While World Bee Day was originally set up to celebrate the vital role Western honey bees have in both honey production and agricultural pollination services, we extend that celebratory mood to include all the native bee species all over the globe! Here in North America, that includes around 4,000 species of native bees, and if you’ve got a flower blooming someplace near you, I guarantee one of those bees will be buzzing around there sometime soon!
Scientists have noted, however, that many of our most important insect pollinator species have been in decline over the past couple of decades, with bees apparently being hit the hardest. Habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation top the list, but indiscriminate use of pesticides and herbicides, the spread of parasites and diseases, and the bundle of significant threats posed by a rapidly changing climate all have contributed to this decline.
Lepidopterist and author Robert Michael Pyle reminds us that in most cases today, “extinctions happen one backyard at a time”. To me that suggests that preventing extinctions can and should not only take place in our backyards, but as Douglas Talamy suggests, in our front yards as well, where our conservation values are on display for others in our community to see and hopefully emulate. And that goes for our neighborhood parks, the gardens and open space around our apartment buildings and workplaces, and particularly in and around our community gardens, where pollinators are critical to the successful production of the vegetables and fruits we grow.

Here’s a short list of ways to help out bees:
• Convert grassy lawns into diverse natural habitats, primarily by planting species native to your particular ecoregion.
• Planting plants native to your specific region and natural local ecosystem. Learn about which plants are native to your region using this resource from Pollinator Partnership Planting Guides | https://www.pollinator.org/guides or here: https://www.nwf.org/nativeplantfinder/
• Include a patch of native wildflowers in community garden spaces – they’ll help everyone’s crops thrive! Learn about an inspiring effort “Power of the Pollinators” - https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/65349, featuring a wonderful short video: https://youtu.be/eDxZojp9yNg
• Reduce pesticide and herbicide use. See Organic Practices: https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/Sustainability/Organic-Practices?_ga=2.20518648.1179853802.1650557397-1600761744.1650557397
• Keep the dried stems and flowerheads intact through the fall, winter and into the spring. Many species of bees and other pollinators have larval forms that overwinter inside those hollow stems!
• Set up “bee houses” for mason and carpenter bees How to Build a DIY Bee House the Right Way: https://www.thespruce.com/build-a-diy-bee-house-5112611

And another way you can help scientists better understand how bees and other pollinators are responding to both threats and conservation efforts is to keep contributing those observations to Earthwatch’s Global Pollinator Watch Project – hosted here on the iNaturalist platform. This project taps into the power of citizen scientists around the globe by asking you to collect observations of pollinators in your communities and share them with our team of scientists.

beethechange #beekind #beepollinatorfriendly #beewilder #globalpollinatorwatch #worldbeeday #pollinators

Publicado el 20 de mayo de 2022 a las 02:40 PM por srullman