[Pollinator] Knoxville News Sentinel story

[Gray, Randall - Washington, DC]

NRCS piloted a new course on fish and wildlife habitat conservation last week in TN. The lectures and field trips included  the role of pollinators. A reporter showed up and with the help of one of our instructors (Wendell Gilgert not Gilbert ) a pollinator impression was made on the reporter as you will see below. 
 
I made this point the previous week at a quail meeting in KY. My message there was while creating quail habitat (early successional plant communities) you create habitat for pollinators. I also stated the reverse was true. This point was not missed by many of the biologists in attendance.
 

	Randall Gray 
	National Wildlife Biologist 
	USDA Natural Resources Conseration Service 
	P.O. Box 2890, RM 6158-S 
	Washington, DC 20013 
	(202) 690-0856 
	randall.gray at wdc.usda.gov 

	 


	Bully for bugs 
	Kingston farm's habitat lauded for diversity 

	By BOB HODGE, hodge at knews.com 
	August 28, 2005 


	KINGSTON - On a farm loaded with deer, turkeys and quail, Wendall Gilbert was more impressed with bees, butterflies and a host of other bugs. 

	It sounds as if Gilbert, a native of California who lives in Portland, Ore., simply brought a left-coast perspective to East Tennessee. The reality is he's a biologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and he knows many game populations need lots of creepy crawlies in the weeds if they are going to be healthy. 

	 At Gene Hartman's Roane County farm the creepy crawlies were everywhere. 

	"I've seen 15 different kinds of native bees and 20 different species of butterflies," Gilbert said. "Those are key indicators of diversity of habitat." 

	Gilbert and nearly three-dozen biologists from eight states were in Roane County as part of an NRCS pilot program. The Fish & Wildlife Habitat Conservation Course is the first of its kind in the country and the intent is to show NRCS biologists the potential of various types of habitat work. 

	NRCS went looking for a site for the course and with the whole nation to choose from settled on Hartman's farm. 

	"I think its validation of the work we've done here, but we didn't start out here trying to impress anyone," said Hartman. "What will be good is when these people go back to their home states and show other people what is possible." 

	Hartman's farm, once home to row crops and cattle, has been transformed into an ecosystem more in keeping with what the land might have looked like 300 years ago. NRCS used the property as an open-air classroom. 

	"Yesterday we were at a stream collecting data and tomorrow we'll be going to a wetland," said Randy Gray, national wildlife biologist for NRCS. "What this course is designed to do is focus on habitat types because habitat is the central foundation of what we are trying to do." 

	With 70 percent of the land in the United States privately owned, Gray said it's important that landowners know what can and can't be done with their property. Biologists going to school on Hartman's farm saw everything from warm-season grasses to hardwood stands where the canopies had been open via logging. 

	Under the NRCS banner are programs like the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, Farm & Ranch Land Protection Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program and more. Gray said more and more landowners are turning to those programs to turn their property into productive wildlife habitat. 

	"People are stepping away from the small farms where they used to work the land to make a living," Gray said. "You have people who still live on the land, but they don't farm it. A lot of those people are interested in, and excited about, developing wildlife habitat." 

	Gray attributes the success of NRCS to its non-coercive assistance. Landowners apply for grants from the various programs and NRCS biologists survey the property and determine what can and can't be done. 

	"We work with landowners as partners," Gray said. "They're in the program because they volunteer to be." 

	Tennessee was represented by, among others, Robin Mayberry from the NRSC office in Knoxville and Mike Hansbrough from the NRCS office in Jackson. Hansbrough had done a lot of work on the Hartman farm when he was the state's regional director for Quail Unlimited. 

	"When the idea for this course was being bandied about I thought of Gene Hartman's farm because of the diversity you have here," Hansbrough said. "I don't think we could have picked a better place." 

	And that diversity isn't just ridges with some grouse, grasslands with quail and woods full of deer and turkeys. It's also the six- and even eight-legged critters most outdoorsman either ignore or swat away. 

	"Yeah, most of the time it's the hook and bullet animals that people are interested in," Gilbert said. "But those bees and butterflies are really, really powerful indicators of biodiversity. 

	"I've seen a dozen different kinds of spiders out here today. Again, that's a good sign of biodiversity and most people don't even notice spiders." 

	Game animals that get people excited may be different where Gilbert lives - i.e. sage grouse instead of ruffed grouse - but the biology is nearly identical. 

	"Out there if you don't have bugs, you don't have the birds that can't survive without insects," he said. "Same here. If you don't have bugs, you don't have grouse." 

	Even bugs such as bees and butterflies. 

	"One out of every three bites of food you take is thanks to a pollinator," Gilbert said. "If you want a diversity of wildlife, you've got to have bugs."

	The URL for this story is: 
	http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/outdoors/article/0,1406,KNS_326_4035532,00.html 

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