Pollinators: Why We Need Them And How To Help

One in every four bites of food relies on pollinators, but they are under substantial threat in our modern world. Between the loss of their habitat and exposure to common pesticides, they need our help.

In part five of our Program Priority Series, we sit down with Laurie Swan to discuss pollinators. In this episode, Laurie covers:

• What the Pollinator Priority is and why it is important
• Types of pollinators that are not bees
• How native plants support pollinators
• Threats to native pollinator species
• Pesticide use and pollinators
• How climate change affects pollinators
• How gardeners can support pollinators year-round
• What a Certified Pollinator Steward is
• The most interesting skill that Laurie developed at Pollinator Stewardship training
• The Pollinator Stewardship Certification process
  

• The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
• Pollinator Conservation Resources: Pacific Northwest Region | Xerces Society
• Pollinator.org
• Pollinator Steward Certification (PSC) | Pollinator.org
• USA National Phenology Network
• Washington Native Plant Society
• Washington Native Bee Society
• Northwest Card – Pollinators (U.S. National Park Service)
• Pollinators: Cultivating Resilient and Thriving Gardens (Evergreen Thumb Episodes about Pollinators)
• Nature’s Calendar: The Value of Phenology in the Garden – Episode 037

[00:00:00] Erin Hoover: Welcome to The Evergreen Thumb, your go-to podcast for up-to-date research-based horticulture and environmental stewardship knowledge to help you grow and manage your garden. Produced by Washington State University Extension Master Gardener Volunteers and brought to you by the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.

[00:00:16] I’m your host, Erin Hoover, a WSU Extension Master Gardener since 2015 and a Certified Permaculture Designer and modern homesteader.

WSU Master Gardener volunteers are university-trained community educators who have been cultivating plants, people, and communities since 1973. Are you ready to grow? Let’s dig into today’s episode.

[00:00:43] Welcome to The Evergreen Thumb, episode 50.

Guest Introduction

My guest today is Laurie Swan, after a long career in medicine that included earning two doctoral degrees, Laurie “retired” and has been able to expand her time and a lifelong passion for gardening. She became a Certified Master Gardener in 2022 and a Certified Pollinator Steward through the Pollinator Partnership in 2024.

[00:01:06] She’s committed to the Master Gardener priority to provide education on supporting native bees and other pollinators to thrive in home and community landscapes. When Laurie is in her garden, she’s either inspecting her plants or begging the bees to hold still so she can take their picture.

WSU Extension Master Gardener Program Priority #5: Pollinators

So, Laurie’s here today to talk to us about the program priority of Pollinators.

The WSU Extension Master Gardener Program directly impacts pollinator health and conservation by teaching sustainable gardening practices that protect and restore vital habitats.

[00:01:41] Through science-based education and hands-on community engagement, the program empowers individuals to create pollinator-friendly landscapes, ensuring stable food production and biodiversity preservation by supporting native plant growth, advocating for pesticide alternatives and reducing environmental stressors, Extension Master Gardener volunteers actively strengthen pollinator populations, safeguard essential ecosystems, and drive long-term environmental resilience.

While much attention has been given to the decline of European honeybees and colony collapse disorder, native bees are also experiencing a significant population decline.

[00:02:19] Bees are responsible for pollinating about 90% of wild plants and face alarming trends, with over half of native bee species in decline.

Nearly one in four native bees is at risk, and 40% of insect pollinators are under substantial threat, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. The decline in pollinators poses severe ecological and human challenges.

[00:02:44] Pollination is an essential process for survival and supports approximately 80% of food-producing plants, and one in every four bites of food relies on pollinators. The global decline of insect pollinators threatens food security by reducing agricultural productivity. Additionally, pollination is critical for the reproduction of flowering plants, which helps prevent erosion, filter water, sequester carbon, and produce oxygen.

[00:03:09] Without these vital functions, ecosystems become destabilized, and human well-being is jeopardized.

WSU Extension Master Garden Volunteers play a pivotal role in addressing this issue by educating communities on supporting native bees and other pollinators in home and community landscapes.

Laurie, thanks for joining me today.

[00:03:29] Welcome to the show.

Laurie Swan: Well, thank you for inviting me.

Erin Hoover: Why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself and the work you do with Master Gardeners?

