Science Talk! Native Bees in Local Landscapes with UVA’s T’ai Roulston
Appreciating and Promoting Native Bees in Local Landscapes with T’ai Roulston
March 17, 2026, 7 pm at the Wayne Theatre
Topic:
The University of Virginia’s T’ai Roulston will highlight research on and explore the natural history of Virginia’s native bee species. Wild bee species pollinate the bulk of native plants in Virginia’s wild areas, are the most frequent pollinators of home gardens, and often dominate pollination on small farms. They work alongside European honey bees pollinating major crops on large farms, but only if the broader landscape supports their populations. This talk will describe some of the different life histories of native bee species, the challenges they face in our landscape, and some things we can do to help keep them around.
Speaker:
T’ai H. Roulston is a research associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia and the Curator of the State Arboretum in Boyce, Virginia. He has worked with UVA for 25 years, and his research focuses primarily on insect ecology and conservation. Professor Roulston and collaborators have found and mapped a population of the endangered rusty patched bumble bee in the mountains between West Virginia and Virginia, a population widely separated from its larger population in the upper Midwest. He and his graduate student Kate LeCroy have documented the declines of native mason bees in the Mid Atlantic with the proliferation of non-native mason bees. He is now undertaking a project to document remaining butternut trees in Virginia and determine if there any pockets of remaining trees showing resistance to butternut canker, the primary disease killing them.
An arboretum is a plot of land on which many different trees or shrubs are grown for study or display. The State Arboretum of Virginia stands in the central 172 acres of Blandy Experimental Farm, located in Boyce, VA (near Winchester). Visitors can explore labelled tree and shrub collections that date back the early 1930’s from all over the world. Learn more at: https://blandy.virginia.edu/state-arboretum-virginia
About the Science Talk Series:
The Wayne Theatre presents “Science Talks” in partnership with the Virginia Museum of Natural History as part of its Signature Speaker Series. The South River Watershed Coalition is a proud sponsor of Science Talks.
Science Talks begin at 7:00 pm with a presentation and then time for questions and answers. The total time is about an hour.
Admission is free, but donations are gratefully accepted to support future Science Talks. You can also support the non-profit Wayne Theatre by purchasing drinks and snacks.
Click here to find more information on upcoming talks and tickets.
If you can’t make it in person, livestream it on both the Wayne Theatre and VMNH Facebook pages.
You can also view all our past Science Talks on the Virginia Museum of Natural History YouTube Channel.