PORT ANGELES — Veteran Master Gardeners Muriel Nesbitt and Mary Flo Bruce will discuss the habits and habitat of wild pollinators at noon Thursday.
The one-hour presentation in the commissioners’ meeting room (No. 160) at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., is part of the “Green Thumbs Garden Tips” brown-bag series sponsored by the Washington State University Clallam County Master Gardeners.
Nesbitt will discuss the importance of wild bees, hornets, wasps, flies, ants and butterflies to the food supply, including why they are endangered and how gardeners can help them.
She said approximately one-third of the world’s crops are pollinated by insect pollinators.
Bruce will explain how to identify orchard mason bees and leafcutters.
She also will provide tips on what to plant to attract these pollinators to a garden, discuss methods of protecting them from pests and demonstrate mason bee and leafcutter housing.
Honeybees, which will not be covered during this presentation, will be addressed separately April 10.
Nesbitt, who earned a doctorate in genetics from the University of Washington, retired from teaching biology at the University of California, San Diego.
She directed the Clallam County Master Gardener program from 2009 to 2012.
Bruce, who has a doctorate in public health, is a 16-year veteran of the Master Gardener program and an experienced mason beekeeper.
The two Master Gardeners completed an advanced entomology class sponsored in collaboration by Washington and Oregon state universities in 2011.
Presentations in the Master Gardener brown-bag series are the second and fourth Thursday of each month.
For more information, phone 360-417-2279.