Makin’ progress in the Prairies!

Hey Earth Rangers! Can you beelieve summer is already over?! It was a busy one for our partners at Nature Conservancy Canada, who spent tons of time buzzing around their Saskatchewan prairie property, getting it in tip-top shape for our bee buddies. Here’s an update!

Most of the restoration work happened on the Key West property, where the fields were seeded with canola in the spring. The Western Bumblebee is an excellent canola pollinator, so their summer blooms were certainly most welcome! NCC’s crews checked in on the property in late May to make sure the weeds were under control, since pesky plants like thistle and stinkweed (pee-ew!) can mean big trouble for a canola crop. Luckily they didn’t see any cause for concern, but if they did they would’ve had to take action!

Besides the canola crop, the Key West property is home to 70 acres of field space just waiting to be planted! This might sound like a simple task, but it required lots of careful thought and planning. Several NCC staff worked together to first figure out the important features of the property, like its ecoregion and soil type, that would help them decide what native plant species would do the best there. They fine-tuned the mix and ordered the seeds (check out how much they needed for the property in the pic below!), and it will be seeded this fall. Exciting stuff!