The annual Pateros Booster Club sponsored Salmon Bake is going to be a good one this year, with great speakers and amazing food. The event is Saturday, June 24, in the Pateros City Park along the shoreline of the mighty Columbia River. Grilled salmon fillets, Sweet River Bakery Rolls, salad and beverages for $15. Learn about Native peoples in the Inland Northwest, their ties to salmon, and efforts to protect salmon returning to traditional waterways. Festivities and demonstrations start at noon.
The Methow Store continues to work towards opening day sometime soon-ish, on Methow Time. Follow along on Instagram, the store can be found @themethowstore. On a recent drive by I saw a notice of application for a liquor license, and I was happy to see a Methow Clean Air notification board out front — a wonderful reminder to keep our air healthy.
National Pollinator Week is June 19-25 this year. I know, it’s weird to start a week on a Monday instead of a Sunday, but unlike pollinators, we can more easily adapt to changes in our surroundings. In fact, it’s far easier for us to adapt our surroundings to support pollinators than it is for those little creatures to adapt to us.
There are signs of progress as the soon-to-be regenerated Methow Store moves towards opening. There is a notice of application for a liquor license on the door.
Supporting pollinators is easy: nurture flowering plants, reduce the use of pesticides and herbicides, and improve outdoor lighting to reduce harm to nocturnal pollinators. Most people are familiar with honey bees as the most popular pollinators. Birds, bats, moths, beetles, and wasps all play an important role in sustaining our food and oxygen supply.
Fruit trees, berry bushes, strawberries, wild roses, sunflowers, flowering sage and lupine are all valuable early summer food for pollinators. For a list of plants to include in your garden for pollinators, visit www.pollinator.org and click on “Resources”.
Reducing the use of pesticides and herbicides is an important practice to support pollinators, and personal health. Never spray a plant while in blossom. If treatment is necessary, look for safer options, or treat in early season before the plant attracts pollinators.
Ecologists found 62% fewer pollinator visits to flowering meadows under LED night lighting. The illuminated meadows saw a 13% reduction in food production. Daytime pollinators were unable to make up for the reduced nocturnal pollinator activity. To protect pollinators, install downward-facing light shades and motion sensors and timers to reduce unnecessary lighting. For more resources, visit www.methowdarksky.org.
Last week I strolled through numerous British gardens admiring all the native bumble bees. Kew Gardens is home to The Hive, a visual and audio art installation by Wolfgang Buttress. The Hive towers 56 feet above a hilltop meadow, vibrating and humming like a real hive. Using an accelerometer, vibrations were recorded from inside a honey bee hive at Kew Gardens. Honeybees buzz in the key of C and communicate by vibrating. The Hive installation emits a low hum that can be heard and felt, LED lights and orchestral music in the key of C reflect the changing intensity of vibrations within an active honey bee colony.
Public art in the Methow Valley also celebrates pollinators. We are all familiar with the giant wasp in the Twisp Commons, but my personal favorite is located within the Twisp Ponds Discovery Center at 53 Twisp River Road. Stroll through these natural gardens and find beautiful pieces of public art, including “Twisp” by Steve Love, showing the swirling swarm of wasps feasting on salmon.
This Pollinator Week, take a moment to embrace Twisp’s “Bee Kind” message, and extend a little kindness to all pollinators.
