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<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/27/MNLA11FN5B.DTL<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Un-busy
bees a disaster for almost everyone<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=byline><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a href="mailto:clochhead@sfchronicle.com">Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle
Washington Bureau</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=date><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Friday,
June 27, 2008<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2008/06/27/MNLA11FN5B.DTL&o=0&type=printable"><span
style='text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=64 height=64 id="_x0000_i1025"
src="cid:image001.gif@01C8D837.DD28F930" vspace=1
alt="A special breed of honeybee from Arizona gathers pollen f..."></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><span
id=articlebody>(06-27) 04:00 PDT <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State></span></font></b></strong>
-- Could strawberry ice cream disappear from our lives? What about vanilla
Swiss almond?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The folks
at Haagen-Dazs are worried enough that they and others have mounted a campaign
to halt the shocking decline of honeybees and other pollinators of strawberry
plants, almond trees and the rest of the roughly 90 percent of terrestrial
plant life that needs pollination.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Officials
of the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oakland</st1:place></st1:City>
company told Congress on Thursday that more than 40 percent of its product's
flavors, derived from fruits and nuts, depend on honeybees. Without bees,
fruits and nuts cannot exist.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>As for
whether strawberry, raspberry or almond ice cream could disappear, Haagen-Dazs
brand director Katty Pien said, "We hope not, but that's why there is such
a sense of urgency, so that the millions of people who love our strawberry ice
cream can have it forever."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Honeybees
mysteriously began to abandon their colonies in 2006, destroying about a third
of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
hives. The rate of decline is accelerating, reaching 36 percent last winter.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"How
would our federal government respond if 1 out of every 3 cows was dying?"
Maryann Frazier, a bee expert at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>
of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>, asked
during testimony to the House subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic
Agriculture.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Fruits,
nuts, seeds and many vegetables are the foundation of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>'s $34 billion agricultural
industry, the nation's largest, and the basis of a healthy human diet. About a
third of human food requires pollination. The plants cannot grow without it.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Our
business is simple: No bees, no blueberries," agreed Edward Flanagan,
chief executive of Jasper Wyman & Son, a wild-blueberry grower in <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Maine</st1:place></st1:State>. "Wild
blueberries can't be planted. Not here, not in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Chile</st1:country-region>,
not in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">China</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
...We are very scared at the prospect of no pollinating bees for our fields.
There is no alternative."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h3><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>Baffled
about the cause<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Federal
research dollars are beginning to flow and will jump dramatically with the
newly passed farm bill, but scientists remain baffled about the cause of
pollinator decline. The problem extends not just to the commercialized honeybee
imported from <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> 400 years ago but,
etymologists say, to other native pollinators.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Those
include native bees such as bumblebees that are also showing rapid declines,
plus butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, hummingbirds and bats. Lack of data on
these species hinders measurement.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Scientists
suspect multiple villains: loss of habitat, pesticides that disrupt insect
neurology, combinations of sublethal pesticides, and viruses and parasites.
Frazier said one study of 108 pollen samples revealed 46 pesticides, as many as
17 different pesticides in a single sample. Only three of the samples showed no
pesticide residue.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Another
suspect is large farm monocultures of single crops that create "floral
deserts." The most obvious of these are the 660,000 acres of almond trees
blanketing the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. Miles of almond
trees offer pollinators a single-source diet during one gigantic burst of
bloom, akin to eating nothing but strawberry ice cream for a few weeks,
followed by starvation the rest of the year. Such environments are deadly for
native pollinators and require farmers to import honeybees for pollination. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h3><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>Hostile
environments<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Pollinators
face an increasingly hostile environment elsewhere too, on golf courses, parks,
corporate grounds, school grounds, suburban yards and city parks, where native
plants, bare dirt, deadwood and other pollinator habitat is ill-tolerated.
Pesticide and herbicide use on farms is tightly regulated, but homeowners and
groundskeepers use them with abandon. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Visalia</span></font></st1:City> beekeeper Steve
Godlin said 1.3 million honeybee hives are trucked in each spring from around
the country to pollinate the <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State> almond
crop, which is fast replacing cotton in the <st1:place w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>.
