The State Regent’s Projects for the 2012-2014 term will support honey bee research, enhance honey bee environments, and promote historic preservation, education, and patriotism.

The first phase of the State Regent’s Project supporting honey bee research will raise funds to be donated to the University of California at Davis Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. Pollination is a core area of research at the UC Davis Bee Biology Lab. Ongoing projects focus on the pollination of crops and native plants in managed and wild ecosystems. In the realm of agriculture, a central goal is to understand factors that increase pollination success and yield as well as long-term stability of pollination service.

Over 130 commercially vital food crops, flowers and other ornamentals, require pollination by bees to produce fruit and multiply. California is the world’s fifth largest supplier of food and agriculture commodities.