March-April 2018 Volume 38, Issue 2
Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit #115 Albany, OR
Extending Knowledge and Changing Lives in Linn and Benton Counties
extension Pitching in for Pollinator Health Last year, Linn/ Benton County Master Gardener Richard Little taught pollinator health to hundreds of fellow master gardeners across the state. Given that those he teaches will share his instruction again and again, Little surmises that Oregon State University Extension’s Master Gardener Program is having a significant effect on pollinator health in Oregon. “I would say gardeners are planting more of the native bee habitat,” Little said. “People are realizing they can make a difference and that they do have an impact on the bee population.” Little’s work is one facet of OSU Extension Service’s multi-pronged approach to enhancing pollinator health. Today, the Extension Service, along with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, is leading the Oregon Bee Project, which works to increase awareness of pollinator health. OSU’s Pollinator Health Extension Specialist Andony Melathopoulos provides
Photo Provided by Andony MelothoPoulos
By Mitch Lies, GrowinG Editor
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Participants check out a display in last year’s Beevent, held the first weekend of March each year in Albany. The annual event draws numerous vendors and non-profit groups focused on pollinator health.
education on campus and performs outreach to citizen groups and agricultural organizations. The Linn County Master Gardener Program’s BEEvent Pollinator Conference, held the first Saturday in March each year, provides participants hands-on instruction for creating pollinator-friendly landscapes. And citizen-tocitizen communication on
InsIde:
pollinator health conducted through the statewide Master Gardener program is flourishing like never before. “I think there is a lot more interest in this issue and in my classes, because people realize, ‘I do have an impact, but I don’t always understand what that impact is,’” Little said. Little, an entomologist by training who retired as a deputy agriculture
commissioner from California, said home gardeners don’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of bees to enhance pollinator health. Simply by planting a diversity of plants that bloom at different times of year, a home gardener can pitch in to bee health, and improve their garden, along the way. “I tell people that you need to have blooms from
frost to frost,” Little said, “and you need to have different sizes of plants, different shapes and cluster them. That is the first step in attracting bees to your yard that will become pollinators for the food and other stuff you grow.” In addition to providing pollen over an extended period of time, an array of plants attracts an array of pollinators, Little said, which can be essential to a garden’s success. “Say you want to grow some tomatoes,” Little said. “You may see honeybees in your yard and think you’re good to go. Well, that is not going to help your tomatoes. You need bumblebees, because honeybees don’t pollinate tomatoes. “A tomato plant needs buzz pollination, and a honey bee can’t deliver that,” he said. “What you need is a variety of different pollinators for your different fruits and vegetables,” he said. “Bees come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, and their behavior
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Groundwater awareness week March 11-17. Meet the new Linn and Benton County staff. It’s not too late to sign up to be a Master Food Preserver.
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/linn
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