[Pollinator] Bears Vs. Berries (and Pollinators?)

[Faisal Moola]

Thank you bill for the post on the attempt by the town of Whistler to reduce
bear-human interactions by eradicating berry-producing flora in town. My
comments aren't with regards to the impacts on pollinators, but I wonder
whether this management attempt will actually work.

Several years ago  Azim Mallik and I published a paper on the response of
clonal plants (blueberry - Vaccinium spp.) to vegetation control in forest
plantations in the Canadian boreal (both herbicide and mechanical control -
cutting with mechanical saws). We were interested in finding out whether
vegetation control in forest plantations had an impact on the availability
of wild fruit for bears.

Whilst the herbicide treatment did significantly reduce fruit production per
hectare (primarily as a result of killing most of the understory flora), the
mechanical treatments (cutting the above-ground stems) actually increased
berry production within a few years of treatment. Clipping and cutting stems
resulted in signficant sprouting of new reproductive stems by clonal means
(both off burried rhizomes, and from the base of surviving above-ground
stems). This is a common response by most clonal plants to mechanical
destruction of above-ground biomass (burning, cutting, even grazing by
animals). 

Without knowing the specific vegetation being targetted (if they are clonal
or not), I suspect that the town of Whistler may find that their success
will be temporary at best, and may in fact exacerbate the problem in the
long run.


Cheers

 - faisal


Faisal Moola, PhD
 
Director of Science
David Suzuki Foundation
2211 West 4th Avenue
Suite 219
Vancouver, BC
Canada, V6K 4S2
604 732 4228 tel
604 732 0752 fax
www.davidsuzuki.org

-----Original Message-----
From: pollinator-bounces+fmoola=davidsuzuki.org at lists.sonic.net
[mailto:pollinator-bounces+fmoola=davidsuzuki.org at lists.sonic.net] On Behalf
Of RESEARCH Hilton Pond
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 5:28 AM
To: pollinator at lists.sonic.net
Subject: [Pollinator] Bears Vs. Berries (and Pollinators?)


I thought the group might be interested in the following article describing
how Canadian officials are trying to protect people from bears by
eradicating berry-producing flora. Such action obviously would have
significant impact on pollinators of these plants.

http://www.squamishchief.com/madison/WQuestion.nsf/WQallstories?OpenView

BILL
-- 

RESEARCH PROGRAM
c/o BILL HILTON JR. Executive Director
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA research at hiltonpond.org,
(803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845

Please visit our web sites (courtesy of Comporium.net):
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History at http://www.hiltonpond.org
"Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project" at http://www.rubythroat.org

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