Our Native Pollinating Bees

The regular monthly meeting of the Comox Valley Naturalists Society will be held February 20, 2011 at 7:00 pm at the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Avenue, Courtenay. The speaker will be Victoria bee expert Gordon Hutchings, and will consist of detailed information on native bee pollinators and their habitat requirements. An abbreviated meeting, and our annual AGM will follow.

Gordon has been studying native bees for 22 years in BC, Yukon and Saskatchewan. He has been a contract field biologist for the Royal BC Museum, BC Ministry of Environment (Conservation Data Centre), the Yukon Territory Government, and Canada Wildlife Service. He also has a book on dragonflies of western boreal forests coming out soon.

There are over 450 species of bees in BC, and some species are adapted to very specific types of flowers. The biggest threats to native bee species are habitat loss/degradation, habitat fragmentation and pesticides. Native bees (especially Mason bees) are becoming increasingly important as pollinators since honey-bee populations have been drastically reduced by an introduced mite. Most of the agricultural crops in British Columbia depend on pollination by bees.

Please come and join us to become better informed, and to learn how you can help CVNS provide education and protection for BC’s natural environment.

Meetings of the Comox Valley Naturalists Society are held on the third Sunday of most months at the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton, Courtenay. Meetings are open to the public, including youth. A donation of .00 is suggested for non-members, and new memberships are always welcomed. Meetings are not held in December, July, and August. The CVNS March 20th presentation features author Anthony Dalton, with a lecture on the northern naturalist, botanist J. Dewey Soper, and on April 17th we will host Genevieve Singleton on Wildflowers of Southern Vancouver Island.