June 27-28, 2007
Photos and text by Debbie Roos, Agricultural Extension Agent.
The Chatham County Center of North Carolina Cooperative Extension and North Carolina State University celebrated the first annual National Pollinator Week June 24-30 with two days of educational programs on Wednesday June 27 at Pittsboro’s Chatham Marketplace and Thursday June 28 at Weaver Street Market in Carrboro.We held two days full of educational programs at both Chatham Marketplace in Pittsboro and Weaver Street Market in Carrboro.
Educational programs were interspersed with time in the bee cage, and members of the Chatham County Beekeepers' Association (at Chatham Marketplace) and Orange County Beekeepers' Association (Weaver Street Market) were on hand to help answer questionsFor more information about National Pollinator Week, visit The Pollinator Partnership website.
Check out the News and Observer story about our event.
Chatham Marketplace in Pittsboro, NC
June 27, 2007
Weaver Street Market in Carrboro, NC
June 28, 2007
Multiple posters provided facts about various pollinators. These were displayed aorund the store for two weeks prior to the event.
Both Weaver Street Market and Chatham Marketplace also developed special displays of the many products of the hive available at each store, including honey harvested by local beekeepers!
I gave talks on how to plant a pollinator garden and brought examples of great native plant species that attract native bees, honey bees, and other pollinators. We also distributed literature and posters.
I am developing a Pollinator Conservation Guide for the Growing Small Farms website. I have spent the past year researching plants that will provide forage for native bees and honey bees and are adapted for the Piedmont. I have taken hundreds of photos of these plants as well as pollinators. I am now slowly building the website and will phase it in over time.
Did You Know…?
About 75% of all flowering plant species need the help of animals to move their heavy pollen grains from plant to plant for fertilization. Most pollinators are beneficial insects such as flies, beetles, wasps, ants, butterflies, moths, and bees. A small percentage of pollinators are vertebrates such as hummingbirds, bats, and small mammals such as mice.
Pollinators are essential components of the habitats and ecosystems that many wild animals rely on for food and shelter. As landscapes are converted from wild to managed lands, many pollinators’ habitats may be destroyed or fragmented. These changes can lead to the loss of wildflowers used by pollinators for foraging, nesting, and/or egg-laying.
Worldwide, approximately 1,000 plants grown for food, beverages, fiber, spices, and medicines need to be pollinated by animals in order to produce the goods on which we depend. Examples include blueberries, melons, chocolate, coffee, peaches, vanilla, almonds, apples, oranges, lemons, carrots, avocados, onions, broccoli, and much more!
