David Davis, who serves as the Agriculture Extension Agent and CED with NC Cooperative Extension in Yancey County, will talk about pesticides and the state and county programs to promote and protect pollinators. The meeting is slated for Tuesday, July 23, and is open to the public. It will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the the Trinity Episcopal Church, 15 Hemlock St., Spruce Pine, NC 28777.

Davis will give a pesticide program update where he will share the county’s  educational efforts to protect pollinators, and provide updates regarding services offered to beekeepers, such as farm registration programs Bee Watch, Drift Watch, and Field Watch. These programs are designed to provide better communication between farmers and beekeepers, in an effort to reduce bee kills and injuries following pesticide applications.

Davis has been a long time advocate of beekeeping and the promotion of beneficial pollinators. In previous years, Davis assisted in organizing and conducting the Eastern Bluegrass Bee School, and assisting in various other bee keeping educational programs when he served as the Agriculture Extension Agent in Winchester, Kentucky.

In his current role, Davis serves beekeepers in Yancey County. He also conducts educational programs focused in agriculture, commercial horticulture, home and consumer horticulture, and livestock production. These programs promote practices for the safe use of pesticides by farmers and homeowners, the use of IPM practices to minimize the use of pesticides, and proper disposal of pesticides to avoid environmental damage.