THE GREEN SWEAT BEE IS ONE OF MANY NATIVE BEES THAT PLAY A CRITICAL ROLE AS POLLINATORS OF NATIVE AND GARDEN PLANTS AND FARM CROPS. For every three bites of food eaten, pollinators were responsible for bringing one of those bites to the hungry person. In fact, roughly 35 percent of global food production and an estimated 60-80 percent of the world’s flowering plants rely on a vast array of bee species and other pollinators.

Pests and diseases, including the recent dramatic outbreak of Colony Collapse Disorder (CDC), are now threatening European honeybee populations worldwide. Since the 1940s the number of honeybee colonies in the United States has dropped by more than 40 percent. Consequently, it is especially important to protect and conserve native bees to maintain the crucial pollination services needed to sustain gardens and crops. Natural habitat plays a key role in meeting the needs of these valuable insects.

On Thursday, May 13, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Mariposa County Resource Conservation District (MCRCD) will offer a workshop to inform the public about local native bees and how to encourage pollinator activity. Designed for growers, ranchers and agricultural and natural resource professionals, the workshop will promote agricultural sustainability through conservation of habitat for native bees and other beneficial insects.

NRCS District Conservationist Dawn Afman has arranged with Mariposa farmer Brenda Ostrom to host the program at her Mountain Meadow Farms at 5633 Meadow Lane, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A $20 fee is required and lunch will be provided.

The scheduled speaker, Jessa Guisse, California pollinator outreach coordinator for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, will present a slide show describing many of our local bee species.

Guisse has a master’s degree in environmental entomology from California State University, Chico, and a bachelor’s degree in sustainable farming from Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. Having joined the Xerces Society in 2008, she has coordinated with government agencies and private stakeholders throughout the state to encourage habitat conservation for native pollinators. She previously owned a private business that worked with farmers to manage native bees for crop pollination.

Guisse’s talk will introduce participants to the diversity of native bees, their biology and their value as pollinators. The program will also describe practical steps property owners can take to improve native bee habitat on their land. Many of the guidelines presented will provide resources not only for native species, but will also benefit European honeybees.

Both the Xerces Society and NRCS are partners in the MCRCD’s Sierra Nevada Conservancy grant-funded development of the Sierra Foothills Native Plant Demonstration Garden at the Mariposa County Fairgrounds. A major focus of this project is to promote gardening with a diversity of native vegetation that will sustain native bees and other pollinators.

California harbors more than 1,500 species of native bees that occur in all sizes and colors and are superb pollinators. In fact, in some cases they are even more efficient than honeybees. For example, even though tomatoes can be wind-pollinated, native bumblebees are the best pollinators of plants in the tomato family, even better than any manufactured fan or other invention.

Their strong, vibrating wings knock the pollen loose from deep within the tomato flower onto the bees’ bodies. The bees then transfer that pollen to the next flower they visit. The end results are beautiful, ripe, red fruits.

Although native bumblebees are social and nest in colonies, much like the nonnative honeybees, most native bees are solitary nesters. About one-third of them nest in dead wood such as snags (dead tress), branches and fence posts, while the other two-thirds nest in the ground. Workshop participants will learn how to provide nesting sites and habitat by practicing proper bee conservation strategies.

To reserve aplace at this pollinator workshop call the offices of the NRCS and the MCRCD at 966-3431.