Current News

Nice article reflecting shifting thinking on ‘untouched nature’ and the human age. Accepting that, can we create a fully networked plan for ecosystems? What happens when we don’t totally understand systems on which we depend?  Is this just as Romantic an idea as ‘untouched nature’?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/opinion/the-age-of-man-is-not-a-disaster.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1323356435-4R2Tp1jRgUmWL4zeUvpyNw

And old but great, hilarious French ’solution’ for highway animal crossing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfoO6zThy-c

See, if we designed for more animals, we could have more moments like these.

Hello! Its been a great month for the Pollinator Pathway.

First off, the project has received some amazing donations and grants: Whole Foods, TITAG, and individual donors have contributed, and earlier this week it received a grant from the Northwest Horticultural Society.

As a result, the project is 1/3 of the way funded- very exciting. (If you’d like to support it, I recently set up a PayPal account, or you can mail donations here - thank you).

In other good news, I’ll be speaking at the Henry Art Gallery next year on March 9 about the project.

-Sarah

The Pollinator Picnic was a great success- so much fun, and we raised enough to fund two new gardens on the project.

Thanks everyone! I’m incredibly grateful for your support of this project.

Thanks especially to:
Ballard Bee
Big Dipper Wax Works
Cafe Flora
Cavatappi Distribuzione
City People’s Mercantile
The Corson Building
Clear Creek Distillery
The Elysian
Fall Line WInery
Gorman Winery
Kelly Christie Hats
Slow Food Seattle
Seattle Tilth
Stumptown
Tall Grass Bakery
The NY Cupcake Company
Slow Food Seattle
Studio Matthews
Swanson’s
Urban Bee Company
Vineyard Brands
Volunteer Park Cafe
Whole Foods

For their help pulling this event together:
Nicole Abercrombie
Caryn Badgett
Matt Dillon
Jeanie Chunn
Jessica Jobaris
Abigail Joy
Jay Kuehner
Jeramy Koepping
Jake Labarre
Jolie Lemoine
Marc Papineau
Sasha Parks
Gail Pethe
Matt Sellars
Sanju Thomman

The Corson Building presents the Pollinator Picnic! Come enjoy amazing food by chef Matt Dillon, and music by The Tallboys, and celebrate how far we’ve come- it will be *so* much fun–and all proceeds will help build the next 20 gardens on the Pollinator Pathway. Hope to see you there! Tickets are here: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/195515

The Mylitta Crescent butterfly (Phyciodes mylitta) is a common sight to the west coast of North America. Another urban species, like the Woodland Skipper, these butterflies are frequently found in disturbed sites such as vacant lots, roadsides and fencerows. They also can be found in fields, wet meadows, water edges, woodland openings, canyons and weedy areas. The Mylitta Crescent is a bit of a bully and will chase other butterflies away from their territory where they will stay feeding for several days. The males will patrol their choice habitat around nectar plants, often the bottom of canyons, streams or trails looking for females. They fly for a long period during the year, from spring all through the summer until fall, during which time they will produce several, overlapping broods.

The Mylitta Crescent are a smaller sized butterfly, bright orange and black in color with a checkered pattern on the top their wings, while the undersides are a more subdued orange/brown. The caterpillar is back with orange spines and will eat leaves to such an extent as to skeletonize them. They can sometimes be found in silk nests and if they have not pupated before winter the caterpillars can hibernate.

Larvae feed mostly on various species of thistles (Cirsium), both native and invasive, and for this reason they are important in combating invasive thistle species. Among species that frequent both native and invasive thistles are other butterflies such as the Tiger Swallowtail and the  Painted Lady as well as flies, beetles and wasps. Larvae will also feed on Seep Monkeyflower(Mimulus guttatus).

Some of their preferred nectar plants are composite flowers including Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), Pearly-everlasting(Anaphalis margaritacea), Common California Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense), Seaside Fleabane (Erigeron glaucus) and hawkbit, a British wildflower.

