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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><img
width=330 height=60 id="Picture_x0020_48"
src="cid:image001.png@01CB42BF.54FEC2C0"></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.modbee.com/2010/08/18/1298648/stanislaus-garden-project-is-a.html">http://www.modbee.com/2010/08/18/1298648/stanislaus-garden-project-is-a.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>August
18, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<h1>Stanislaus garden project is a smorgasbord for pollinators<o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=byline>By John Holland<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://www.modbee.com/2010/08/18/1298648/stanislaus-garden-project-is-a.html"><span
style='color:blue;display:none;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=13
height=17 id="Picture_x0020_8" src="cid:image002.png@01CB42BF.54FEC2C0"
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href="http://www.modbee.com/2010/08/18/1298648/stanislaus-garden-project-is-a.html"><span
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style='display:none'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://media.modbee.com/smedia/2010/08/17/17/LIVE_p0818_18b1bees2.standalone.prod_affiliate.11.jpg"
title="" Modesto Bee - (BRIAN RAMSAY/bramsay@modbee.com) - On Thursday, representatives and students from NRCS, Xerces Society, CSU, Stanislaus and CSU, Fresno were busy creating hedgerows for planting on the corner of Service Road and Crows Landin"
id=ImgID-1298048><span style='color:blue;display:none;text-decoration:none'><img
border=0 width=283 height=200 id="Picture_x0020_12"
src="cid:image013.jpg@01CB42BF.60238B40" alt="BR Bee Population 04 "></span></a><a
href="http://media.modbee.com/smedia/2010/08/17/17/LIVE_p0818_18b1bees1.standalone.prod_affiliate.11.jpg"
title="" Modesto Bee - (BRIAN RAMSAY/bramsay@modbee.com) - Jessa Guisse, no age given, of Sacramento, and Kristilynn Flippins, 20, of Waterford, work to prep soil for planting later this year. Guisse is a pollinator outreach coordinator with Xerces"><span
style='color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=281 height=200
id="Picture_x0020_13" src="cid:image014.jpg@01CB42BF.60238B40"
alt="BR Bee Population 03 "></span></a><a
href="http://media.modbee.com/smedia/2010/08/17/18/LIVE_p0818_18b3bees2.standalone.prod_affiliate.11.jpg"
title="" Modesto Bee - (BRIAN RAMSAY/bramsay@modbee.com) - CSU, Stanislaus student Sabrina Cash, 26, of Modesto, and Diana Waller, 31, of Modesto, a soil conservationist with NRCS, work to prep soil into hedge rows." "><span
style='color:blue;display:none;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=94
height=200 id="Picture_x0020_14" src="cid:image015.jpg@01CB42BF.60238B40"
alt="BR Bee Population 01 "></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Modesto Bee - (BRIAN RAMSAY/bramsay@modbee.com) - Jessa
Guisse, no age given, of Sacramento, and Kristilynn Flippins, 20, of Waterford,
work to prep soil for planting later this year. Guisse is a pollinator outreach
coordinator with Xerces Society and Flippins is a student at CSU, Stanislaus.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><img border=0 width=1 height=1 id="_x0000_i1025"
src="cid:image012.png@01CB42BF.54FEC2C0">These gardeners don't mind if bees
buzz about their plot south of Modesto.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>They are experimenting with flowering plants that could provide a wide
variety of pollen for the insects to eat.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>They aim to keep the bees healthy for their task of pollinating almonds and
other crops for human consumption. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>"Bees need diverse sources of pollen to help bolster their resistance to
disease, pesticides and other stresses," Jessa Guisse, of the Xerces
Society for Invertebrate Conservation, said in an e-mail Tuesday.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>"Providing additional habitat is widely recognized as the best way to
enhance bee health, diversity and abundance."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The society, based in Portland, Ore., is testing the idea at 11 sites across
the nation with a grant of about $330,000 from the federal Natural Resources
Conservation Service. The sites include the Stanislaus County Agricultural
Center off Crows Landing Road.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The project involves native and imported bees and other pollinators, said
Guisse, pollinator outreach coordinator for California.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Among them is the European honeybee, which has become an important
pollinator in the United States but has declined because of a mysterious
affliction called colony collapse disorder.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><b>Crucial to valley</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The stakes are huge. Almonds brought an estimated $455.6 million to growers
in Stanislaus County last year. It all depends on bees moving from bloom to
bloom in February and March, depositing the pollen that causes the nuts to
form.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Honeybees also pollinate cherries, apples, apricots, melons, squash and many
other crops.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The test plot will have hedgerows, which some growers already have tried
along their orchards and fields to encourage bees and other beneficial insects.
Other possibilities include "bee pastures" and "pollinator
meadows," Guisse said.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The work started last week with laying of clear plastic sheets to control
soil pathogens and weeds with the sun's heat. That will be followed in autumn
by planting of poppy, lupine, phacelia, aster, milkweed, sunflower, salvia,
buckwheat, ceanothus, manzanita and other plants. Most are California natives.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Guisse said the result early next year will be "a beautiful floral
display and possibly some unique species of native bees."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The project is getting help from the East Stanislaus Resource Conservation
District and the University of California Cooperative Extension. Student
interns from California State University, Stanislaus, also are taking part.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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