On Saturday, April 2, Boorowa Community Landcare Group hosted Megan Halcroft from Bees Business to speak at Boorowa Ex-Services Club about Native Bees and their habitat.
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It was a very successful event with over 30 attending from Boorowa, Young and extending to neighboring Landcare groups in Gunning, Yass and Breadalbane.
Megan opened the day with discussion about the importance of bees in our environment and how most native bees are solitary and do not produce honey but are very important pollinators.
Bees drive biodiversity through pollination, as pollination enables seed formation and fruit development.
Bees are important pollinators of many food crops such as vegetables, berries, nuts, coffee and more.
Very simply - No bees, No food!
Sadly our bee populations are declining.
As we clear land for urban development, remove plants and use pesticides we can cause bee population losses.
The workshop group then moved to local gardens in Boorowa to observe what habitats for native bees look like and what is the best way to attract bees to your garden.
The best way to attract bees to your garden is to have patches of flowers - the greater variety of flower, the greater the diversity of bee you will attract.
Make sure you plant a variety of different species so that there are flowers all year round.
We can also provide additional nesting habitat that are similar to their natural ones.
Megan had many samples on display and talked about how to create these very simply from bundles of hardwood, bamboo and rammed earth blocks.
The garden walk with sweep nets resulted in a number of insect samples being collected and chilled for viewing and identification before being released back into their habitat.
The group was engaged and attentive and some pleasantly surprised by the species identified by Megan in our backyards.
Boorowa Community Landcare group thanks Megan Halcroft for coming to Boorowa to present the day and also South East Local Land Services for supporting the event with funding.
BCLG also thanks those who attended the event and ask you to look out for follow up events as Bees are essential members of our environment and it's great that our community has embraced the cause of the world's bees and insect pollinators.
Boorowa Landcare group's next event in the district is a Grazing Field Day at Tony and Jenny Magee's at Rye park this Saturday, April 16 from 9am - 3.30pm.
Dr Dean Revell from Revell Science is going to present key findings from his Enrich project, considering the nutritive value of forage shrubs.
This can reduce risk in variable climates and help to fill feed gaps.
Ben Hanrahan from Greening Australia will be speaking about Whole of Paddock Rehabilitation, suitability of sites and funding available.
Paul Cavanagh from BCLG will talk about grazing principles and fencing and the afternoon session will include species identification, site design and assessing pasture availability.
The Field day is free to BCLG members, $10 for non-members (includes individual membership for 2016).
To RSVP to this event, please contact Landcare co-ordinator Linda Cavanagh on 0459 681 018 or email landcare@boorowa.net
