Category Archives: Get Involved

Bee-hind This Year’s Camp Patch

Posted on July 19, 2017 by Hillary T.

Every year, campers at Mass Audubon’s 18 day camps and Wildwood, our overnight camp, receive a patch at the end of their session. These patches have featured everything from fireflies to fiddlehead ferns.

The last six years of camp patches.

This year’s patch shines a light on bees, but not just any bee. It’s the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis). This important pollinator that officially landed on America’s endangered species list. It’s the first time in our nation’s history that a bee species is under federal protection.

As recently as 30 years ago, this bumblebee was commonly found in a variety of habitats including prairies, woodlands, marshes, agricultural landscapes, and residential parks and gardens. Their precipitous decline started in the mid-1990s, and today they are very rarely found anywhere.

What happened to this once common bumblebee? Scientists cite a combination of impacts:

  • introduced pathogens from contact with commercial bee colonies
  • “neonicotinoid” insecticides (used widely on farms and in urban landscapes) that are absorbed by plants and can be present in pollen and nectar, making them toxic to bees
  • habitat loss and degradation

At Mass Audubon, we’re protecting and maintaining old field habitats and designing pollinator gardens to support these bees and many other pollinators that live in the Commonwealth.

We’re also supporting state legislation, An Act to Protect Pollinator Habitat (S.451/H.2926), establishing a commission to improve pollinator health by increasing and enhancing native pollinator habitat, as well as other legislation to reduce pesticide use and establish official guidance for pollinator forage.

Take Action!

Want to help the rusty patched bumble bee and other pollinators?

Exciting News About Tidmarsh!

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Hillary T.

For the past year, we’ve been working hard to raise enough funds to acquire almost 479 acres of Tidmarsh Farms in Plymouth, land which encompasses restored freshwater wetlands and adjoining uplands. It’s been a remarkable journey and a true community effort.

Today, we’re excited to announce that we achieved our goal of raising $3.6 million! And it’s all thanks to supporters like you.

This means we can now move forward with purchasing the property later this summer. And we hope to see you this fall in Plymouth when we celebrate the official opening of Mass Audubon’s newest wildlife sanctuary!

Thank you for your commitment to land conservation, and for being a part of this important initiative—we could not have done it without your support. We are humbled by the generosity and dedication of our conservation community, and in particular, the people like you who stepped up to make this vision a reality.