EVENTS
Cinco de Mayo Mercado
Join Conexión Cultural at their first Cinco de Mayo Mercado! 🎉 You won’t want to miss this vibrant celebration! 🌮🎶✨ Bring the whole family for FREE entry and immerse yourself in the community, art, delicious food, local vendors, and joyful music! 🎊🍴💃 Let’s dance and enjoy our traditional festivities while we remember our beautiful celebrations! 💫✨ Vancouver Bee Project will be there tabling and providing pollinator resources and education. Event is at La Casita Art Gallery and Cultural Center 205 E. 16th Street, Vancouver WA 98663.
Vancouver Flex Academy Annual Plant Sale
Join us Saturday May 4 at the annual Vancouver Flex Academy Plant Sale. We will be tabling and providing pollinator education. Check out the plant list below! 9am-2pm - 2901 General Anderson Ave, Vancouver, WA 98661
2024 Mason Bee House Sale
SOLD OUT FOR 2024. We are excited to offer mason bee houses for pre-order at $30 each. These houses are compact, sturdy and waterproof. Each house comes with the following:
1 - 3" diameter painted PVC mason bee house (paint color cannot be ordered but colors include silver, beige, and dark brown)
1 - 3" diameter PVC mounting bracket and screws
50 - 6" new mason bee tubes
2 tubes with mason bees (~20 cocoons)
Houses will be available for pickup at the following events:
March 17 at our Introduction to Spring Mason Bees event at the Downtown Vancouver Community Library.
March 23 at the Water Center Bioblitz event.
April 13 at the Water Center Meadow Care and Weeding Native Spaces event.
Pickup at VBP Board private home in Central Vancouver.
Payment options include cash, check or Venmo at ordering or pickup. For a deeper read on mason bees check out the OSU Extension 2016 publication Nurturing Mason Bees in Western Oregon.
If you need mason bee cocoons feel free to reach out.
Meadowscaping Spring Cleanup at the Water Center
This is part of VBP’s ongoing meadowscaping series. Meadows need care and weeding and we’ll show you things to look for when doing spring cleanup in your meadow. Registration is required. Sign up today! Join Vancouver Bee Project and Water Center staff in caring for our newly planted meadow. Grass was removed and wildflower seed sowed last fall. Spring is the time to assess the project and clean out any unwanted plant species from the meadow. We will also have projects for volunteers to help keep our Backyard Habitat Certified gardens in tip-top shape. Volunteer activities may include weeding, mulching, trimming and raking pathways. All necessary tools will be provided.
All ages welcome. Youth under 18 must bring a signed minor consent form. Youth under 13 must have an adult guardian present.
Contact: Water Center staff at vanwrec@cityofvancouver.us or 360-487-7111
Friends of Bees/Friends of Trees Planting
Central Vancouver residents in Bagley Downs, Fourth Plain Village, Green Meadows, Maplewood, Meadow Homes, Ogden, Vanmall, Walnut Grove, and West Minnehaha neighborhoods are eligible to receive a free pollinator plant for co-planting with their Friends of Trees planting during the April 13th event. Just sign up on the FOT website and when you go to checkout you’ll see our Vancouver Bee Project logo under the “add-ons” section. Click there to select your free pollinator plant. Sign up today with Friends of Trees! Pollinator plants are sponsored by a neighborhoods grant from the Watershed Alliance through the Meadow Homes neighborhood association.
Bees! Gardening, Citizen Science, and the WA Bee Atlas
When we hear ‘bee’ we often think of the European honey bee, but there are at least 600-700 species of bees in Washington and Oregon. Native bees are very different, but we know very little about their status. What flowers do they pollinate? Where and when do they nest? How can we use our gardens to support them?
Washington has implemented the Washington Bee Atlas (WaBA) to find out more. It was formed in 2023 and modeled after the successful Oregon Bee Atlas, which has added 220 bee species to their state list! These community science groups train volunteers to collect, pin, and label bee specimens. Many of the volunteers have no science or entomology background. They post data through the app iNaturalist, providing date, location, collector and host plant information. The specimens are then identified by professionals, deposited at WSU or OSU insect collections, and the data made public! This information is highly valuable to conservation efforts of all 600+ species of native bees known to occur in the PNW.
Volunteer at Campus Community Garden & Meadow Cleanup
Join the City of Vancouver’s Volunteer Programs department to clean up Campus Community Garden in honor of Cesar Chavez Day. We will be removing litter, mulching the perimeters and pulling some invasive plants and weeds to get ready for the 2024 garden season. Registration required.
Training, gloves, tools, water, and snacks will be provided. This opportunity is family-friendly and great for teens – people of all ages and abilities are welcome. Volunteers should dress for the weather and wear long pants and closed-toe shoes. Many of the volunteer activities require bending, stooping, kneeling to the ground and lifting over 10 pounds. Please reach out to Volunteer Programs staff if you would like to request an accommodation in order to improve your volunteer experience.
Youth under 18 must bring a signed minor consent form.
World Water Day BioBlitz
Every year, World Water Day is celebrated around the globe to highlight the importance of freshwater for humans and our vital ecosystems. Join us this year in a BioBlitz at Vancouver’s Water Center to explore the freshwater ecosystems around the education center and collect data about the living creatures inhabiting our area.
A BioBlitz event gathers community members in a specific place to take a snapshot of the ecological biodiversity. Small, guided nature walks will happen throughout the morning. Walks will focus on finding plants, animals, birds, insects, mushrooms, amphibians and more. Use iNaturalist to catalog all the living things found in the area. No previous knowledge of iNaturalist is required.
Introduction to Spring Mason Bees
Sunday March 17 we will be providing an introduction on how to keep and support spring native mason bees. This is a free event and open to the public at the Downtown Vancouver Community Library (901 C Street) in the Columbia Room. 2:30pm.
We will focus on some basic mason bee education and talk about tips on the best things you can do to support these pollination powerhouses. This event is free and open to the public. Those in attendance can enter a free drawing to win a free wooden mason bee house with free mason bees! Please contact Vancouver Bee Project with questions.
Event One
Rescheduled January 31 - NEW VENUE! Bee City USA Committee meeting at the new Fourth Plain Commons building 5-6:30pm. Topics include “How can we make Vancouver a Bee City in 2024?” and an introduction to cleptoparasitic bees from special guest Michael O’Loughlin.
