[Pollinator] Canadian Press about January 18-19 Pollinator Meeting

[Ladadams at aol.com]

Thanks to Faisal Moola of the David Suzuki Foundation for sending this to us 
for the LISTSERV.   

In addition, all of the presentations from last week's highly successful 
Canadian meeting are on www.nappc.org  website thanks to new CoE/NAPPC staff 
member Kat McGuire. 
Decline of bees and other pollinators raises concern for food supply 
 
Dennis Bueckert
Canadian Press


Friday, January 19, 2007
OTTAWA (CP) - The decline of bee populations in Europe and North America has 
raised alarm about pollinators that fertilize crops essential for the human 
food supply. 
Experts are calling for measures to protect pollinators of all kinds, 
including not only bees, both managed and wild, but birds, bats, flies and even 
beetles. 
They say people should become much more tolerant of plant species that are 
currently viewed as weeds, which can be vital to pollinators' survival. 
"Pollinator declines and pollination deficits are now being reported for 
North America and may signal a threat to ecosystem and agricultural productivity," 
says a paper by University of Guelph ecologist Vernon Thomas. 
The paper was presented this week in Ottawa at the first Canadian meeting of 
the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign. 
A report by the U.S. National Academy of Science last year said long-term 
population trends for several wild bee species, notably bumble bees, some 
butterflies, bats and hummingbirds are "demonstrably downward." 
But there is virtually no population data on many pollinating insects, the 
report says. 
Protecting pollinators requires a continent-wide approach because they don't 
respect national borders, said Charles Caccia, senior fellow at the Ottawa 
University Institute of the Environment. 
Caccia has been instrumental in launching the Canadian Pollinator Protection 
Initiative, modelled on a similar U.S. campaign. 
Threats to pollinators include pesticides, climate change, habitat 
destruction, invasive species and human indifference. 
Farmers and others should be less zealous about eliminating weeds around the 
boundaries of farmland, in ditches or utility rights of way, experts say. 
"It's actually these kind of scruffy areas that pollinators like," said 
Laurie Davies Adams, executive director of the Washington-based CoEvolution 
Institute. 
Government regulations that discourage the growth of certain types of plants, 
such milkweed, can also be a problem. 
Gardeners can play a useful role by creating habitat for pollinators, Adams 
said. 
"What we want is for everyday people to look at their gardens and say, do you 
want just a static stage that is an empty theatre or do you want actors to 
come in and have this interaction?" 
Faisal Moola, a biologist with the David Suzuki Foundation, stressed the 
importance of protecting a wide variety of plants. 
"Very few pollinators are specialists; most are generalists. Consequently 
they depend on a full range and diversity of plants. 
"Keep in mind that many flowers have particular blooming periods. You need to 
have an availability of floral resources right through the lifespan of that 
insect." 
Faisal Moola, PhD

Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Coevolution Institute
423 Washington St. 5th
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137
LDA at coevolution.org
http://www.coevolution.org/
http://www.pollinator.org/
http://www.nappc.org/

Bee Ready for National Pollinator Week:  June 24-30, 2007.  Contact us 
for more information at www.pollinator.org 

Our future flies on the wings of pollinators.
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