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<b>The Bug Guy: Portland insect pro puts creepy crawlies in a positive
light<br><br>
</b>
<a href="http://www.tdn.com/articles/2008/05/09/this_day/doc4823ab8d567a0617131469.txt" eudora="autourl">
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2008/05/09/this_day/doc4823ab8d567a0617131469.txt<br>
</a><i>By <a href="mailto:tpaulu@tdn.com">Tom Paulu</a></i> <br><br>
For Scott Hoffman Black, there’s one good thing about the crash in
honeybees the issue has gotten a lot of media buzz.<br><br>
“The silver lining with the honeybee’s collapse disorder is people are
starting to realize what pollinates their foods,” he said.<br><br>
Black, 47, is the executive director of the Xerces Society, a
Portland-based organization devoted to conservation of invertebrates
(animals without backbones) and their habitat.<br><br>
Last week, in a talk co-sponsored by Lower Columbia College and the
Willapa Hills Audubon Society, Black stressed “how important insects are
for everything you do. Your life would not be the same without
them.”<br><br>
<img src="cid:7.1.0.9.0.20080510084413.01c377a0@xerces.org.1" width=350 height=283 alt="[]">
<br>
<i>Scott Hoffman Black stresses the need to protect insects during a
presentation at Lower Columbia College last week. Bill Wagner / The Daily
News <br><br>
</i>Consider the facts:<br><br>
• Invertebrates contribute to the economy in a big way. “Insects alone
are worth $57 billion a year,” Black said. Of that, a $50-billion-a-year
recreation industry is based on fish and game birds that in turn rely on
insects. And insect pollination supports $3 billion annually in
agricultural crops.<br><br>
• More than two-thirds of flowering plants require insects for
pollination. And in a less sweet-smelling job, “Insects are the great
recycler,” he added, decomposing 90 percent of human and animal
wastes.<br><br>
• Out of the more than one million species of animals in the world, 94
percent are invertebrates. In one 24-mile-square area in Oregon, 3,400
different insect species were documented.<br><br>
They play pivotal roles in nearly every food chain. “Ninety-eight percent
of birds need insects at some point in their life cycle,” Black said.
Midges are the most important food source for juvenile salmon. Even the
mighty grizzly bear can eat 20,000 cutworm moths a day.<br><br>
Despite insects’ importance, he acknowledged that “some of these species
are not very charismatic.<br><br>
“Everyone has heard of the Bengal tiger,” Black said. “Not many people
have heard of the Siuslaw hairy-necked tiger beetle.” That beetle, which
once lived along most of the Oregon and Washington coasts, is now found
at just two sites.<br><br>
With his lean physique and closely cropped hair, the earnest Black fits
the stereotype of a wrestling coach better than that of a bug chaser. He
wears a belt with a huge silver buckle and does indeed carry an insect
net in the back of his Subaru wagon.<br><br>
Black, a native of Nebraska, worked on oil rigs and as a logger before
getting degrees in plant science, ecology and entomology (the study of
insects) from Colorado State University. “Insects are a passion of mine,”
he said.<br><br>
Since 2000, Black has worked for the Xerces Society, which has a staff of
11. The organization was started 37 years ago by Robert Michael Pyle, a
Gray’s River author and naturalist. The society is named after the Xerces
blue, the first butterfly known to go extinct in the United States
because of human activity.<br><br>
“We’ll work on anything without a backbone except for politicians,”
Black quipped.<br><br>
<b>Build a bee box<br><br>
</b>These days, Black spends a lot of time talking about disappearing
honeybees. Since 2006, honeybee colonies in the United States have been
suffering from a widespread phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder
(CCD), in which adult worker bees abandon an otherwise-healthy hive.
Black said a virus may be to blame; not cell phone transmission as one
widely disseminated rumor claims.<br><br>
Honeybees were introduced from Europe and became popular for crop
pollination because they’re easy to transport, he said. But it’s
dangerous to rely on a single species for pollination, Black pointed
out.<br><br>
One way to partially compensate for the loss of honeybees is by helping
support the health of the 4,000 species of native bees in the United
States.<br><br>
<img src="cid:7.1.0.9.0.20080510084413.01c377a0@xerces.org.2" width=350 height=205 alt="[]">
<br><br>
<i>Black says a bee house like this one is guaranteed to attract bees.
<a href="mailto:tpaulu@tdn.com">Tom Paulu</a> / The Daily News<br><br>
</i>On Sauvie Island, the Xerces Society has been involved in planting a
hedge row of native plants favored by native bees. The different species
of plants support pollinating bees all summer long.<br><br>
A simple way to help native bees is to build bee houses, which from a
distance look like bird houses. They’re actually solid blocks of wood
drilled with several sizes of holes that bees can use for nesting. Put
one up and within a few weeks, you’ll have native bees, Black
promised.<br><br>
“As a homeowner, you can provide habitat for a number of invertebrates,”
Black said. For one thing, “all of us can just say no to pesticides.
There is no need to use pesticides on your lawn.”<br><br>
Black said insects are getting more respect than in past years. Two weeks
from now, he’s scheduled to testify before the U.S. House of
Representatives Natural Resources Committee about the importance of
insects.<br><br>
“Twenty years ago, even wildlife managers wouldn’t think about insects,”
he said. “Now I get invited to Washington, D.C. to talk about
insects.”<br><br>
<b>More information<br>
</b>The Xerces Society publishes a number of free books and brochures to
help farmers, land managers and city dwellers improve habitat for native
bees and other insects. For more information, contact the group: The
Xerces Society, 4828 S.E. Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland OR 97215, (503)
232-6639. <a href="http://www.xerces.org">www.xerces.org</a>
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*************************<br>
Scott Hoffman Black<br>
Ecologist/Entomologist<br>
Executive Director<br>
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation<br>
4828 SE Hawthorne <br>
Portland, OR 97215 <br>
Direct line (503) 449-3792<br>
sblack@xerces.org<br><br>
<i>The Xerces Society is an international, nonprofit organization that
protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their
habitat. <br>
</i> <br>
To join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work, <br>
please visit
<a href="http://www.xerces.org/">www.xerces.org</a>.<br><br>
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