(Marquette, MI) - During the summer of 2009, northern Michigan teens painted their mason bee houses with help from children's book illustrator Diana Magnuson of Marquette and artist Sherri Bohjanen-Hutter, a Marquette native from Anchorage, Alaska.
A few days earlier, former shop teacher Bruce Ventura of Marquette helped the students build the mason bee houses.
The mason bee houses were created during July 2009 at the Grace United Methodist Church in Marquette.
Working alongside members of several Ojibwa tribes, at-risk teens with the U.S. Forest Service-sponsored Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project in Michigan's Upper Peninsula will continue protecting pollinators during 2010 by helping to build the first-ever native species plants greenhouse on an American Indian reservation and hope to trace the Mexico Monarch migration.
The Marquette teens planted/distributed over 26,000 native plants seeds, helped transplant hundreds of native plant seedlings, hiked through remote forests with Zaagkii Project Native American college interns to learn importance and uses for native species plants, and have built and painted 36 mason bee houses and 18 butterfly houses with one of each placed by the USFS in The Peoples Garden at U.S. Department of Agriculture Headquarters, Washington, DC.
Zaagkii Project sponsors: Nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC), the United States Forest Service (USFS) and Marquette County Juvenile Court.
In 2010, Zaagkii youth will continue learning regional American Indian heritage, culture and language with Leora and Levi Tadgerson (Zaagkii Project interns from the NMU Department of Native American Studies). The brother/sister team belong to the Bay Mills Indian Community.
Zaagkii Project teens visited with three beekeepers, helped plant and harvest native plants at three organic farms along the Lake Superior basin, studied pollinators at the Peter White Public Library and learned about annual Monarch migration from The Butterfly Lady Susan Payant.
Zaagkii Project contributors: Marquette Community Foundation, Marquette County Juvenile Court, M.E. Davenport Foundation, Kaufman Foundation and the Phyllis and Max Reynolds Foundation.
Larry Stritch
National Botanist USDA USFS Washington, DC
202-205-1279
lstritch@fs.fed.us
Jan Schultz, USDA USFS
Botany, Non-native Invasive Species
Special Forest Products Program Leader Milwaukee
414-297-1189
jschultz@fs.fed.us
www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers
Rev. Jon Magnuson, Zaagkii Project Founder
Nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute Marquette, MI
www.cedartreeinstitute.org
906-228-5494
906-360-5072
magnusonx2@charter.net
Illustrator Diana Magnuson
dianamagnuson@charter.net
www.dianamagnuson.com
Bruce Ventura
112 E. Hewitt Ave.
Marquette, MI
49855
906-225-0139
bruceventura@sbcglobal.net
For over 20 years, Ventura was a middle school technology education/industrial arts teacher for the Eastern Lancaster County School District in PA
Ventura is self-employed, does remodeling/carpentry work, and home inspections for:
Russ Dees Structural Inspections Inc.
1025 North Front Street
Marquette, MI
49855
Zaagkii Project thanks photographer John Kimbler for breathtaking macro images of mason bees, honeybees and amazing shots like pollen-covered bees
www.johnkimbler.com
www.flickr.com/photos/dalantech
http://dalantech.deviantart.com/gallery/#Bees-and-Wasps
Mason bee photos via Wikipedia creative commons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_bee
Orchard Mason Bee egg in nest cell photo 2005 by Wikipedia username Red58bill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Masonegg.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Search/Red58bill
Orchard Mason Bee cocooned larva 2005 by Wikipedia username Red58bill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Masoncocoons.jpg
Orchard mason bee on apple bloom by Wikipedia username Red58bill
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orchmason.jpg
Homemade Mason Bee nest block by Wikipedia username Red58bill
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Mason.block.jpg
Red Mason Bee couple photo by André Karwath of German Wikipedia
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Aka
Mason Bee photo by Kim Taylor of Bruce Coleman Inc.
http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/insects/be...
Zaagkii Project graphic by Native Village Publications editor Gina Boltz, a champion for Indigenous youth
www.NativeVillage.org
KBIC
www.kbic-nsn.gov
Pres. Warren "Chris" Swartz Jr.
906-353-6623
Todd Warner, Director Natural Resource Department
906-524-5757
NMU Center for Native American Studies
April Lindala, Director
906-227-1397
alindala@nmu.edu
http://webb.nmu.edu/Centers/NativeAmericanStudies
Marquette County Juvenile Court
www.co.marquette.mi.us/departments/courts/juvenile_court/index.htm
U.P. Children's Museum
www.upcmkids.org
Music by Chicago band Dragon Fire Parade (U.P. Roots) Andy Wicklund, Guitar; Tim Obert, Guitar; Peter Nemanich, Bass; Chris Hammond, Drums
pnemanic@gmail.com
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