<html>
<body>
<a href="http://capitalpress.com">
<img src="http://www.capitalpress.info/masthead/CP Web header Ver 2.jpg" width=980 height=120 alt="[]">
<br><br>
<font face="ARIAL" size=1 color="#606060"><b>Friday, May 09,
2008<br><br>
</font><font face="ARIAL">Welcome mat for bees<br>
</b></font><font face="ARIAL" size=2><i>Nonprofit group leads way in
helping to develop habitat<br><br>
</i></font><font face="ARIAL" size=1><b>Mateusz Perkowski<br>
</b></font><font face="ARIAL" size=2>Capital Press<br><br>
</font><font face="ARIAL" size=1 color="#606060"><b>Friday, May 09,
2008<br><br>
</b></font>
<img src="http://www.capitalpress.info/SiteImages/Article/41452a.jpg" width=200 height=138 alt="[]">
</b><br>
Matthew Shepherd, conservationist with the Xerces Society, studies a
longhorn bee at Omeg Orchards in The Dalles, Ore. Like honeybees, native
pollinators have been afflicted by disease as well as habitat loss. The
Xerces Society encourages growers to preserve and enhance habitat on
their farms.<br>
<img src="http://www.capitalpress.info/image/cleardot.gif" width=200 height=10 alt="[]">
<br>
<img src="http://www.capitalpress.info/SiteImages/Article/41452b.jpg" width=200 height=298 alt="[]">
<br>
Mace Vaughan, conservation director for the Xerces Society, examines a
native bee found near an orchard in The Dalles, Ore. Native pollinators
have been found to boost yields in several crops.<br>
<font face="ARIAL" size=2>THE DALLES, Ore. - It couldn't have been a nice
way to wake up on a cold spring day.<br><br>
After an entomologist dug it up from its comfy underground home
overlooking a cherry orchard, the longhorn bee was placed in a tiny glass
vial and passed among a crowd of curious onlookers.<br><br>
To the orchardists, university extension agents and others in attendance,
the sleepy insect was proof that a patch of bare soil on a scraggly
hillside could serve a worthwhile purpose: as a home for native
pollinators.<br><br>
"There's all sorts of different places where you can squeeze habitat
in," said Matthew Shepherd, conservationist with the Xerces Society,
a nonprofit invertebrate preservation group that is organizing a series
of native pollinator workshops in Oregon.<br><br>
The problems plaguing commercial honeybees have attracted a lot of
attention since late 2006, when roughly one-fourth of U.S. beekeepers
lost about 45 percent of their hives, he said.<br><br>
Mites, protozoan parasites and the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder
threaten honeybees - and thus crop pollination - but native species, like
several types of bumblebees, are also in trouble, said Shepherd.<br><br>
Diminished habitat, disease, improper pesticide use and other factors
have reduced the populations of such native pollinators, according to the
Xerces Society.<br><br>
This is bad news for pollinator-dependent farmers, since native species
can greatly improve crop production, said Shepherd. Each year they
contribute about $3 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the Xerces
Society.<br><br>
Studies on sunflowers and cherry tomatoes, for example, have linked
native pollinators with a doubling and tripling in yields, respectively,
he said.<br><br>
Native pollinators are unlikely ever to replace commercial hives, but
they can obviously be a useful supplement, said Shepherd. As demonstrated
in sunflowers, their presence during pollination compels honeybees to fly
among a larger number of flowers instead of lingering amid just a few, he
said.<br><br>
"The native bees kept the honeybees moving," Shepherd
said.<br><br>
Whereas honeybees might not venture from the hive in cooler temperatures,
native pollinators are more apt to collect pollen and nectar in spite of
the weather because they don't have a honey supply to fall back on, he
said.<br><br>
"If they don't go out during the day, they go hungry," Shepherd
said.<br><br>
Farmers also stand to benefit from the lack of rental fees for native
pollinators, although they should be under no illusion that the insects
are free, he said. <br><br>
To entice native bees to visit their fields, growers need to create
habitats where the insects can live and feed, even when no crops are in
bloom, Shepherd said.<br><br>
In California watermelon fields, growers were able to achieve full
pollination without honeybees if they left roughly one-third of the crop
field's vicinity in natural habitat, he said.<br><br>
About two-thirds of the 4,000 native pollinator species in North America
nest underground, while the rest live in wood snags, Shepherd said.
<br><br>
Before growers set out to create habitat, though, they should first
identify what native species already exist on their farms, he said. Then
they should adopt practices that prevent harm to insects, such as not
spraying when plants are in bloom, he said.<br><br>
When designing a habitat, it pays to remember that not all flowering
plants are created equal, said Mike Omeg, general manager of Omeg
Orchards, where a Xerces Society pollinator workshop was recently held in
The Dalles, Ore.<br><br>
Though some plants will attract beneficial predatory insects, others will
harbor pests, so varieties should be chosen carefully, he said. "You
need to be clever about how you do it."<br><br>
Other practical challenges need to be considered as well, which is why
growers should start out small when creating habitat, Omeg said.
"I'm taking baby steps because I don't want to make expensive
mistakes."<br><br>
For example, Omeg hasn't had luck with pollinator-friendly plants between
the rows of his cherry orchards: They seldom withstand heavy machinery,
he said.<br><br>
Instead, he is planting cat mint in recycled fruit bins, which allows him
to transport the plants throughout the orchards as necessary. Omeg is
also planting and irrigating a one-acre parcel adjacent to his orchards
to specifically serve as an "insectary."<br><br>
Sometimes, however, developing pollinator habitat is a matter of what
growers don't do, said Paul Jepson, environmental and molecular
toxicology professor at Oregon State University.<br><br>
Farmers can simply avoid cultivating "scab" areas, like the
scraggly hillside above Omeg's orchard where the longhorn bee was dug up
and eventually returned, he said.<br><br>
"It doesn't have to be a perfectly manicured and engineered to be
good habitat," said Jepson. <br><br>
Staff writer Mateusz Perkowski is based in Salem, Ore. E-mail:
mperkowski@capitalpress.com.<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
*************************<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>
<br>
</body>
</html>