Native Bee Symposium

Join us for a special symposium on native bees, sponsored by Friends in Unity with Nature committee, on Sunday, October 11 at 12:30 pm in the Sandy Spring Friends Lyceum. Potluck lunch provided; feel free to bring a dish to share! To join us by Zoom, CLICK HERE.

"Save the Bees" has become a major cultural movement in response to honey bee population losses, inspiring many people to take up beekeeping in an effort to save honey bees from extinction. Few people are aware that honey bees are not the only kind of bees, however, and that the narrative about honey bee losses is not the whole story. So what is the whole story? What are the other kinds of bees? And come to think of it, what are bees exactly, anyway? Entomologist and bee expert Francis Mullan will answer these questions and unveil the truth about bees.

Francis Mullan is a naturalist, educator, and entomologist. He holds a bachelor's degree in Insect Ecology and Conservation from the University of Delaware and a master's degree in Integrative Biology from Kennesaw State University. For his master's thesis, he studied the effects of climate change and urbanization on native bees (a group of animals with which he is admittedly a bit obsessed). He has worked for the USDA, the National Wildlife Federation, and the USGS Bee Lab in Laurel, MD; he currently works for Defensores de la Cuenca ("Defenders of the Watershed"), a nonprofit in Hyattsville that works to promote environmental stewardship among local communities and restore native habitat. His greatest passion is opening people's eyes to the beauty of biodiversity and inspiring curiosity for the wonders of the natural world. In doing this, he hopes that others will know the joy that comes from having opened eyes and a curious heart.