Program looks at aiding bees, helping yards

WHAT: Progam, “Attracting Pollinators to Our Yards”

WHEN: Feb. 21from 9:30to 11 a.m.

WHERE: Marbletown Community Center, 3564Main St. (Route 209), Stone Ridg

DETAILS: The presentation is hosted by the Town of Marbletown Environmental Conservation Commission. It will include a short film screening of MacArthur Genius Award winner and University of Minnesota entomologist Dr. Marla Spivak’s “Why Bees are Disappearing,” followed by a short presentations and a question-and-answer session with a panel of local experts. The presentations will look into the unprecedented losses of bee species, which pollinate-one third of the food on U.S. tables, and the 90percent decline in U.S. bonarch butterfly population since the mid-1990s. The panel will present several interesting, inexpensive and cost-saving yard upgrade strategies that will allow people to become part of the solution while enhancing their yard’s beauty and serenity. The panel will also provide guidance about the effect of people’s purchasing decisions at the supermarket. Presenters will include Megan Denver and Jorik Phillips, beekeeping teachers and owners of Hudson Valley Bee Supply; Maraleen ManosJones, monarch butterfly expert, environmental activist, author, gardener, educator and master gardener; and Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Elisa Amster Ross.

CONTACT: (845) 687-0410.