Please join us on Wednesday, Nov. 13, when the Orcas Island Garden Club welcomes Russel Barsh to speak about native bees and hoverflies that pollinate our native and garden plants. He writes: “I find that a majority of home gardeners think that they need honeybees and imported mason bees for pollination, when we have over a hundred wild native bee species, and at least another hundred flower flies, already doing the work on most of the islands’ gardens, farms and wildlands. I love sharing about wild pollinators!”

Barsh pursued careers in university teaching and international diplomacy before returning to the islands more than 20 years ago as the founding director of Kwiaht, a nonprofit conservation biology laboratory that studies island ecosystems, marine and terrestrial, and works with public and private landowners to protect our most unusual habitats and species. He is best known for his research on the food web that sustains Chinook salmon and killer whales, but his interest in the ecology of the San Juan Islands includes extensive research about bats, ticks, and native bees and hoverflies. Kwiaht’s summer surveys of 19 uninhabited small islands around San Juan County have added to his knowledge of our native pollinators, in particular the role of Cellophane bees, “digger bees” and bumblebees in maintaining wildflowers on islands as small as a few 100 square feet.

The presentation begins at 10 a.m. at the Orcas Center and will be followed by social time. The presentation will also be available via Zoom. For a link to the live Zoom presentation, go to the Orcas Island Garden Club website and click the link below the list of presentations. The presentation will be recorded. To watch the recorded presentation, go to the link “Recorded Presentations” under “Events” on the club website. Garden club presentations are free and open to the public.