Who We Are, What We Do
Bee Regenerative’s mission is to create a world where bees enrich our working landscapes and our lives.
We envision a future filled with the vibrant hum of biodiverse working landscapes, bursting with healthy bees, coexisting with livestock and wildlife, and where agricultural producers work in harmony with nature to provide for our communities.
Bee Regenerative is dedicated to preserving biodiversity, promoting coexistence, partnering in private land stewardship, and inspiring regenerative stewardship of agricultural lands to stabilize our climate and our food system. Despite the crucial role that bees play in our everyday lives, their populations are declining at alarming rates due to “The Four P’s” - pesticides, pests, poor nutrition, and pathogens. This decline undoubtedly threatens life as we know it.
Bee Regenerative, through partnership with ranchers, viticulturalists, research colleagues, and community stakeholders, aims to address these critical issues. We strive to re-diversify agricultural landscapes, mitigate harmful pesticide usage, and enhance soil health. Achieving our mission requires deeply comprehensive and collaborative efforts.
The current agricultural practices often prioritize short-term yields over long-term ecological health, leading to monocultures, chemical dependencies, and habitat loss of bees and other fauna. These practices exacerbate the challenges bees face, diminishing their ability to fulfill their vital pollination roles. Without immediate and sustained intervention, the decline in bee populations will continue, jeopardizing the resilience of our ecosystems and the stability of our food supply.
To build a future where bees enrich our working landscapes and lives, it is imperative to adopt and promote regenerative agricultural practices that support biodiversity and coexistence. Bee Regenerative is committed to leading this charge in partnership with our stakeholders, but we need the support of like-minded individuals, communities, and organizations to amplify our impact and drive meaningful change.
Our Values
Conservation: We practice a mindset that natural resources are finite and must be treated as such. Advocating for the proper management of natural resources on working lands to ensure life giving nutrition and shelter for bees today and two hundred years into the future is one aspect of a conservation mindset. Another is ensuring our day-to-day business is conducted in a way that supports the conservation of our natural resources through minimizing consumption and waste of soil, water, forests, fossil fuels, food, and fiber.
Regeneration: We uplift and support producers who use agricultural practices to improve the landscape instead of degrading it. A working landscape undergoing regeneration boasts a diversity of multiple species of insects, plants, and mammals, has water infiltration and holding capacity, and cycles and stores carbon. We also highly value the regeneration of human hearts, minds, and communities by advocating for more heartbeats per acre in our working lands.
Complexity: We recognize the complexity of nature. We embrace the fact that sometimes we can’t make sense of what happens in the landscapes we work on. We accept that not all problems are the same, and not all solutions are the same. Though nature is resilient, and recovery and regeneration is possible, ecological scales may not always be linear and may take years or decades. We choose delight, not frustration, when presented with the opportunity to learn from (and educate with) the lessons presented by natural complexity.
Resilience: We acknowledge and accept the multitude of adverse conditions that arise by the nature of working for a not for profit organization and working on agricultural and natural landscapes that are in constant flux, made more dramatic by the effects of climate change. We are committed to maintaining flexibility in the administration of our programs and patience and grace in our human relationships. We emphasize a positive culture and support the mental health of our team and those we work with. Despite mounting challenges, we seek delight in our work – every day. Observing a honey bee return to the hive, a swollen golden globe, nearly transparent in the glinting, setting sun. Vibrating with the hum of a meadow, as the flowers are protected from grazing until the bees have had their fill of nectar and pollen. Watching the gleeful face of a child when you tell them honey bees must collect nectar from two million blossoms to make one pound of honey. Feeling the thump of a low bison rumble as a summer long-horned bee dozes off in a small, native sunflower. These are our delights, creating resilience.
Affection: Our connections with the individuals we work in collaboration with (to build bee habitats, raise funds, organize events, etc.) must be based on genuine authenticity and a mutual admiration for each other’s vision for how we want to heal our relationship with the earth. Our human relationships deepen and thrive when infused with trust, humor, and generosity. We also hold a deep love and reverence for our bees, and all they do. Feeding people through pollination and facilitating biodiversity above and below the soil through playing the key role in plant reproduction. Bees bring color, flavor, and taste onto our landscapes and into our lives.
Our Worker Bees
Sarah Red-Laird
Founder and Executive Program Director
Sarah Red-Laird is the founder and Executive Program Director of Bee Regenerative and the Bee Girl organization (BGO), a grassroots nonprofit centered on bee habit conservation through research, regeneration, & education. Her work currently has her chasing bees from the Coast Mountains of Oregon, though the Great Basin, to Montana’s Paradise Valley, and into the Great Plains. She is a graduate of the University of Montana's College of Forestry and Conservation and the Davidson Honors College with a degree in Resource Conservation, focused on community collaboration and environmental policy. To see her commitment to good policy and education realized, she has formerly served as the director of the American Beekeeping Federation’s “Kids and Bees” program, as president of the Northwest Farmers Union and Western Apicultural Society, and as a board member of the National Farmers Union. When she is not working alongside bees, beekeepers, kids, farmers, ranchers, vineyard managers, and policy makers, Sarah loves to read books while drinking coffee, ride her vintage 10-speed, run in the hills, and see new places, things, and people. To see her latest projects updates visit Instagram and Facebook @sarahbeegirl
Ginelle Dekker
Operations Director
Ginelle Dekker is the Bee Regenerative and BGO’s new Operations Director. Born and raised in Michigan, she graduated from Central Michigan University with a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences degree. Ginelle comes to BGO from Park City, Utah where she worked in both the corporate and non-profit sectors. She spent a decade working in the ski industry, serving as the Senior Manager of Retail Operations for Park City Mountain for a number of years, with a focus on operational excellence and leadership development. Most recently, Ginelle managed Human Resources and Administration for a growing humanitarian non-profit out of Park City. Her passion for conservation and stewardship of our natural resources has informed over a decade of volunteerism and service. Volunteering on the administrative side of grant funding, outreach, and liaison work, as well as getting her hands dirty maintaining trails, and working in local food pantries. When she’s not supporting the BGO mission, you can find Ginelle skiing, hiking, teaching and practicing Anusara Yoga, and whitewater rafting with her partner and pups! She looks forward to the opportunity to support BGO operationally, while engaging with the #loveourbees community and beyond!