About Our Guest

[00:03:40] Laurie Swan: Okay, so I became a Master Gardener in 2022. My father was a Master Gardener in Spokane when he retired. And so that’s how I first learned about the Master Gardener program.

[00:03:51] And I always thought it might be something interesting to do when I reached retirement age, and so here I am about at that time now, and I, uh, took the training and I’m really enjoying spending my time working with Master Gardeners in Pierce County.

What is the Pollinator Priority and Why is it Important?

[00:04:08] Erin Hoover: So you’re here today to talk to us a little bit about pollinators and the uh, WSU Extension Master Gardener Program’s Pollinator Priority.

Laurie Swan: Yeah.

Erin Hoover: So can you tell me a little bit about what that priority is about and why it’s important?

[00:04:23] Laurie Swan: Okay, so the Master Gardener Pollinator Priority is that Master Gardeners will teach ways to help native bees and other pollinators thrive.

[00:04:35] And I think one of the interesting things about the wording of that statement is that they’re specifically calling out native bees. I think most people are familiar with the idea of honeybees as being great pollinators, but the European honeybees, they immigrated here in the early 1600s, and they are not native bees.

[00:05:00] It’s really important that we keep our native bees. The native bee population is on the decline and is at risk for extinction in the United States, and native bees are really important because they pollinate approximately 80% of all of the flowering plants in the world. Um, so it’s interesting that the Master Gardeners are focusing on the native bees as, uh, an important piece of the work that we do.

Types of Pollinators That Are Not Bees

[00:05:27] Erin Hoover: When many people hear pollinator, they think bees of course. But what are some of the other types of pollinators and how do they pollinate?

[00:05:35] Laurie Swan: Um, they’re anything that can help, uh, bring the pollen from the male part of the flower to the female part of the flower can be considered a pollinator, and pollinators have different ways that they transmit the pollen.

[00:05:54] Anything that can fly and land on flowers can be a pollinator, so that could be butterflies, moths, flies, birds, and even bats. Anything that can crawl onto flowers can be considered a pollinator, so that might be things like ants and beetles, but even non-living forces such as the wind, can help to pollinate the flowers.

[00:06:19] So bees are the most efficient pollinators because they’re gathering pollen to make a pollen loaf for their babies. So because they’re in there gathering that pollen, um, they’re easily transmitting it from flower to flower, but anything that is touching that pollen and then goes to touch another flower can be considered a pollinator.

How do Native Plants Support Pollinators?

[00:06:43] Erin Hoover: Why do native plants play such a crucial role in supporting pollinators?

[00:06:47] Laurie Swan: The native plants are really important because the native plants and the pollinators evolved together over time. So the flowers made themselves more attractive to entice the pollinators and the pollinators rely on those plants for their food source.

[00:07:05] So I have a funny story to tell you that will help us understand how important native plants are.

So I went to the nursery one day, and I saw a Spanish lavender plant, I wanted it so badly because I’ve been wanting a lavender plant in my garden. So, I bought it and I brought it home, and I took excellent care of it.

[00:07:31] I watered it, and I gave it really good fertilizer, and I pruned it at just the right time. Eventually, uh, this spring, the plant just did really well, bloomed. It was just beautiful. So one day I go out there looking for my bees, since lavender is supposed to be such a great plant for bees, I go out there looking for my bees, and I’m astonished to find that the plant has bees all over it everywhere.

[00:08:01] But when I look more carefully, what I discover is all of the bees were the Western honey bees. So they were not any of the native bees, which was, why I was really interested in trying to get some native bees into my garden. Well, here’s the thing, lavender is a native plant in the Mediterranean. Lavender is not a native plant in the United States.

[00:08:28] So isn’t it interesting that these honey bees that immigrated from Europe to the United States, uh found the plant that is not native to the United States?

[00:08:40] So that’s a really good example. If we wanna support the native bees, then we must give them the native plants that they have evolved with over time to help support them.

Threats to Native Pollinator Species in the U.S.

[00:08:55] Erin Hoover: So what are some of the bigger threats that face native pollinators in the U.S.?

[00:09:00] Laurie Swan: One of the biggest threats is that the world is becoming more and more paved, and 70% of our native bees make their homes in the ground. A lot of those bees are called miner bees, so if they don’t have the ground available to them, then they can’t make their home.

