and 7:29 (Bill Link)

  • Tree City: 11:39 (Paul Mihalek) , 14:55 (Lori Hopping) -Park District focus, 17:18 (Paul)-Trees Forever connection

  • Master Gardeners: 20:18 (Paula Robinson)

  • Tree Campus: 27:10 (Nick McCorkle)-5-year plan, 33:06 (Dr. Jim Bray)-overview and funding for the planned Robertson Garden

  • Bee Campus and Blackburn Bee Program: 39:15 (Arvin Pierce), 49:15 (student Dave Bradley), 51:53 (senior Caleb Rieger)

  • Introduction of Dr. Marlin: 56:34

  • Presentation by Dr. John Marlin: 56:41 (background), 57:52 (slide presentation)

  • Q&A and wrap-up: 1:16:00

    Thanks to all the participants and also all the people who took the time and effort to make this event and its underlying content a reality. Zumm…zumm to one and all!

Kathy Ruiter Honored at Blackburn

In addition to maintaining our Bee City-Carlinville facebook page, working on our website, keeping up with news relevant to our mission (and communicating it one and all), organizing events for us throughout the year, and serving as liaison with the Carlinville Tree City group and the local Master Gardeners, Kathy Ruiter works daily and tirelessly with Blackburn’s Bee Campus and Tree Campus groups. She is the core liaison for our strong connection with those campus organizations and the college’s Sustainability program.

Earlier this month we learned that Kathy was awarded Blackburn’s Alumni Achievement Award at Homecoming for these and many other contributions she makes to the campus community.

Congratulations, Kathy and a heartfelt Zumm Zumm to you !!

Bee City USA Spotlight on Carlinville

Bee City USA, an initiative of the Xerces Society, has focused its Affiliate Spotlight on Bee City-Carlinville for the month of October, 2020. Their September 22 newsletter included an informative and quite flattering article about our efforts and plans.

The Xerces Society is a non-profit organization with many initiatives centered on “the conservation of invertebrates considered to be essential to biological diversity and ecosystem health”.

Tree City/Bee City/Environmental Volunteers in the News

The Macoupin County Enquirer ran a front-page story on our recent Awards meeting. The article, which ran in the August 13 edition under Jackson Wilson’s by-line, is entitled “Carlinville environmental groups recognized at awards ceremony”. It presents details of the groups’ local efforts to beautify the city by creating and maintaining pollinator-friendly habitats in parks, common areas, and byways in and around our city.

The gracious and heartfelt remarks of Kevin Bennett, Illinois Program Director for Trees Forever, lauding our community’s activism and enthusiasm for its role as caretakers of the environment were duly noted. The article goes on to detail several specific projects, including tree plantings, work around the square, and youth involvement.

Check out our own Fresh Honey tab for more details and photos of the event.

News Article on Recent Grants

Organization receives two grant awards for pollinators Macoupin County Enquirer-Democrat, Feb. 20, 2020, p. 2A

The Make Carlinville Beautiful organization is pleased to announce that it will be receiving funding for pollinator habitat projects.

The grants were written by Paula Robinson and Mary Tinder to the Illinois Native Plant Society and Trees Forever.  The “Carlinville Pollinator Project”, according to Paula Robinson is receiving $500 from the Central Chapter of the Illinois Native Plant Society.  The Trees Forever award is for $1,000 and will be used within the city for pollinator conservation, new plantings and conservation, according to Mary Tinder of Make Carlinville Beautiful. 

The group is working on sites within the city of Carlinville, mostly on public lands, such as the five city welcome signs, the library, Carlinville Area Hospital, the Amtrak Station, Locus Street Resource Center and assisting the Carlinville Community Unit No. 1 School District at the High School and Middle School. 

The sites feature pollinator trees, shrubs, native grasses and forbs which increase species diversity, enhance pollinator habitat and reduce non-point source pollution and erosion in specific locations. The sites will be featured for field tours, workshops and educational outreach activities to help raise awareness about the need for new pollinators to be planted in our region and across the world.

Kevin Bennett, field coordinator for Trees Forever, is serving as the group’s resource to assist with the process.

“I would like to thank the board of our local “Winning Communities” who handles the funds, the City of Carlinville for allowing us to plant on public properties, the board of Tree City USA, Carlinville, Bee City USA, Carlinville and the original “Make Carlinville Beautiful” volunteers who helped with planting, mulching, maintenance, grant writing and completing applications that continue to earn Carlinville honors and expand our work.” Tinder said.

Paula and Mary Win Pollinator Grants!

Both Paula Robinson and Mary Tinder recently won significant grant awards in support of our collective of environmental groups, Make Carlinville Beautiful. Both grants are for pollinator habitat projects.

Paula was awarded $500 by the Illinois Native Plant Society (Central Chapter) to partner with Boy Scouts and 4H members in pollinator plantings and education. Her grant title was “The Carlinville Pollinator Project”.

Mary received $1000 from Trees Forever to support pollinator habitat initiation and conservation. It includes expert advice and support from Kevin Bennett, the field coordinator for that organization.

Congratulations to both Mary and Paula for your hard work in the garden and tireless research and writing at the keyboard. Well done you!

Article in Senior News

Cindy Maguire wrote an article that is to be published soon in Senior News. They became interested in our organization through the great internet ether and so requested a deeper look. Cindy took on the task of answering their questions and simultaneously recording some of our history and aspirations. It is a good read, so be on the lookout for it!

Klaus-Ogden Pollinator Garden Presentation

At the February 19 meeting, Lisa Klaus and Eric Ogden made a presentation about the layout and plantings in their pollinator gardens. They included a map of their grounds, some discussion of the bees they raise and support, and a listing of pollinator plants coupled with the pollinators they attract (all to be reproduced soon in a follow up posting).

Perhaps the best news is that they will be inviting us to visit their gardens for a first-hand look sometime this Spring. Thanks so much Eric and Lisa for your work and sharing!

All Gardeners' Day 2020

On Saturday, March 14th, 2020, the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener Program will host a half-day All Gardener’s Day at the Holy Family Catholic Church Parish Center. This event, which is open to the public, will focus on a variety of horticultural topics.

The Keynote speaker is Tod Austin (aka “The Bat Doctor”). He will be joined by four others:

  • Arvin Pierce: acbees, Beekeeper (and member of Carlinville Bees)

  • Mel Repscher: Owner of Big M Berry Patch in Taylorville

  • Debbie Fluegel: Trees Forever Program Manager/Field Coordinator

  • Andrew Holsinger: University of Illinois Extension Educator in Horticulture

 
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Pollinator Course to be offered at Blackburn

Our own Arvin Pierce and Dr. Jim Bray will be teaching a ‘Pollinator’ Biology course this spring semester. As the weather warms and the Mahan garden plants emerge, the class will be observing/studying the early blooming plants and the pollinators who visit them. Arvin said they probably will not be doing much with the bee hives in this class. The public can audit this course. However, there is limited seating. It is $75 to audit. The class begins on 1-15-20 and ends 5-9-20; meets Wed & Fri, 4:00-5:20. Labs will be on select Saturdays (TBD), all day.

For more information please contact Blackburn’s Registrar Dianna Ruyle or email buzzkeeps@gmail.com

Beware of Free Seeds

At last night’s Bee City meeting, Bill McClain brought in a “Bee Feed” seed packet he received from the Sierra Club with a seed list similar to this one from an online seed retailer:

“Chinese Forget-Me-Not, Purple Coneflower, California Poppy, Blue Flax, Lance-Leaved Coreopsis, Annual Baby’s Breath, Corn Poppy, Crimson Clover, Siberian Wallflower, Clasping Coneflower, Indian Blanket, Baby Blue-Eyes, China Aster, Plains Coreopsis, Sweet Alyssum, Lavender Hyssop, Bergamot, Globe Gilia, New England Aster.”

There are many plants listed that are native to our area BUT… He warned the group that these seed mixes may not be all what they claim to be. If you have received a free seed packet in the mail, or plan on purchasing a ‘Bee Feed’ or wildflower mix BEWARE, some of these plants may do more harm to our local environment than good. Sure, they are convenient but many of these seed mixes contain non-native plants that are absolutely no help to our region’s native pollinators. And some plants may even be INVASIVE to our area.

Always check what is in a seed mix and get your seed from a reputable source. If the seller does not provide a list of what is in the mix – beware! If you see ‘Chinese’ or ‘Siberian’ in the seed name, that sends up a red flag. There are many good resources to find a list of plants that are native to our area (see our Resource page). Click here to read a good article about the warning of these seed mixes.

PLEASE NOTE: if you received a Blackburn College seed packet at the Carlinville Rotary Club's Halloween Parade be assured the seeds contained in the packet were collected from the Mahan Native Pollinator Planting. Click here for a complete list of what may be contained in that packet.

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THE POWER OF ONE BUTTERFLY

“When a butterfly flaps its wings, it sets air molecules in motion, starting a chain of events that can snowball and create ever bigger changes, eventually even a tornado or hurricane in another part of the world. While the butterfly doesn’t create the tornado, it may not have happened had that single butterfly not flapped its wings.” Founder of Bee City/Campus USA, Phyllis Stiles, retires. Click here to read more. Pictured below: Phyllis Stiles (left) and Molly Martin (right) visit public pollinator garden in Ashland, Oregon. Photo: Kristina LeFever

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"Make Carlinville Beautiful" Receives Chamber Award

Cindy Tipps and Bill Link received the honor on behalf of the volunteer group at the Chamber dinner on November 7, 2019. Cindy Tipps says, “THANK YOU, Carlinville Chamber of Commerce, for this honor that validates the Chamber's interest and support for the Make Carlinville Beautiful vision! SO MANY people have brainstormed, teamed with others, and given hours and hours of volunteer time to make our community "bloom".

We are excited for what is planned for 2020. So many groups of volunteers willing to do more and more for our community!

We invite ALL to join our vision and volunteer to help in some way!”

CONGRATULATIONS to all our hard working volunteers!

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