Happy Pollinator Week! Time to catch the buzz

Pollinators are gardeners’ best friends. This week, learn how to help bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators while also contributing to citizen research.

It’s National Pollinator Week, an annual salute that continues through June 28. Launched about 25 years ago by the San Francisco-based Pollinator Partnership, this commemoration focuses on these important creatures and how people can help them.

“Pollinator Week is an annual celebration in support of pollinator health that was initiated and is managed by Pollinator Partnership,” explains the organizers. “It is a time to raise awareness for pollinators and spread the word about what we can do to protect them.

“The great thing about Pollinator Week is that you can celebrate and get involved any way you like! Popular events include planting for pollinators, hosting garden tours, participating in online bee and butterfly ID workshops, and so much more.”

The organizers are keeping track of participation and sharing the news with an interactive online map and using the social media hashtag #PollinatorWeek.

To help coordinate efforts, Pollinator Partnership and the Electric Power Research Institute (a longtime pollinator supporter) are hosting an online Pollinator Power Party with daily activities and chances to share observations of pollinators at work. Participants have chances to win prizes as well as learn a lot about pollinators.

This week’s focus is a “Big Year for Butterflies” with a “bioblitz” to count as many butterflies and moths as possible.

“A bioblitz brings scientists, naturalists and volunteers together to record as many species as possible in a set time period,” explain the organizers. “Join our iNaturalist project to contribute pollinator data across North America!”

Among the resources shared by the group is a video on pollinators beyond bees and butterflies such as bats. Coming Wednesday is a guide on how to love bees and hornets – and not get stung.

Why are we so crazy about pollinators? We wouldn’t eat (much) without them.

About three-quarters of the world’s flowering plants need an animal pollinator to carry heavy pollen grains from plant to plant and fertilize flowers.

We tend to think of pollinators as honey bees or hummingbirds. But about 1,000 species of vertebrates – birds, bats and small mammals – are pollinators. Most pollinators (more than 20,000 species) are beneficial insects, including butterflies, moths, ants, wasps, beetles, flies and, of course, bees.