[00:09:21] Our habitat has become much more fragmented with the amount of, uh, buildings and pavement and concrete that we have everywhere. We have large areas of single crops that limit the amount of native plants that we can put in a space. We have the introduction of non-native pathogens, invasive species, and parasites.

[00:09:46] So there’s a lot of threats that are facing our pollinators, especially our native bees.

However, we know that we can help support them. Even a little garden next to a single house can be created so that it supports the native bees, and if there are enough of those little patches all around our neighborhoods, then we can help them survive.

Pesticide Use and Pollinators

[00:10:14] Erin Hoover: So how does pesticide use impact our pollinators?

[00:10:17] Laurie Swan: Pesticides have been a real problem. There are several different ways that pesticides can cause problems for the pollinators. So, one is by direct contact. So maybe we have a pollinator that’s on a flower, and a pesticide is sprayed onto that pollinator on the flower.

[00:10:35] There’s residual contact, so maybe the plant is sprayed ahead of time, and then the pollinator lands on that plant and picks up some of the pesticides.

Pesticides can contaminate nesting materials that the pollinators need. Since 70% of the native bees are ground nesters, if we are using pesticides that are on the ground, that can contaminate their nesting areas.

[00:11:03] So a really good example of that is using the slug bait. When we put slug bait down, if that goes into a nesting area, that’s toxic to the bees.

[00:11:13] Erin Hoover: Yeah, that’s one I don’t think I’ve even thought of before is, I mean, I don’t use that anymore, but it seems pretty innocuous. You were, you’re just going for slugs. It’s marketed for slugs.

[00:11:22] Laurie Swan: Yes.

[00:11:22] Erin Hoover: But the formula isn’t unique to just slugs as far as the damage.

[00:11:26] Laurie Swan: Yes, that’s true.

How Climate Change Affects Pollinators

[00:11:28] Erin Hoover: So how is climate change affecting pollinators and their habitats?

[00:11:32] Laurie Swan: So, a lot of our pollinators and specifically the bees again, um, have very specific timing for their lifecycle. So, we have the Mason bees that come out in the springtime and are only out for a few months.

[00:11:45] We have Leafcutter bees that come out later in the summer, and they’re also only out for a few months, and with climate change, it’s changing the timing when the flowers are blooming. And so when we have pollinators that are coming out looking for their flowers and their flowers aren’t available yet, then they don’t have a good food source to be able to survive and mate and create the next generation.

[00:12:11] So a lot of it is the timing of the pollinators, the pollinators themselves, and then also their food source.

[00:12:20] Erin Hoover: I found it interesting because I learned about, I dunno if you have heard of the USA National Phenology Network. They’re actually studying that specifically as one of their projects, uh, tracking when plants are blooming and how their, those pollinators hatch corresponds and how it’s changing over time.

[00:12:40] Laurie Swan: Yes

[00:12:40] Erin Hoover: They’re actually tracking that and how they’re getting further and further apart for many species.

[00:12:46] Laurie Swan: Right. And there’s even native plants that are, um, moving geographically because the climate is changing. So if they’re moving to a different area and their pollinators are not there, that’s going to be trouble also.

How Can Gardeners Support Pollinators?

[00:12:59] Erin Hoover: True.

So what should gardeners know about supporting pollinators and creating habitat for them?

[00:13:05] Laurie Swan: So gardeners can be very helpful to the pollinators. All the pollinators need is a home and food. That’s all they need. Okay? So as far as a home, if you can provide an undisturbed ground area without mulch so that they can create their homes into the dirt area and leave debris nearby so they can make their homes.

[00:13:32] Another you can do is refrain from using landscape paper. When we put down landscape paper then the bees that are nesting in the ground might not be able to get through that.

[00:13:43] The pollinators love the debris such as, uh, the plant stalks and anything that is hollow inside the woody debris. Like stumps, they love rock walls and little crevices to make their homes in. So you can do simple things like if in the fall you are cleaning up your garden, getting it ready to go to sleep for the winter.

[00:14:12] Instead of cleaning up all those branches and stalks of plants, instead of cleaning those all up and throwing them in the compost, you can cut some of them and leave them on the ground around your plants so that the pollinators can use those things over the wintertime and then give them the time they need in the spring before you pick it up and throw it in the compost.

