New book aims to help protect our native bees and butterflies and reconnect people to the natural world
Scott Black
Attracting native pollinators
New book aims to help protect our native bees and butterflies and reconnect people to the natural world
7:20 AM EDT, April 21, 2011
A tomato blossom attracts a yellow-faced bumble bee. (Courtesy Mace Vaughan / April 21, 2011)
dailypress.com/features/family/home-garden/sc-home-0418-garden-pollinators.-20110421,0,653849.story
The troubled lives of honeybees get a lot of media
attention.
Yet, many other pollinators are in serious trouble, according to Eric Mader, assistant
pollinator program director with The Xerces Society for Invertebrate
Conservation.
"In some cases, their fates are potentially worse," he says.
"For example, a number of our roughly 50 native bumblebee species are in
precipitous decline, with a couple of species likely having gone extinct in
recent years, and a few other possibly teetering on the brink of extinction.
"Similarly, the once ubiquitous monarch butterfly has declined to some of
the lowest population levels ever documented since scientists first began
tracking their numbers in the 1970s.
"While the monarch butterfly is not going to become extinct anytime soon,
the mass annual migration of monarchs across North America is dwindling, and
leaving our experience of the natural world poorer as a consequence."
These alarming declines in pollinators motivated the society, founded in 1971
and named after the extinct Xerces blue butterfly, to author the just-released
book, "Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America's Bees and
Butterflies." The 384-page, softback book features chapters that cover why
you should care about pollinators, biology of pollination, threats to
pollinators and how you can help pollinators.
"The book, while ostensibly 'about native pollinators' is really a vehicle
intended to reconnect people to the greater ecology of the world around
them," says Mader.
Which is why it's written in an easy-to-read manner for everyday people. Simple
garden designs are outlined for residential gardens, school and office sites,
roadside plantings, riparian buffers and field-like habitats. Its many
full-color photographs and illustrations offer appeal to schoolage children.
Chapters in the back of the book profile native pollen and nectar plants for
all planting regions and suggest host plants for the caterpillars that morph
into butterflies.
Why care about pollinators?
Even if you have no green thumb, these tiny creatures have a profound impact on
your daily life because more than a third of our food supply relies on the plants
they pollinate.
"We all eat food produced by pollinators, whether it is insect-pollinated
fruits or vegetables, or even meat or dairy products produced by animals that
are fed insect-pollinated forage crops like alfalfa or clover," says
Mader.
"Pollinators contribute to higher cotton yields, which impact the prices
of our clothing, and pollinators produce a number of oilseed crops like canola,
which are increasingly being used for energy."
Importantly, pollinators are also central to biodiversity of the natural world
by helping native plants reproduce, producing fruits and seeds that feed other
wildlife such as songbirds and grizzly bears.
Important little-known pollinator?
Our roughly 4,000 species of native bees, as a group, are overlooked, according
to Mader. Many people assume the honeybee is native to North America, but, in
fact, it was first imported by Europeans in the 1600s.
"Our native bees represent an amazing diversity of species," he says.
"They range from large bumblebees that form social colonies of a single
queen and her daughter-workers, to tiny metallic blue or green sweat bees that
excavate nests in the ground and live solitary lives, laying few eggs on a
pollen provision and not living long enough to see their offspring hatch."
These native bees have complex life cycles. Some nest inside snail shells, some
construct elaborate origami-like nests out of carefully folded leaf pieces.
And, they have cozy relationships with specific native plants, emerging for
only a few weeks each year when their preferred wildlife blooms.
And, contrary to popular belief, most of our native bees are gentle creatures
that do not sting.
"If fact, a number of our native bees have stingers too weak to even
penetrate human skin," he says.
How you can help pollinators?
Pollinators thrive in landscapes with weedy, slightly overgrown gardens and big
spreading patches of wildflowers.
No yard or farm? You help pollinators when you plant wildflowers in containers
on a small balcony.
"Pollinator conservation in some settings can be as simple as putting away
the mower and planting wildflowers in your lawn," says Mader.
"Especially if you include a diversity of native flowering plants in your
landscape so there is a succession of different species blooming throughout the
year. By including a diversity of native flowering plants, you also support a
diversity of different types of pollinators.
"Aside from flowers, pollinators need refuge from pesticides, and messy
areas of twigs, brush piles, stones and other natural shelter to lay their eggs
and to spend the winter."
Pollinator pointers
No matter where you live, the common denominators to pollinator
conservation are simple, according to The Xerces Society:
•Plant flowers, lots of them.
•Use as many native plant species as possible.
•Don't use pesticides.
About the book
•"Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America's Bees
and Butterflies," a guide by The Xerces Society, looks into the world of
pollinators, including bees, wasps, flies, beetles, butterflies and moths. The
384-page softback book highlights the roles of these insects in home gardens,
farms, parks and natural areas. Included are regional lists of bee-friendly
wildflowers, advice on building nests and plans for pollinator gardens, meadows
and other landscapes. $29.95; Storey Publishing, Storey.com.
Help the bees
Are you ready to help the bees? The Xerces Society has three online
resources that enable you to take the next step:
•Pollinator Seed Store, where you buy regional wildflower seed
mixes that provide season-long blooms on pollinator-friendly plants; mixes are
locally produced in their respective regions by independent farmers —
xerces.org/pollinator-seed.
•Pollinator Conservation Resources Center, where you find
additional information to help protect pollinators —
xerces.org/pollinator-resource-center.
•Great Sunflower Project, encourages all ages, preschoolers to
scientists, to plant a sunflower and count how many bees visit in 15 minutes
— greatsunflower.org.
Copyright © 2011, Newport News, Va., Daily Press
_______
Scott Hoffman Black
Executive Director
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
Chair
IUCN Butterfly Specialist Group
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
1971 – 2011: Forty Years of Conservation!
4828 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97215, USA
Tel: (503) 232-6639
Toll free: 1-855-232-6639
Cell: (503) 449-3792
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.
To join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work, please visit www.xerces.org.
NEW BOOK NOW AVAILABLE:
Attracting Native Pollinators. Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies