These are a Few of Our Favourite Bees June 22 – July 16, 2022 Campbell House Museum

See the full statement and description of the artworks

We live in the Anthropocene, where humans make the most profound impacts on Earth and environments. But as land managers and agriculturalists, we humans have a very limited understanding of the ecology of pollinators and the processes that underlie biodiversity, including bee diversity. We know next to nothing about most of Earth’s 20,000+ bee species1, though quite a lot about some. But even what is well-known to science about bees and their conservation has not made the leap to government, to education or to the public sphere.

So how can we plan for the future, including the future of food, the future of biodiverse landscapes, of everything that interacts with the plants required for all terrestrial life if we don’t understand who pollinates these plants or the ecology of their lives? As we think about how to co-exist with the natural world amidst rapidly changing weather systems, ecosystems and landscapes, our knowledge of pollination ecology is ever more essential, because nature itself gets the last word.

These are a few of our favourite (wild) bees: bumble bees, jewelled green sweat bees, masked cellophane bees, leaf cutter bees, mason bees, and resin bees. They are our neighbours, living among us. They’re everywhere (and you thought that was a fly!). Although native, wild bees are not within our control2, the landscapes we humans manage and influence profoundly shape their diversity and abundance. Managed bees are somewhat but not altogether under our control. These include honey bees, some bumble bees, alfalfa leaf cutter bees, orchard bees, and alkali bees. They, too, affect (and are affected by) changing landscapes. And because they bring risks as well as benefits to the agricultural settings we create, their deployment demands scrutiny and prudence on our part. Feedback loops of viruses and parasites spill over from managed bees into native bee populations3, while competition for nectar and pollen between honey bees and wild pollinators add significant pressures to biodiversity of native bees and to landscapes.

But managed bees are the subject of another story. This is the story of wild, native bees in our midst, some of the plants that they, in their diverse forms and habits, pollinate, where they nest – and where you might find them outdoors. We invite you to look and listen closely. And then go outside and be amazed at what you see!

1. The Greater Toronto Area has 350 bee species (Bees of Toronto: A Guide to their Remarkable World, 2017)
2. Though we can (and do) make choices which decrease their numbers and diversity very easily.
3. Pathogen spillover to wild bees research citations link