Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

> BEES ON THEIR KNEES, GARDENERS TO THE RESCUE
>
> A world without bees is a world without chocolate
> UC professor says urban gardeners could save
> California's native bee population and avert an
> ecological catastrophe
>
> Alison Rood, Special to The Chronicle
> Saturday, March 3, 2007
>
> When Professor Gordon Frankie wants to impress
> schoolchildren with the importance of bees, he lays
> out an array of foods such as berries, grapes, pears
> and chocolate alongside a couple of dried-out
> tortillas and rice cakes and asks them which foods
> they prefer.
>
> "Invariably the kids go for the fruits and chocolate,"
> he said. "Then I tell them: In a world without bees,
> the only choice they'd have would be the dried-out
> tortillas or rice cakes, since wheat and rice are
> self-pollinated. Even chocolate, from the cacao plant,
> depends on the pollination of bees. That gets their
> attention."
>
> Frankie, an entomologist at UC Berkeley and a
> specialist in the behavior of native bees, has been
> the leader of a decadelong urban bee research project.
> By documenting bee diversity and populations in urban
> gardens throughout California, he's discovering which
> flowering plants attract native bees and determining
> whether urban gardens can support bees. He said the
> declining native bee population is comparable to
> global warming in terms of a potential ecological
> catastrophe.
>
> "We're losing our star pollinators," he said, "so it's
> important to try to do something on an individual
> basis. A lot of what people grow now is dependent on
> bees and other invertebrates, but people just don't
> see or know that these insects are providing a lot of
> free services."
>
> There are 1,600 species of native bees in California.
> Native bees, or wild bees, as they are sometimes
> called, have evolved with their native host flowers
> over a long period of time. Honeybees, on the other
> hand, were imported to America from Europe.
>
> In other words, honeybees are an exotic species, but
> native bees, as the name implies, have always been
> here. Native bees also differ from honeybees because
> most are not social and make individual nests rather
> than rely on a colony. Although they don't produce
> honey, native bees pollinate about one-third of our
> vegetable, fruit and nut crops as well as almost all
> of our wildflowers.
>
> Today, suburban developments are replacing wild
> habitats where native bees once thrived. Meanwhile,
> agricultural practices, which often include widespread
> pesticide use and plowing under native plants, have
> been just as destructive. Commercially managed exotic
> honeybee populations aren't faring any better. During
> the past few years pesticides and parasitic mites have
> drastically reduced their numbers.
>
> A report in the Nov. 27, 2006, New York Times
> described the beginning of what bee researchers are
> calling "colony collapse disorder," in which honeybees
> are disappearing, flying off in search of pollen and
> nectar and not returning to their colonies. Beekeepers
> in 24 states have been shocked to discover their bees
> are gone, threatening the pollination of $14 billion
> worth of seeds and crops, the Times said.
>
> The dire circumstances facing our native pollinators
> is the motivation behind Frankie's project. As native
> bees in the wild dwindled, Frankie began documenting
> bee diversity and frequencies in urban environments to
> determine whether urban gardens could support
> reasonable native bee populations.
>
> "We count bees, or rather, we monitor their
> frequencies on flowers by doing three-minute counts on
> patches of flowers that measure 1.5 meters by 1.5
> meters," he said. "These counts are replicated several
> times in order to get an average. We also do the
> counts over a period of years when the variations
> demand it. These frequencies tell us which bee species
> are visiting and at what level -- that is, low, medium
> or high. The frequencies can also be used to compare
> cities and to monitor through time (over years) on
> given plant species."
>
> The details of the procedure can be found on the UC
> Berkeley Web site, which also provides a list of
> bee-friendly plants and offers a guide for building a
> garden in which native bees will flourish. Frankie
> notes that not all bees are interested in all flowers,
> so a variety of flowering plants is necessary to
> encourage visits.
>
> "Instead of planting a garden with only the flowers
> you enjoy, look around at the flowering plants that
> are native to your area. Those are the plants that
> will attract the bees. The bees know what they need,
> and they'll come. If you plant it, they will come," he
> said.
>
> One garden that is doing just that is the Old City
> Cemetery garden in Sacramento.
>
> "The Sacramento cemetery has an incredible variety of
> native bee species and in large numbers," Frankie
> said. "It's one of our best sites in all of
> California."
>
> One of Frankie's favorites is a tiny treasure -- a
> 14-by-14-foot space that the owner has planted with 20
> species of flowering plants in groupings of eight to
> 10 similar plants called "patches."
>
> Frankie emphasizes that planting the same varieties
> together is vital to a successful bee garden; and,
> since native bees are seasonal, it's also important to
> plant flowers that bloom successively over the spring,
> summer and fall.
>
> He mentioned four experimental gardens in the Bay Area
> that boast a healthy number of native bees, including
> the pollinator lab on the Berkeley campus. The three
> others are at Lucas Valley School in Marin County, the
> Randall Museum in San Francisco and the Livermore
> Community Garden. The Berkeley campus garden will be
> showcased May 6 as one of 65 gardens in the Bring Back
> the Natives Garden Tour.
>
> Other public gardens with substantial native bee
> populations include the arboretum at UC Santa Cruz and
> Descanso Gardens in Southern California.
>
> When he's not collecting data in the field or teaching
> conservation and environmental problem-solving in the
> classroom, Frankie strives to enlighten the public
> about the importance of native bees through workshops,
> lectures and outreach programs.
>
> He's also always looking for bees -- even when driving
> through residential neighborhoods. He said he doesn't
> hesitate to pull over if someone's front garden looks
> promising. "People come out of their homes, wondering,
> 'Who is that strange guy snooping around my
> flowerbeds?' "
>
> Focusing attention on the pollinator crisis is also
> the goal of the North American Pollinator Protection
> Campaign, an alliance of conservation and
> environmental groups, private industry, and state and
> federal agencies. Its members hope that by educating
> both the public and policymakers they can stop land
> use practices that harm native bees.
>
> The U.S. Senate has passed a resolution to protect
> pollinators and has designated June 24-30 as National
> Pollinator Week. That month the U.S. Postal Service
> will release a pollination stamp series.
>
> How does providing a safe haven for pollinators in
> urban gardens relate to the larger agricultural
> picture if farmers themselves aren't dedicated to
> attracting native bees?
>
> "Most of our research is designed for urban audiences,
> and we've learned that urbanites like the idea of
> doing some conservation in their own yards," Frankie
> said. "The day may come when even more people want to
> grow urban food, and we'll be able to tell them about
> their pollinator needs. Some of the bee species in
> urban gardens could also be important in the future
> for agricultural crops. In that sense, the urban
> garden environment may be regarded as a kind of
> reservoir for genetic material."
>
> The inspiration to create a bee-friendly garden should
> come as easily to adults as it does to schoolchildren.
> All it takes is imagining a life without fruits and
> vegetables -- and a life without chocolate.
> Resources
>
> Gordon W. Frankie, division of insect biology, 137
> Mulford Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720; (510) 642-0973;
> nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens.
>
> Join a free tour of native-plant gardens in the East
> Bay from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 6. For more
> information, visit www.bringingbackthenatives.net or
> call Kathy Kramer at (510) 236-9558.
>
> North American Pollinator Protection Campaign,
> www.nappc.org; (415) 362-1137.
>
> E-mail comments to home AT sfchronicle.com.
>
> http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/03/HOGIROCUE71.DTL
>
> This article appeared on page F - 1 of the San
> Francisco Chronicle