The Bee Squad
Boosting biodiversity in your neighbourhood
Children around Australia are taking charge. Come and join the revolution!
From the coast of Western Australia to Sydney’s suburbs, young people are discovering nature in their neighbourhoods and setting up nesting boxes for birds, cleaning up waterways, planting to attract bees and koalas, and building insect hotels. They’re learning about amazing native species and finding ways to protect them.
The Bee Squad inspires you to take part in these exciting adventures and projects that support threatened species by doing things like:
- learning how to put together a nature sleuth toolkit
- planting to attract pollinators
- using the tally sheet to record flora and fauna sightings
- following the tips to ace your wildlife photography.
The best part is, you don’t need to live near a national park or protected area to get involved – you can make a difference from your balcony, backyard, local park or school.
‘Here is a book that equips young people with solid advice, knowledge and fun activities to become champions of biodiversity and helpers to Mother Nature! At a time when climate anxiety is high and children can feel helpless, Friedlander leans into action and encouragement in a book that will send kids out into the wilderness with fresh perspective and appreciation for this world of ours.’ – Danielle Binks, award-winning author
‘The Bee Squad is a must-have addition to your library of life. Everything you need to know to build a friendship, a relationship and the ultimate lifelong love affair with nature and all its beauty, and participants sharing the world with you and around you wherever you are.’ – Costa Georgiadis
‘Sustainable Schools NSW encourages a comprehensive approach to sustainability, integrating it into campus life, curriculum and school culture, which is what The Bee Squad is able to do. The Bee Squad offers diverse opportunities for teachers, students and families to nurture nature and connect with Country, to ‘bala ga lili’, fostering a love for nature. I encourage all to join The Bee Squad to become Earthcarers, creating a B & B highway across Australia. By utilising Education for Sustainability principles, The Bee Squad promotes systems thinking and future-focused learning, empowering participants to become citizen scientists. A heartfelt thanks to Judy for advancing environmental education across Australia!’ – Sue Martin, Environmental Education NSW & Sustainable Schools NSW
‘The joy of this book is that its wonders are so accessible. It will teach you to discover the magic of nature in your backyard. And the more you know, the more you will want to know, and life will never be boring again.’ – Rachel Ward, actress, director, screenwriter and regenerative farmer
‘The Atlas of Living Australia specialises in open biodiversity data, of which a large component is from citizen science. The Bee Squad citizen science chapter is a fantastic introduction to junior scientists about citizen science and the different kinds of citizen science projects and data collection tools available. It’s inspiring to read about what discoveries have already been made by students and how citizen science has enabled observations in nature to have real world impact.’ – Dr Andre Zerger, Director, Atlas of Living Australia
Dr Judy Friedlander is the founder of PlantingSeeds Projects, the environmental organisation whose flagship program is the B&B Highway. The B&B Highway (Bed and Breakfasts for Bees, Birds and Biodiversity) is an educational and practical program that links hundreds of B&Bs at schools in four Australian states to form regenerative corridors. Judy is also a University of Technology Sydney Adjunct Fellow.
When she is outside in nature, Judy becomes the kid she was – where a local creek, ‘rock bridge’, gum trees and ferns sheltered a wonderland of tadpoles, frogs, cicadas, birds and possums.
