New poster offers tips to enhance beneficial bee habitat

[HD]

News Releases
New poster offers tips to enhance beneficial bee habitat
(Released June 7, 2010)


A new poster highlighting the critical importance of bees and butterflies and pointing out ways in which landowners can enhance pollinator habitat is now available from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

The poster, a cooperative project between the DNR Roadsides for Wildlife Program and the Xerces Society, is available for free by contacting the DNR Information Center at 651-296-6157, toll-free 888-646-6367 or online. The Xerces Society is a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat

Although the poster targets roadsides, the best practices apply to any landscape where prairie wildflowers are appropriate. The poster offers tips for helping bees and butterflies by improving bee nesting habitat, nectar and pollen resources.

Plant pollination by insects is an essential ecosystem service. Common foods requiring pollination includes: tomatoes, peppers, blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, apples, melons, sunflowers, pumpkins, plums, squash, and canola. Bumblebees pollinate some plants better than honeybees resulting in larger and more abundant fruit. Eighty-seven of the world’s 124 most commonly cultivated crops are insect/animal pollinated. Between 60 and 80 percent of the world’s 250,000 flowering plants depend on animals for pollination.

In the United States, the National Research Council reported in 2007 noteworthy losses of both managed and wild pollinators. Habitat loss, pesticide use, diseases, parasites and the spread of invasive species are the major causes of pollinator decline. Threats to pollinator communities affect not only pollinators themselves but also natural ecosystems and agricultural productivity.

Much of the information on the poster is based on research by Jennifer Hopwood of the Xerces Society. Hopwood’s research shows that roadsides with native plants host 35 percent more bee species and twice as many bees as roadsides dominated by nonnative plants. The width of the roadside and proximity to traffic does not matter to bees.

Key design factors and practices to enhance bee habitat around farms, gardens or roadsides include:

Increasing flower diversity.
Using native wildflowers and grasses, with high densities of flowers.
Planting a minimum of three blooming plant species during each season.
Aiming for season-long blooming plants, early and late season blooming plants are especially important.
Planting a range of wildflowers of varying colors and shapes. Bees mainly visit blue, white, yellow, and purple flowers.
Planting flowers in single species clumps for best results.
Providing nest sites.
Providing warm season, clump-forming grasses for bumble bee nest sites.
Having a mix of forbs and shrubs.
Delaying mowing or haying entire grassy meadows or roadsides, leaving some habitat for pollinators.
Conserving habitat for rabbit burrows and groundhog burrows for bee nesting sites.
Reducing tillage and avoiding plastic sheeting for ground nesting bees.
Reducing the impact of mowing and spraying.
Avoiding intensive mowing or grazing that impacts abundance of bees.
Avoiding or minimizing the use of insecticides.
The 2008 Farm Bill has pollinator conservation ranked high in the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) scoring system. A new NRCS Publication called “Using the Farm Bill Program for Pollinator Conservation” is available online.