Sarah gardner
Bee Habitat Project Advisor & Taxonomist
Sarah Gardner is a pollination ecologist and native bee taxonomist out of Pendleton, Oregon, where she has her own ecological consulting business. Starting at a young age she volunteered for entomology labs, and gained a dedicated enthusiasm for solitary bees while working for the Bee Biology and Systematics lab in Logan, Utah. Sarah graduated in 2012 from Utah State University with her Master’s in Science, where she examined the effects of oil and gas development on rare plants and pollinators in Colorado. Recently she has become more focused on researching anthropogenic effects on invertebrate communities in the Pacific Northwest, with special emphasis on the hundreds of native bee species that can be found in the area. When not in front of a microscope, she can be found running around summer meadows with a net, teaching diverse groups about native bees, or whitewater boating with her husband and dogs. Sarah is thrilled to be collaborating with BGO, who’s stewardship and community involvement advocate for pollinators in a unique and accessible way.
Tara Laidlaw
Educational Content Developer
Tara is an instructional designer and teacher trainer passionate about using place-based education to inspire environmental literacy and stewardship in learners of all ages. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropological Sciences from Stanford University and a Master’s degree in Natural Science and Environmental Education from Hamline University, and she has worked at the intersection of formal and informal education for over a decade. Tara offers education consulting services through her own company, Out to Learn, and she works part-time as the Education Program Manager with the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy. When she’s not teaching science outdoors, you might find her sewing a quilt, leading a dance lesson, or getting her hands dirty in the garden. She loves bees because they invite genuine curiosity and wonder in learners of all ages... once you get over the fear factor, they're absolutely fascinating critters!
Our Support Staff
Midgie Red-Laird Koerner
Lead Adorableness Officer
Midgie's main job is to be her mom's very best friend as they sit in the office and art studio at home, and travel in the van across the American West. Named after the relentless and ferocious Scottish bitting ghat, her energy is endless. While Midgie's demon-mode will get any cow quickly on the move, the barn cats across the country that have grown quite the affinity for her affectionate soul could never imagine it. Despite her wee "Cowboy Corgi" legs, she is also an excellent trail runner.
Hermin Red-Laird Cullison
Director of Aloofness
Like Midgie, Hermin is a foster-fail that was collected from Sarah's mom, who's a devoted foster hero for the local animal shelter. Hermin was scooped out of a pile of muck and bottle fed by her people. Though she came to us teacup sized, she's now exceedingly large, a trait commented on by the very few people who have been able to get a glimpse of her. Also notable is her ever-present Russian Blue smile, and her moonbeam feets. Her primary role at BGO is to appear out of nowhere and lay across the laptop keyboard, dotting everything with drool as she purrs.
Willis Red-Laird
Director of Creativity: Cord Chewing and Backyard Absconding
Willis is one of nine brothers and sisters who was born to a young single mother, rescued from a storage unit. While he thinks his primary position at BGO is chewing laptop and printer cords in half, it's actually to be unbelievably soft and fun to cuddle. He's also into physical comedy, magical disappearing acts, and according to his vet, shouldn't get any more plump.
Rune Laidlaw
Garden Supervisor
Since joining the Laidlaw household as a grey-faced old man, Rune has taken his post-retirement role of Garden Supervisor very seriously. He patrols regularly for unexpected feline, avian, and rodent visitors, he samples perfectly ripe vegetables to remind Tara that she needs to harvest them ASAP, and he guards the compost pile for the other 23 hours each day by sleeping in it.
Jefe Dekker-Eberle
Board of Fur-ectors
Jefe has recently retired from a long career of river running, stick chasing, and fly fishing. He now enjoys slow afternoons by the fire, rides in the back of the UTV, and mentoring his baby brother Pungo in all things “good boy”. Jefe’s primary role at the home office is shadowing Ginelle’s every move, while soliciting pets and treats.
Pungo Dekker-Eberle
Forestry Intern
Pungo is an eager and amped pup named after a favorite camp on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Under the mentorship of Jefe, Pungo’s primary responsibilities include alerting everyone of meal times, cuddling his kitty Wynnie, collecting firewood, and hunting for pine cones in the backyard.
Wynnie Dekker-Eberle
Social Outreach Coordinator
Wynnie wears many hats at the home office, including office chair occupant, pup snuggler, and bird watcher. Named after the winter season in which she arrived on the doorstep, she is brave, unpredictable, and affectionate. Wynnie leaps at any social opportunity, and loves to be the star of the zoom meeting.