Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Don’t Forget Butterflies! Our Pollination Crisis Is About More Than Honeybees

I planted a lantana last year, and butterflies loved it. It died after our crazy winter, so I planted two this year, different colors. I planted a lemon balm last year, which is supposed to be good for the bees. It's flowering profusely. My maypop/passion flower vines are blooming. So far this year, I haven't seen any pollinators, but hope they show up.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/25/3447062/pollination-crisis-honeybees/

BY KATIE VALENTINE JUNE 25, 2014

When President Obama signed an order last week creating a task force that will seek to promote pollinator health, honeybees grabbed the headlines.

“Obama announces plan to save honeybees,” CNN proclaimed. “White House creates new honeybee task force,” the Wire echoed. “White House task force charged with saving bees from mysterious decline,” the Guardian added, referencing the colony collapse disorder that contributed to the death of 23 percent of managed honeybees last winter.

But those headlines overlooked the most important part of the presidential order: it encompassed all pollinators, including birds, bats, native bees, and butterflies — not just honeybees. The memorandum will spur the creation, within the next 180 days, of a National Pollinator Health Strategy that will lay out ways for the U.S. to better study and better tackle the problems facing pollinators, both wild and managed. While the plight of bees has gotten deserved attention of late, many species of pollinators face the same threats: habitat destruction, climate-induced changes in flowering and weather patterns, and in some cases, pesticides.

Wayne Esaias, director of NASA’s HoneyBee Net, said that while his work involves using honeybee hives to track changes in nectar flow over time to see how climate change is impacting honeybees, the problems wild pollinators face worry him more than the plight of managed honeybees.

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So far, Black said, farmers have completed 120,000 acres of pro-pollinator habitat projects, and the pollinator clause made it in to the 2013 farm bill, too. Obama’s pollinator memorandum also singles out improving and enhancing pollinator habitat as a key area of focus, ordering agencies to, among other things, factor in pollinator habitat to restoration work and mandating that the Environmental Protection Agency “assess the effect of pesticides” on pollinators.

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The good thing about pollinator conservation, according to Black, is that while it’s going to take a lot more research and a lot of political will to protect the habitats pollinators depend on and to curb the climate change that’s impacting all creatures, people can help pollinators very easily themselves — and not just by sending a check to a pollinator-friendly organization. Planting flowering plants (ideally organic, so that the seeds haven’t been exposed to pesticides that can harm pollinators) and using natural forms of pest control in a garden (by doing things like attracting aphid-eating ladybugs to a vegetable garden) can help pollinators find safe food sources, which can help populations overall.

“It does not matter if you’re a farmer, whether you manage a park or wildlife area, or whether you have a tiny backyard, you can do something for pollinators,” Black said. “This is all around us and we can all take action.”

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