Pollinator Awareness day June 23rd FREE

WHAT: Promoting pollinator conservation with beekeepers, honey tasting, and presentations

WHEN: June 23, 2012| 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM

WHERE: Open Space Visitor Center | 6500 Coors Blvd NW at the end of Bosque Meadows Rd. between Montaño and Paseo del Norte

FEE:  FREE

CONTACT: Jodi Hedderig | Parks & Recreation Dept., Open Space Division | 505-897-8831 | jhedderig@cabq.gov | www.cabq.gov/openspace.

Albuquerque, NM—  Imagine how bleak our diets would be without apples, melons, berries, carrots, broccoli, almonds, coffee, chocolate, and, dare I say it, chile.  These foods and many other foods that nourish and comfort us depend on pollinating animals to reproduce, such as bees and wasps, flies, butterflies and moths, and beetles.  But pollinators are threatened.  Dramatic declines of pollinator species are being documented world-wide.  The Sichuan Province of China is one of the world’s largest apple producers and they manage this by pollinating every flower by hand -- by human hand.  The heavy use of pesticides and heribicides has eliminated the visitation of native pollinators and beekeepers refuse to bring their hives into the toxic environment. 

Pesticide assault, loss and degradation of habitat, and the spread of disease and parasites are the primary threats to pollinators.  But these threats can be mitigated by sharing information with neighbors and the greater community on how each household can contribute to pollinator conservation.

We're getting the message out to as many people as possible by hosting an afternoon of FREE “bee aware” activities on Saturday, June 23rd from 10:00am – 5:00 pm during National Pollinator Week.

Activities include:

• 10:00 am: BUTTERFLY LIFE CYCLE: Feed a butterfly! Are butterfly wings water resistant? Grow a milkweed plant for Monarch butterflies, and more!
• 11:30 am: POLLINATORS IN THE ‘HOOD: There are hundreds of species of pollinators in New Mexico that assure that the foods we love and the foods wildlife depend on reproduce. How can you help support them?
• 1:00 pm: HONEY HARVEST DEMO & TASTING: How exactly do we get honey out of the hive into the jar? See a live colony up close!
• 1:30 pm: URBAN BEEKEEPING: Les Crowder, well-known New Mexico beekeeper, will discuss natural topbar beekeeping for urban backyards
• 3:00 pm: QUEEN OF THE SUN SCREENING: The bees are disappearing—why? This amazing film, sponsored by Burque Bioneers, explores that question.
• Children's activities