[Pollinator] Pollinators are important in the world

[Scott Black]

Hot Springs Star (Hot Springs South Dakota)

http://www.hotspringsstar.com/articles/2008/07/08/hot_springs/local_columns/column81.txt

Pollinators are important in the world

By Kory Bossert, Natural Resources Conservation Service

For most Americans, pollen means allergies and 
bees mean stings­but to farmers, when one out of 
every three bites of food people take is made 
possible by a pollinator - bees and pollen mean much more.

Pollinators play a tremendous economic role. The 
problem is, too many people see the pollination 
process as a free service from nature; most 
people don’t know the unprecedented threats 
facing wild and managed pollinators worldwide.

Pollinators are an important part of on-farm 
biodiversity. They help maintain diverse plant 
communities that provide food for wildlife and 
provide pollination for approximately 70 percent 
of crops worldwide. Farmers in the U.S. rely upon 
insect pollinators to produce a wide variety of 
fruits and vegetables including apples, almonds, 
berries, cherries, cucumbers, melons, squash, and sunflowers.

In the U.S., this represents 15 to 30 percent of 
the foods we consume, including the indirect 
products ­ such as milk from cows fed on alfalfa.

Pollinators are particularly important to fruit, 
vegetable, and nut growers with crops valued in 
the billions. California producers rent half a 
million bee hives a year for almond trees alone.

Although experiencing a decline in numbers, honey 
bees are the most important pollinators for 
working farms. Managed honey bee colonies have 
shrunk by 25 percent since 1990, and there are 
fewer bee hives now in the United States than at any time in the past 50 years.

However, native bees may be able to take up some 
of the deficit as they already exist on most 
farms and also contribute to current crop yields 
thereby providing an insurance policy for farmers pollination needs.

For more than a decade, biologists have 
documented declines in populations of migratory 
pollinators including butterflies, bats, and 
birds. Habitat loss and excessive exposure to 
agrichemicals, as well as spread of diseases, 
parasitic mites, invasion of Africanized honey 
bees, and elimination of government subsidies for 
beekeepers are most often mentioned for what has 
been called an impending pollination crisis.

To help farmers recognize habitat needs and 
conservation opportunities to help pollinators, 
the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation 
, in cooperation with the NRCS West National 
Technology Support Center, has produced an 
informative educational brochure, ‘Farming for 
Pollinators.’ Copies of the brochure are 
available at NRCS offices across the country.

For more information on NRCS and Fall River 
Conservation District technical assistance, or 
services, contact the Hot Springs Office. We are 
located in the First Western Bank Building and 
our phone number is 745-5716, Ext. 3.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service is an 
equal opportunity provider and employer.



*************************
Scott Hoffman Black
Ecologist/Entomologist
Executive Director
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
4828 SE Hawthorne
Portland, OR 97215
Direct line (503) 449-3792
sblack at xerces.org

The Xerces Society is an international, nonprofit 
organization that protects wildlife through the 
conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.

To join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work,
please visit <http://www.xerces.org/>www.xerces.org.


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