From the President - Joseph Schmitt
The Changing of the Seasons
It’s officially fall in Northern Nevada. As the growing season winds down and the landscape begins its transition toward winter, pollinators across our region are undergoing a transition of their own -- gathering the last available nectar and pollen, completing their life cycles, preparing nests, and finding the places where they will survive the cold months ahead.
Here at the Help Save the Bees Foundation, fall brings a transition as well. It is a time to reflect on what we accomplished together in 2026, to understand what our pollinators need from us right now, and to look ahead toward the work and opportunities that await us.
For the bees, butterflies, moths and other pollinators that call Northern Nevada home, fall is not simply the end of another growing season. For many of them, it is one of the most consequential periods of the entire year. What happens during these final weeks of warmth can determine who survives the winter, who emerges in spring, and how strong the next generation will be.
Bumble bee colonies are approaching the end of their annual cycle, while newly produced queens feed heavily, mate, and search for protected places where they can spend the winter alone before emerging next spring to establish entirely new colonies.
Honey bees are gathering what remains of the season’s nectar and pollen and building the food reserves their colonies will depend on through winter.
Many of our native solitary bees are following a different strategy. Their offspring may already be developing inside underground burrows, hollow stems, wood cavities, or other small nesting spaces, sealed away from the world until conditions are right for them to emerge. Some will remain there for months. Others can remain dormant for more than a year, waiting for the right environmental conditions, or the bloom of the particular plant they depend on before emerging. The dried stems, bare patches of soil, fallen leaves, woody debris and seemingly untidy corners of our landscapes can therefore be much more than garden debris; they can be winter shelter.
Ground-Nesting Bee Emerging
Butterflies and moths are preparing in equally diverse ways. Some species overwinter as eggs, caterpillars or pupae. Others survive as adults tucked beneath bark, leaves or protected vegetation. Migrating butterflies depend on the last flowers of the season as refueling stations along journeys that may stretch hundreds or even thousands of miles. As nights grow longer, bats continue feeding heavily to build the energy reserves needed for migration or hibernation, while many migratory birds are also feeding intensely before continuing their seasonal journeys.
This is why fall matters so much.
A garden that looks “finished,” or a property that appears to have “excess vegetation,” may still be functioning as a nursery, a pantry and a winter shelter for wildlife. A patch of asters or goldenrod left blooming for another few weeks may provide one of the last meals of the year. Standing stems may already contain next spring’s bees. Fallen leaves may shelter butterflies, moths and countless other insects until warmer days return.
In other words, one of the most important things we can do for pollinators this fall is remarkably simple:
Leave a little life behind.
As for us at the Foundation, we are wrapping up one of our most successful and rewarding seasons yet, and we are deeply grateful for the support and engagement of our community, volunteers, advocates, donors and contributors. Collectively, we are making a difference, doing the work it takes to keep Northern Nevada’s landscapes alive, resilient and thriving for the pollinators and the people and wildlife who depend on them.
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