Gardening for Native Pollinators in the Central Valley

By Amy Weiser and Doug Weiser

This presentation will discuss gardening for native pollinators.  When we bought our current house in Stockton, we had a strong interest in fruit and vegetable gardening.  As a result, we became very interested in encouraging pollinators to increase the yield from our small suburban yard.  We converted our front yard into a native garden to attract pollinators, and we have been involved in similar projects at the University of the Pacific and John McCandless Charter School (Swain Campus).  In this talk, we will discuss the ecology and benefits of native pollinators, including butterflies, native bees, and hummingbirds.  We will also discuss simple gardening strategies that you can use on your property to provide invaluable habitat for native pollinators.

Doug Weiser has been a professor of Biology at the University of the Pacific since 2009. He got a Bachelor in Chemistry from the College of Wooster in Ohio and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Duke University.  His research focuses on genes involved in stress response pathways and apoptosis using zebrafish as a model organism.  He teaches a variety of classes at UOP including general biology, genetics, biochemistry, pharmacology, cell biology, cancer biology, and molecular biology.

 Amy Weiser has been teaching AP Environmental Science and Biology at Lincoln High since 2017. She has also taught sixth and fourth grade. In addition, Amy has worked as a wildlife biologist for the California Audubon Workinglands Group conducting Tricolored Blackbirds population counts and shorebird studies in the Grasslands near Merced. Amy also worked for 9 years as an environmental consultant on Avian Mortality studies on the Altamont Wind Resource Area. Amy taught outdoor education at Micke Grove zoo, Tulare County Outdoor Education, Mission Springs in Santa Cruz, Point Reyes Summer Science Camp, Camp Arroyo in Livermore, and Anglican Youth Works in the Royal National Park (NSW, Australia).  Amy has a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of California, Davis, and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Literacy from the Teachers College of San Joaquin.