The Salon: Bees, the Canary in the Coal Mine?

Nevada Humanities Salon: Bees, the Canary in the Coal Mine?
Sundance Books and Music, 121 California Avenue, Reno

This event happened on Friday, May 17, 2019 at 6 pm.

Is it true that the wellness of bees is an indicator of the health of our planet? Join us for a discussion about this consequential topic at The Salon: Bees, the Canary in the Coal Mine? The Salon will be held on Friday, May 17, 2019 beginning at 6:00 pm at Sundance Books and Music in Reno. Moderated by Dr. Ran Duan, visiting assistant professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, we will welcome experts in the field to talk about the health of the bee population in Nevada.

Light refreshments (including honey!) will be served. This program is part of One Truckee River Month. Guest panelists will include:

Kevin Burls has been the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) educator for the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension since 2015. Most of his work focuses on native insects, including pollinator health and using native insects to reduce pest populations. Burns earned his Ph.D. from the Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology program at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2014. Burls is also the executive director of Nevada Bugs & Butterflies, a Reno-based science education nonprofit founded in 2012.

Ran Duan is a visiting assistant professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research interests span the areas of environmental, science, and visual communication. Her current work particularly focuses on the use of animation in environmental news, visual communication of climate change and wildfire, risk perception, and the implications of these areas for public policy and journalism practice. Duan has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Climatic Change, Environmental Communication, Environment and Behavior, Human Ecology Review, Social Science Quarterly, and International Communication Gazette. She holds a Ph.D. in media and information, a doctoral specialization in environmental science and policy, and a master’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University.

Nikki Florio is the founder/director of Bee Heroic, a project that focuses on pollinator and climate issues and impacts, and she is an extension of the non-profit organization, Tahoe Regional Environmental Education (TREE). She has a background in natural sciences and environmental psychology.

Debra Gilmore, along with her husband Andy Joyner, is the owner of Hall’s Honey in Yerington, Nevada. She is a third generation native Nevadan and a fourth generation Nevada beekeeper. Her great-grandfather, Fletcher Hall, came to Mason Valley in 1918 where he started beekeeping, and her family were commercial honey producers until the mid 1970s. Hall’s Honey maintains 60 colonies of bees, produced from 1,000-4,000 pounds of honey annually, and the company sells honey to local retail outlets and restaurants, as well as providing education to various groups and individuals. Gilmore is also the founder and president of the Mason Valley Beekeepers.

Amina Harris is the founding director of the Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute of Wine and Food Science at the University of California, Davis. Harris is also the owner of Z Specialty Food, LLC. Moon Shine Trading Company, a division of Z Specialty, has been offering unique American varietal honeys for over 30 years, winning national awards from the Specialty Food Association and the National Honey Board. Harris designed and published the UC Davis Honey Flavor and Aroma Wheel, widely used for describing the nuances of honey. Presently, she is coordinating extensive research at UC Davis on mono-floral honeys of North America. Amina has been a featured speaker at many programs including: American Cheese Society Conference, Specialty Coffee Association, the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Nevada Humanities Salon Series is held bi-monthly and features a panel discussion with topics relevant to the humanities in Nevada, as well as an audience Q & A session and light refreshments.