A further reminder of the power of positive thinking!

So much for fine ambitions!  I’m recalling a post I published just one week ago; yes 7 tiny days past!  That was the post that I named ‘Staying positive – the test.‘  Where I opened it, as follows:

Where hope and inspiration meets the cold world of reality!

Yesterday’s post Don’t frighten the horses was all about reminding me that fear is a very bad motivator. I promoted the Transition message,  ”If we can’t imagine a positive future we won’t be able to create it.”

This small chastisement comes on the back of yesterday’s post where I had a ‘big dump’ of feelings about some of the madder aspects of our so-called modern life. 

Then later on in the day, I just happened to come across a flurry of positive stories that I wanted to share.

First, here’s a scan of the assessors map of our property, near Merlin, OR.

NB: The blue line is the course of Bummer Creek, that historically has had a year-round flow, albeit a low flow during Summer months.  The rectangular green area to the West of the open land was a tennis court, now removed.  The main house is 200 feet West of that tennis court area, completely hidden by surrounding trees.  It is a beautiful place for us and all our animals!

The first positive story was as a result of watching that TED Talk by Marla Spivak.  Jean and I thought that as we have well over 4 acres of open grassland, let’s see what we can do to attract and assist our local bees.

Jean and I are supporters of Oregon Wild and a quick call to them about assisting local bees elicited this:

Hi Paul,
Nice speaking with you this morning. For your inquiries on how best to attract bees to your acreage, I would recommend the Xerces Society, a local Oregon group with a Pollinator Campaign. They have a lot of great info on their website, and you could also give them a call at 855.232.6639.

Also, Representative Earl Blumenauer here in Portland has been a big advocate for bee conservation and recently introduced the Save America’s Pollinators Act if you’re interested in bee conservation activism.

Hope this helps!
Cheers,

It was then an easy step to contact the Xerces Society, that very helpfully produced the following advice:

Hello Paul-

Thank you for calling the Xerces Society with your questions today. We have many resources available to landowners who wish to conserve pollinators and create habitat on their land. Here are links to several of our resources:

Attracting Native Pollinators

Pollinator Habitat Installation Guides

Regional guidance on site prep, planting, and management for pollinator habitat. We have guidelines for creating pollinator meadows and flowering hedgerows. Each guideline has an appendix with regionally appropriate bee magnet plants.

http://www.xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/agriculture/pollinator-habitat-installation-guides/

Pollinator Habitat Assessment Guide and Form

Use this guide to assess the currently habitat available to pollinators on your property and how to protect and enhance that habitat.

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/PollinatorHabitatAssessment.pdf

Pollinator Conservation Resource Center

Regional information about plant lists, habitat conservation guides, and more.

http://www.xerces.org/pollinator-resource-center/

Conserving Bumble Bees

Specific guidelines for land managers for conserving and managing good quality bumble bee habitat

http://www.xerces.org/bumblebees/guidelines/

I hope this information is helpful! Feel free to email or call me with additional questions about conserving pollinators.

Best,

Finally, John Hurlburt emailed this, and I use it to close the post.

One Way or Another

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,

but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”

Albert Einstein