During a busy weekend last month in Wichita, there was a chili cook-off downtown, a custom car show over at the Cotillion Ballroom, and the Great Plains Renaissance and Scottish Festival at the county park. But hundreds of residents opted for something buzzier: The third annual ICT Bee Fest, where attendees learned about the ecological downsides of lawns and the virtues of native plants. They collected indigenous seeds and plants from local gardeners, visited a tent filled with migrating monarch butterflies, and gently, very gently, pet Eastern male bumblebees. It was all part of a plan to help make Kansas friendlier for native bugs. Photos by Anna Petrow for The New York Times #bees #nativeplants #pollinators