This essay by Jenny Price came up recently- I read it when it came out and it articulated many thoughts I’d been having around that time, and had an influence on this project as well. Thought I’d share it: http://www.believermag.com/issues/200604/?read=article_price

Seattle’s first Woonerf project is using Pollinator Pathway recommended plants! http://buildingcapacity.typepa​d.com/blog/2011/07/squire-park​s-first-woonerf-project-comple​tes-a-street.html

and http://www.seattle.gov/parks/P​roParks/projects/12thAve.htm

There are many species of mason bees, 120 in North America alone. Mason bees do not produce honey, instead females gather pollen for their larvae. Mason bees are small and easily confused with flies, however they have longer antennae, smaller eyes and four wings. Females are larger than the males, about 3/4″ and 1/2″ in length respectively, and the females have shorter antennae. They are incredibly gentle bees and although the females can sting, they very rarely do and do not even act aggressive at their nests. A Blue Orchard Bee’s sting has very low venom and produces the equivalent of a mosquito bite.

They have a very short active life, only foraging for 6-8 weeks in the spring, usually sometime during March, April or May. Males emerge first and do a little pollinating before waiting for the females to emerge. Once the males mate they die shortly thereafter. The females emerge two weeks after the males, mate and start to build their nests in holes. Mason bees do not make their own holes, in a natural setting they’ll use snags or old trees and will also make use of human structures such as shake siding and even outdoor furniture.

They lay eggs in their nests, upwards of 9-11 in each hole, leaving pollen with the eggs and then use mud to seal the egg and pollen in an individual chamber. The eggs hatch into larvae and feed off of the pollen before creating cocoons which the adults will stay in as they overwinter.

In the Pacific Northwest the Blue Orchard Bee (Osmia lignaria), has certain benefits over the honeybee such as foraging in the cold weather or light rain. They also stay close so it’s easier to target certain plants such as fruit or nuts trees. Blue Orchard Bees do not compete with the honeybee and they can even work alongside each other. In addition, the Blue Orchard Bee is not choosy about their pollen and will visit a wide range of flowers. They are messy pollen gatherers unlike the honeybee who packs wet pollen neatly onto their leg. The Blue Orchard Bee gathers the pollen, but being dry, much of it falls off and as a result, they pollinate nearly every flower they visit. One Blue Orchard Bee can pollinate 2,000 blossoms in a single day, the equivalent of what 100 honeybees can do.

Like most other pollinators, landscaping can help attract mason bees. Native spring flowers are perfect for the Blue Orchard Bee because they emerge in the spring and don’t have a strong pollen preference. Composite flowers with open petals are easier for the mason bees to harvest pollen from, and deep flowers, such as lilac are more difficult. Because they don’t forage too far from their nest sites, the flowers need to be within 300′ of a nest structure.

They also require a source of mud which they use to divide the chambers of their nest, and the mud needs to consist of more clay than sand. While this isn’t usually a problem in western Washington, if there is no close mud source, one can be created.

The third essential is to provide nest shelters. The basics of a mason bee nesting hole is a 5/16″ hole at 6″ deep. There are many materials for making holes, paper tubes with a paper insert are perhaps the best solution, but reeds also work well. Plastic straws are not good because the dampness of the pollen in the nest compartments is trapped, and can end up killing cocoons where paper pulls the moisture out. Wood blocks are not ideal either because they can be difficult to clean and inspect, although using the paper inserts in wood blocks is an option. Mason bees require a clean hole and if a block of wood is reused it can contain a build-up of pests.

The paper straws or reeds need to be protected in some type of shelter that will keep them dry. Anything from manufactured structures to a plastic soda container can work for this. The shelter should be placed where it gets morning sun to help the bees warm up in the morning. It should also be placed so that the open front is out of the direct rain and wind. Also avoid putting it too near bird feeders or over water. Mason bees identify their hole with scent, but they have to get close to smell it. Stacking the straws so that some stick out further than others helps the bees to identify their own hole.

For more information about attracting and raising mason bees visit The Metropolitan Field Guide.