BGO (the Bee Girl Organization) is a grassroots non-profit, centred on bee habitat conservation through research, regeneration, & education. They envision a future where kids frolic in pastures of flowers, buzzing with bees, alongside profitable family farmers and ranchers. Through their research projects and education programs they are regenerating soil, bees, and communities. Organization founder, Sarah “Bee Girl” Red-Laird, leads a team to show kids, bee-keepers, and farmers how to love their bees through classes, events, summer camps, and habitat projects. The team engages with communities across the nation, and the globe, spreading knowledge and bringing a sense of wonder from the hive to the people. Sarah Red-Laird is a graduate of the University of Montana's College of Forestry and Conservation and the Davidson Honours College with a degree in Resource Conservation, focused on community collaboration and environmental policy. Sarah also serves as the “Kids and Bees” program director for the American Bee-keeping Federation. To see her commitment to good policy and community collaborations realized, she also has served as president of the Northwest Farmer's Union and Western Apicultural Society, and as a board member of the National Farmers Union. At the 2015 Northwest Farmers Union Conference, Sarah became inspired to work with farming and ranching friends to find the best possible "win-win-win" solutions for farmers and ranchers, and bees and bee-keepers. This journey led to regenerative agriculture, and the understanding that rebuilding soil is the first step to healthy bees, livestock, and people. The “Regenerative Bee Pasture” project is a multifaceted initiative comprised of research, technical discovery, and community education. They are working hard to develop a low maintenance and inexpensive flower-rich "regenerative bee pasture" for ranchers to both substitute for chemical fallow, and to interplant in pasture for an environmentally and economically improved area for farmers and ranchers to harvest or graze. They also hope to provide a strong nectar flow to feed bees and provide a honey crop for bee-keepers. The Bee Girl organization manages and tests two pasture test plots, and one working pasture, with the guidance and partnership of their collaborators at Diamond Bar Beef, Eastern Washington University, Washington State University, Oregon State University (honey bee lab, and local extension), and the Jackson Soil and Water Conservation District. They analyse bee, soil, pollen, and plant material chemistry, biology, and microbiology. They aim to develop a hardy pasture mix and land management system that can rebuild soil, restore water cycles, sequester carbon, provide high levels of protein for livestock, and also abundant nectar and nutrient-rich pollen for bees. As part of this project, they are experimenting with innovative farming and ranching equipment and methods to improve soil such as rotational and adaptive grazing, no-till seed drilling, and roller crimping. After the research and development phase, they plan to create and implement educational programming for site prep, planting, irrigation, and harvest or grazing, to maximize benefits for bees, bee-keepers, and farmers and ranchers. With the Regenerative Bee Pasture project, they are exploring ways to increase community resiliency through diversity on multiple levels - microbial diversity (bee gut, soil, and pollen), bee species diversity, ecological landscape diversity, food system decentralization, and perhaps most importantly, exploring the human connection to our own minds to increase inner-resilience for the greater good of all. The “Bee Friendly Vineyards” pilot program began in April of 2019. With the help of their squad of volunteers, they launched their program by planting 1,800-square-feet of Siskiyou Seeds sunflowers on a plot of previously unused land at a local vineyard. Their sunflower plot attracted bees, provided vital habitat to pollinators and other beneficial insects, and stabilized and built soil. Recent studies have indicated that sunflowers increase bees’ resistance to pathogens and parasites. Bees provide one out of every three bites of food that we eat. No bees, no food, no us. It's also a commonly known fact that our bees are in trouble. Annual losses of honey bee colonies are in the tens of thousands. Solitary and bumble bees at are being lost at unsustainable rates. It will be up to the next generation to not only understand their importance, but to take action in their conservation. Their “Kids and Bees” program teaches kids, in a positive and engaging way, why bees are essential to everyday life and how the kids can be honey bee heroes. The mission of the Kids and Bees program is to educate the next generation on the importance of bees and to inspire them to take part in their preservation and conservation.