The Bee Jubilee, hosted by the UW Biodiversity Institute, is scheduled Saturday,
June 29, from 10 a.m.-noon. The event, which is open to the public, includes various
activities and information about bees and other native pollinators. Here, Mason Lee,
senior project coordinator for the Biodiversity Institute, poses with a bee house
during the inaugural Bee Jubilee in 2022. (UW Biodiversity Institute Photo)
Native bees in Wyoming range from 0.1 inches in length -- smaller than a grain of
rice -- to just over 1 inch in length, but all are extremely important pollinators
of the state’s native plants. The University of Wyoming Berry Biodiversity Conservation
Center will be all abuzz celebrating these important insects during the third annual
Bee Jubilee Saturday, June 29, from 10 a.m.-noon. The event is free and open to the
public.
“There will be displays of vertebrate and invertebrate pollinator specimens, as well
as opportunities to learn about native gardens; observe and identify, up close, pollinators
in the ‘Berry Prairie’ garden; build a bee house to take home; and purchase native
bee and plant guides,” says Mason Lee, senior project coordinator for the UW Biodiversity
Institute, which will host the event.
Additionally, there will be a pollinator yoga class led by a UW group fitness yoga
instructor from 10-10:30 a.m. on the tree deck outside the Berry Center. Yoga mats
will be provided. A Habitat Hero workshop, led by Carol Bilbrough, a Wyoming Naturalist Program volunteer, is scheduled from 11-11:40 a.m. in the Berry Center auditorium.
“Worldwide, over 75 percent of our major crop species benefit from invertebrate and
vertebrate pollination,” Lee says. “Even crops that don’t need an animal pollinator
produce a higher yield if they’re visited by native bees.”
Bee Jubilee event partners are UW Extension, UW’s Half Acre Recreation and Wellness
Center, the UW Museum of Vertebrates, the Laramie Audubon Society and the Wyoming
Naturalist Program.
For more information about the Bee Jubilee, call Lee at (307) 766-6240 or email mlee37@uwyo.edu.
About the University of Wyoming Biodiversity Institute
The UW Biodiversity Institute fosters conservation of biodiversity through scientific
discovery, creative dissemination, education and public engagement. In this setting,
scientists, citizens, students and educators come together to share a wealth of perspectives
on the study and appreciation of biodiversity -- from microbes to poetry and ecosystems
to economics. Learn more at www.wyomingbiodiversity.org.
