Pollinators are on lots of minds nowadays. Good thing if you like to eat. Or if you're just into watching butterflies flutter by and hope your grandchildren will too. Lots of things are going on locally with the push to protect pollinators.

1. Reason to Celebrate:

A new law, Nursery Label/Pollinator Statute, Minnesota 18H.14 has gone into effect. In short it says that,

A person may not label or advertise a plant as beneficial to pollinators if the annual plant, bedding plant, plant material, or nursery stock has been treated with and has a detectable level of systemic insecticide that:

(1) has a pollinator protection box on the label; or

(2) has a pollinator, bee, or honey bee precautionary statement in the environmental hazards section of the insecticide product label.

You can find the details here. http://www.mda.state.mn.us/labelfactsheet

2. More to learn:

Pollinators and Pesticides: A 360 Degree Perspective will take place August 5 from 8:30am-4pm at the Wilder Center, 451 Lexington Parkway North, St Paul MN

This event is put on by the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association to disseminate information from a number of experts and perspectives so that you can make informed choices around pollinators and pesticides.

Registration is open until 8/4/14. For more detail check here http://www.mnla.biz/events/event_details.asp?id=443489

3. Participate in #pollin8rchat:

I'm hosting a weekly Twitter chat that hopes to help people celebrate and collaborate for pollinators. Whether you're a beekeeper, backyard naturalist or concerned gardener, we'd love to hear from you. This week's subject will be on Monarch butterflies. It's on Tuesday nights at 8PM CT. Search out the hashtag #pollin8rchat and follow along. Email me from my blog if you have questions.