[00:14:29] Just having that debris around for the winter part of the year is very helpful to them.

And then as far as food, think about planting native plants. A good rule to follow is the three-by-three rule. That would be, um, picking three native plants in each of the crucial three seasons. So that would be spring, winter (**Editors note: This should be summer, not winter), and fall.

[00:14:58] The Xerces Society has a really excellent resource that you can use for whatever geographic area you live in. You can go there, and it will show you the native plants that are, um, specific to pollinators, what pollinators you can attract from them, and when they bloom. So you can easily find three native plants for each of the three seasons for whatever part of the country you live in.

[00:15:25] Erin Hoover: We’ll take the link and post that so that people can find that information as well. So is there debris that is not good to leave out for pollinators?

[00:15:36] Laurie Swan: As far as plant debris, I don’t believe so. It would probably be human-generated debris. The landscape paper would be a good example. Um, just plastic and garbage in general is probably not good for them.

Suggestions for How to Support Pollinators Year Round

[00:15:50] Erin Hoover: Do you have any suggestions on how to support pollinators year-round? So as far as like in winter or on the, you know, on the edges of the seasons?

[00:15:59] Laurie Swan: Yeah. I think what we need to do is learn to love the pollinators throughout their entire life cycle. A really good example is the butterflies and butterflies are also pollinators.

[00:16:11] Uh, we love them when they’re flying around and they’re so beautiful and they land on our plants; but when we see a caterpillar in our garden, do we think that it might be a butterfly, or do we think it might be something that’s eating the leaves of our plants? So, we have to learn to love the pollinators in all their stages.

[00:16:32] For the butterflies, that would be when they’re an egg, when they’re a larva that’s the caterpillar stage, when they’re a pupa, and then when they’re an adult and they’re flying around.

So, before you discard something that you think is an insect that might be harmful to your garden, you might want to look a little bit more closely and find out if that is a pollinator that just is looking a little bit different right now.

[00:17:00] Erin Hoover: I found my dill attracts butterflies. I’ll find the caterpillars on the dill when they’re blooming in the summer. So, they’re, fortunately, they’re pretty distinctive, but I always double-check each plant before I cut the dill down to make sure that there isn’t a caterpillar on them.

What is a Certified Pollinator Steward?

[00:17:21] Uhhuh, what does it mean to be a Certified Pollinator Steward? How does that benefit you as a Master Gardener?

[00:17:23] Laurie Swan: Uh, the Certified Pollinator Steward is a separate program from the Master Gardeners. It’s hosted through an organization called Pollinator Partnership, and it’s a great program. It’s seven sessions on Zoom with leading experts in the field, and it’s all about pollinator habitat, creating and providing educational offerings to the community.

[00:17:48] And it was very helpful for me because I wanted to know so much more about pollinators than what I was able to learn in my initial Master Gardener training. The Master Gardener training is just stuffed with all kinds of great information, but they can’t teach us everything, and I wanted to go beyond the basics and learn more, and this was a really good way, to start learning more about the pollinators.

[00:18:14] Erin Hoover: Well, that’s one of the things that I really like about the Master Gardener Program is ‘cause Master Gardeners can specialize if you know in, in what they’re passionate about and what they’re really interested in, and become a source for their fellow Master Gardeners in any particular gardening topic.

[00:18:30] Laurie Swan:  Yeah.

The Most Interesting Skill that Laurie Developed at Pollinator Stewardship Training

Erin Hoover: What was the most interesting skill you developed through your Pollinator Stewardship training?

[00:18:36] Laurie Swan: The most interesting thing I learned was how to tell the difference between a bee, a wasp, and a fly. Um, so there are some bees that look like flies, and there are flies that look like bees. I can tell a honey bee, I know what that is, but there are so many other creatures that were in my garden and I wasn’t sure whether it was a bee or a fly or what it was.

[00:19:04] And so that was one of the things that, um, they talked about in the class and it really helped me get a foundation so that I could learn more, seek more information, and now I’m finding that I can go out and I can look at the insects and I can identify which category it goes into.

