An evening talk by Professor Dave Goulson, founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and bestselling author
Bumblebees are amongst the most important of wild pollinators; many wildflowers would not set seed without them, and they are the main pollinators of crops such as tomatoes, blueberries and raspberries. Concerningly, many bumblebees are in decline, with 3 species now extinct in the UK and the first global extinction recently occurring in USA. These declines are symptomatic of broader environmental damage that threatens our future wellbeing; the fate of man and bees are inextricably linked. Dave Goulson will discuss the drivers of bee declines, and the many things we can all do to halt and reverse them.
Before the talk, we will take a short walk through Bore Place’s buzzing wildflower meadow where bees will be foraging in the early evening sun.
Ticket includes a glass of wine, or cup of tea/coffee.
This event is suitable for adults. Older children (age 10+) are welcome accompanied by an adult.
About Dave Goulson
Professor Dave Goulson was brought up in rural Shropshire, where he developed an early obsession with wildlife. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Oxford University, followed by a doctorate on butterfly ecology at Oxford Brookes University. Subsequently, he lectured in biology for 11 years at the University of Southampton, and it was here that he began to study bumblebees in earnest. He subsequently moved to Stirling University in 2006, and then to Sussex in 2013.
He has published more than 260 scientific articles on the ecology and conservation of bumblebees and other insects. He is the author of Bumblebees; Their Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation, published in 2010 by Oxford University Press, and of the Sunday Times bestseller A Sting in the Tale, a popular science book about bumble bees, published in 2013 by Jonathan Cape, and now translated into ten languages. This was followed by A Buzz in the Meadow in 2014.
Goulson founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in 2006, a charity which has grown to 9,000 members. He was the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s Social Innovator of the Year in 2010, was given the Zoological Society of London’s Marsh Award for Conservation Biology in 2013, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2013, and given the British Ecological Society Public Engagement Award in 2014. In 2015 he was named number 8 in BBC Wildlife Magazine’s list of the top 50 most influential people in conservation. He lives in East Sussex with his wife and their three boys.