Wilsonville Sponsoring March 10 Workshop to Help Urban Residents Attract Back-Yard Pollinators

The City of Wilsonville and partner organizations of the “Bee Stewards” pollinator-improvement program are sponsoring a workshop designed to teach urban residents to attract and sustain pollinators in a yard or home garden.

This habitat-improvement event, “Attract Pollinators,” is Saturday, March 10, from 9 am to 1 pm. The West Linn-Wilsonville School District’s Center for Research in Environmental Sciences and Technologies (CREST), is hosting. CREST is located at 11265 SW Wilsonville Road (at Boones Ferry Primary School).

Pollinator experts will deliver useful tips, including basics about creating a pollinator-habitat garden, how to identify common native pollinators, what the link is between bee health and pesticides, and how to start a native mason-bee colony. Each participant receives a copy of the City’s new Pollinator Toolkit and a tour of CREST’s pollinator habitat.

The workshop is free and limited to 25 participants; pre-registration is required at www.pesticide.org/attract_pollinators to reserve a spot. An information fair, plant sale and self-guided tour are included among scheduled activities.

Funded in part by a grant from the Wilsonville-Metro Community Enhancement Program to the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, the “Bee Stewards” pollinator-improvement program has engaged Friends of Trees, the Xerces Society and school district to create pollinator habitat on public properties.

For information, contact Kerry Rappold, Natural Resources Manager, at 503-570-1570; rappold@ci.wilsonville.or.us.