The nonprofit North Coast Resource Conservation & Development Council (NCRC&DC) has teamed up with six local West County Girl Scout troops, wineries, ranches and small family farms to plant “bee patches” of forage for pollinators to create habitat in Western Sonoma County for struggling bees and other pollinators.
“We work with Girl Scout troops to teach them the importance of pollinators at each farm site and then guide them on simple pollinator conservation steps to design their bee patch,” said Oona Heacock, NCRC&DC conservationist directing the “Bee Patches” program.
The NCRC&DC connects Girl Scout troops with West County farms, and this fall Beet Generation Farm and Kitchen, Confluence Farms, Two Belly Acres, Williams Ranch in Sebastopol, Apple-a-Day Ratzlaff Ranch and Hartford Family Winery in Forestville are planting habitat.
The Girl Scouts will plan and design their “bee patch” and do the planting, then follow-up throughout the year on how well this bee forage planting effort works. Critical elements in the troops’ plans include multi-season forage opportunities, water, undisturbed ground for wild bee nesting and safety from pesticide exposure. Each participating troop will receive a $250 donation for planting a patch.
“The West County Girl Scouts are creating beautiful and creative bee patches that will add over 1,000 square feet of new pollinator habitat along Western Sonoma County farms this fall,” Heacock said.
Each “bee patch” planted in western Sonoma County will provide nourishing habitat using specialty seed mixes developed by LeBallister Seed Company to support bee forage.
Representatives of the Milo Baker chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) have picked out many of the plants for the Girl Scouts to use for their projects.
“We believe this is an excellent opportunity to showcase the relationship between native plants and native bees. Our choices of plants are California natives providing year round blooms that are bee favorites for nectar and pollen,” Patricia Sesser of the CNPS said. “Examine native buckwheats and you will see hundreds of small bees buzzing around.”
Providing wildflower-rich habitat is one of the most significant actions people can take to help pollinators. Eighty percent of the world’s flowering plants require pollinators, and wildlife ecosystems and agricultural systems are vitally dependent on these small wildlife. Native bees and European honeybees help to maintain healthy productive plant communities which are essential to our planet, whether in increasing food crop production or fostering native plant forage to sustain wildlife in our local area.
“The Girl Scouts seem naturally fascinated by the diversity, complexity and importance of bees to our farming systems and wildlife ecosystems, and once they learn that bee populations are in decline, they jump right in to these projects,” Heacock said.
Submitted by the North Coast Resource Conservation & Development Council