Now, there are so many different native bees. I still can’t tell you the exact name of a native bee, but now at least by its characteristics, I’m able to say, yes, that is a bee.

[00:19:35] Erin Hoover: I did an interview for an episode that’s coming up about the Washington Bee Atlas.

[00:19:40] Laurie Swan: Yes.

[00:19:41] Erin Hoover: And I found out from her that there are six, at least 600 species of native bees in Washington State.

[00:19:52] Laurie Swan: That’s correct.

[00:19:52] Erin Hoover: Yeah.

[00:19:53] Laurie Swan: And there’s also native bees that we haven’t identified yet. They’re waiting to be named.

[00:19:59] Erin Hoover: Yes. Which is the great thing about the Bee Atlas is that they actually want to identify them and give them names and discover their range, and so that, I think it’s amazing how much we don’t know,

Laurie Swan: Yes.

Erin Hoover: …about native pollinators at this point.

[00:20:13] Laurie Swan: Yes. And I always thought that if I really wanted to discover something new and get my name on something, I’d have to go to the Amazon right, to find something.

[00:20:22] But you don’t have to go to the Amazon. You can work in Washington State with the Washington Bee Atlas project that they’re working on and find a bee that nobody has ever seen before and get it named after yourself.

The Pollinator Stewardship Certification Process

[00:20:35] Erin Hoover: What is the certification process like for becoming a Pollinator Steward?

[00:20:41] Laurie Swan: Well, the program starts, um, early each year. So if you register in December, then you can get a discount on the cost.

[00:20:45] The first thing you do is go through watching all the zooms. These are live zooms, or they’re recorded so you can watch them later with really excellent experts in the field. So you watch all those, you just write a brief synopsis.

[00:21:04] Um, you build a habitat that is attractive to pollinators and then take pictures of it and turn it in, and then you also need to hold an educational offering about pollinators to the public. So, you demonstrate that you’ve done that, turn that in, and then you’re a Certified Pollinator Steward.

[00:21:25] Erin Hoover: Nice. That seems pretty straightforward, and the public part would probably be pretty easy for a Master Gardener.

Laurie Swan: It’s not difficult.

Laurie’s Favorite Part About Being a Master Gardener

Erin Hoover: So what do you love most about being a Master Gardener?

[00:21:37] Laurie Swan: The thing I love most is the ability to learn all these new things. Uh, so we have nine priorities. Pollinators is just one of our um, priorities.

[00:21:49] So there’s a little something for everybody to learn in all the varied things that we do. But I’m just really happy to be part of the Master Gardener family and have all these new things to learn about the pollinators and help the public understand how important it is that we help them, and in particular, the native bees.

Final Thoughts About Pollinators

[00:22:13] Erin Hoover: All right. Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to add about pollinators?

[00:22:17] Laurie Swan: I’d like people to know that they can do something to help the pollinators, and it can be really simple things. Some of the things we’ve talked about, like the three-by-three rule. You know, having three native plants blooming in each three seasons, or instead of cleaning up your yard every fall, leaving a little bit of debris over the winter for the pollinators.

[00:22:42] Those are very, very simple things, but they can make a big difference for our pollinators.

[00:22:47] Erin Hoover: Well, thank you so much for being here today.

Laurie Swan: Oh, thank you for inviting me.

Erin Hoover:  Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Evergreen Thumb, brought to you by the WSU Extension Master Gardener Program volunteers and sponsored by the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.

[00:23:03] We hope that today’s discussion has inspired and equipped you with valuable insights to nurture your garden.

The Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State is a nonprofit organization whose primary purpose is to provide unifying support and advocacy for WSU Extension Master Gardener programs throughout Washington State.

[00:23:22] To support the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State, visit www.mastergardenerfoundation.org/donate.

Whether you’re an experienced Master Gardener or just starting out, the WSU Extension Master Gardener program is here to support you every step of the way. WSU Extension Master Gardeners empower and sustain diverse communities with relevant, unbiased, research-based horticulture education.

[00:23:47] Reach out to your local WSU Extension office to connect with master gardeners and tap into a wealth of resources that can help you achieve gardening success. To learn more about the program or how to become a Master Gardener, visit www.mastergardener.wsu.edu/get-involved.

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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by guests of this podcast are their own and do not imply endorsement by Washington State University or the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.