The collapse of honeybee hives and the enormous demand for almond pollination
has sent its price soaring.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>That will
show up soon in grocery store prices, said committee Chairman Rep. Dennis
Cardoza, D-Fresno. Haagen-Dazs' Pien said the company is bracing for not just
higher costs but a reduction in the supply of pollinated ingredients.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>After a
survey showed half the public is not even aware of the bee decline, the company
awarded a $250,000 research grant to UC Davis and the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>.
It also opened a public education campaign, starting with a limited edition
flavor called Vanilla Honey Bee and a goal to distribute 1 million flower seeds
to consumers and community groups to aid native pollinators. A Web site, <em><i><font
face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.helpthehoneybees.com">www.helpthehoneybees.com</a></font></i></em>,
provides information. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The idea
is to educate consumers about things they can do to help now, such as creating
habitat and avoiding pesticide use. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"All
Americans can help now with pollinator-friendly practices in their own
backyards," said Laurie Davis Adams, executive director of the <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:place></st1:City> nonprofit
Pollinator Partnership, established a decade ago to promote biodiversity.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Planting
native salvias rather than hybrid tea roses, providing water and shelter or
devoting a patch of yard can help. "Plant, and they will come," she
said. Such practices save money, too, by reducing the need for mowing, watering
and chemical fertilizers. If one person sets aside 15 percent of a lawn, it
might not help much, she said, but if a million people do, "what kind of
change is that?"<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
group, at <em><i><font face="Times New Roman"><a
href="http://www.pollinator.org">www.pollinator.org</a></font></i></em>, is
issuing guides for each of 35 eco-regions of the country that can be used by farmers,
public-land managers, corporations and consumers for choosing
pollinator-friendly plants and practices. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"People
who were afraid when they saw a bee are now afraid when they don't see
one," <st1:place w:st="on">Adams</st1:place> said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h3><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>How
to help pollinators <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Honeybee
populations are in drastic and accelerating decline, and bumblebees could be
close behind. Other pollinators are bats, moths, butterflies, hummingbirds,
beetles and flies. Here are some ways homeowners can help:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Provide
food:</span></font></b></strong> Native flowers provide nectar (carbohydrates)
and pollen (protein). Butterfly larvae eat host plants. Fermented fallen fruits
provide food. Plant in groups. Stagger bloom seasons from early spring to late
fall. Use flowers of different colors and fragrances on plants of different
heights. Native perennials such as salvias, as well as herbs such as mint,
oregano, lavender, garlic, parsley and chives, and annuals all support bees and
butterflies.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Provide
shelter:</span></font></b></strong> Incorporate canopy layers by planting
trees, shrubs and different-size perennials. Leave dead wood for nesting and
dead plants and leaf litter for shelter. Leave some areas of soil uncovered for
ground-nesting insects. Group plantings to help pollinators move through the
landscape to avoid predators.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Provide
water:</span></font></b></strong> Running water, ponds and small containers
provide drinking and bathing water. Water sources should have a sloping side so
pollinators can approach easily without drowning.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Don't
poison:</span></font></b></strong> Avoid using pesticides and herbicides.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Source:
Pollinator Partnership and North American Pollinator Protection Campaign <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h3><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>How
you can help <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<p><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Create
a habitat </span></font></b></strong>Providing habitat is one way to help bees
and other pollinators. Pollinator Partnership, at <em><i><font
face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.pollinator.org">www.pollinator.org</a>,</font></i></em>
is creating guides to good practices for each eco-region of the country.
Eco-regions can be searched by ZIP code. Guides for the <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> coastal region and other areas
will be available in the coming months.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Learn
more</span></font></b></strong> UC Berkeley bee expert Gordon Frankie provides
tips for urbanites at <em><i><font face="Times New Roman"><a
href="http://nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens">nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens</a></font></i></em>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-style:italic'>E-mail Carolyn Lochhead at <a
href="mailto:clochhead@sfchronicle.com">clochhead@sfchronicle.com</a>.</span></font></i>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</span>
<p id=url><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/27/MNLA11FN5B.DTL<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p id=pageno><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>This
article appeared on page <strong><b><font face="Times New Roman">A - 1</font></b></strong>
of the San Francisco Chronicle<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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