WSU Extension Helping Pollinators

A single class on beekeeping in Spokane County is able to graduate 100 beginning apiarists per year, one of the many ways Washington State University and others are trying to help pollinators.

Joan Nolan, a WSU Extension Master Gardner and a beekeeper, said their message is too important to ignore.

“Without the pollinators we will not have the crops. Our diet would consist of corn, rice or wheat if we didn’t have the pollinators.”

Pollination is also critical to gardening and Nolan called the beekeeping class a natural partnership for the master gardening program.

Bees are under threat from colony collapse, varroa mites and other dangers which makes the growth of understanding even more critical.

Nolan said, “We had to get information out there to help the backyard beekeeper, the hobbyist and try and help them so that they would maintain these hives in the communities.”

Anyone interested in learning about beekeeping can take a local class with a beekeeping association, WSU Extension or master gardeners to understand how beekeeping can work in their community.

If you have a story idea for the Washington Ag Network, call (590) 547-1618, or e-mail krounce@cherrycreekradio.com.