[Pollinator] The American Public and Honey Bees - Your Input Needed

[eacrowe at montana.edu]

I agree with Mona that a natural lawn preferably with native plants is the
best thing a homeowner can do.  (Please be careful to avoid planting or
encouraging exotic invasive plants, which some garden centers and box
stores still sell.)

The good news is, however, that a lawn will only convert to forest in
certain parts of the country, i.e. where forests occurred naturally such
as the eastern hardwood forests.  In most of the arid west and perhaps in
parts of the Great Plains, you will have to do little to nothing to
maintain your native lawn, shrub-steppe or desert once it is established
and you've kept the invasive exotic plants out.  You can sell your
lawnmower (yea!).  Check with your state natural heritage program or state
native plant society for more information on what you can do in the area
you live in.  You get a low- to free-maintenance lawn and lots of
beautiful and interesting insects to watch!

Elizabeth Crowe




>
> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re: The American Public and Honey Bees - Your Input	Needed
>       (Mona Miller)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2007 20:49:43 -0500
> From: "Mona Miller" <mona.miller at cox.net>
> Subject: Re: [Pollinator] The American Public and Honey Bees - Your
> 	Input	Needed
> To: <pollinator at coevolution.org>
> Message-ID: <003901c75f91$b687d3c0$6401a8c0 at cox.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> The same directive I would give to those wanting to save their tiny bit of
> our planet, many, many tiny bits make up a whole.  It does matter what you
> do on your tiny bit of the planet:
>
> - Plant host/nectar plants
> - Don't use herbicides and pesticides
> - Don't worry if you lawn has clover and dandelions, bees and butterfly
> love
> them
> - If allowable allow as much of your property as possible to grow
> naturally
> (convert to fields), but these must be maintain by mowing every 3 years or
> they will convert to forest.  I see mega lawns all over the place.
> - Contact your local highway and community and see if you can get them to
> allow more green spaces to grow wild.
> - Don't mow until the first hard frost to allow the bees and butterflies
> to
> continue nectaring.
>
> If you do these things, your tiny bit of the planet will help to create a
> healthier world!!
>
> There's a new association called "Association for Butterflies" and one of
> their purposes is conservation.
>
> http://www.forbutterflies.org/conservation.htm
>
> Mona Miller
> Herndon, VA (USA)  }i{ }i{ }i{
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Ladadams at aol.com>
> To: <pollinator at coevolution.org>
> Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 8:11 PM
> Subject: [Pollinator] The American Public and Honey Bees - Your Input
> Needed
> Paul Growald has been asked to appear on the Martha Stewart Show to
> discuss
> honeybees and current issues in honeybees.  One of the questions the
> producers posed to him was what the American public could do to help the
> honeybee.  We have some ideas, but would love to hear from you - What
> simple, memorable and clear directives would you give to the average
> American to help the honeybee?
> Please send your replies to me at _LDA at coevolution.org_
> (mailto:LDA at coevolution.org)  by the end of this week (March 9).
> Thanks to you all.
> Laurie
>
>
>
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> End of Pollinator Digest, Vol 22, Issue 5
> *****************************************
>
>