Everyone has heard that bees are in trouble, but with so much attention focused on domesticated honeybees, someone has to speak up for North America's 4,000 species of native bees. Natural history photographer Clay Bolt is on a multi-year quest to tell the stories of our native bees, and one elusive species – the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee – has become his ‘white whale.’
Traveling from state to state in search of the Rusty-patched, he meets the scientists and conservationists working tirelessly to preserve it. Clay’s journey finally brings him to Wisconsin, where he comes face to face with his fuzzy quarry and discovers an answer to the question that has been nagging him all along: why save a species?
"A Ghost in the Making" was produced in partnership with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and Endangered Species Chocolate, with support from Fastec Imaging, and features music by Dan Warren, New West Studios, and Cloud Cult.
Pollinators are some of the most important insects on Earth. Wherever flowering plants grows, an army of pollinators will be there to ensure that those plants can reproduce. Case in point: the Highlands Biological Station in western North Carolina. HBS is a world-class botanical garden and ecological research facility with an impressive diversity of native pollinators. Learn why pollinators are so important for maintaining healthy ecosystems in this short film by Day's Edge Productions and Clay Bolt.