[Pollinator] After Wilsonville, Hillsboro bee deaths, Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District looks to create pollinator haven

Thu Aug 8 20:19:15 PDT 2013

oregonlive.com

After Wilsonville, Hillsboro bee deaths, Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation
District looks to create pollinator haven

25,000 bumblebees killed in Wilsonville

25,000 bumblebees killed in Wilsonville

A dead bumblebee clings to a linden tree on June 18 in a Wilsonville parking
lot. The Oregon Department of Agriculture has determined they were killed by
Safari, a pesticide used to control aphids. (Motoya Nakamura/The Oregonian)

Anna Marum, The Oregonian By Anna Marum, The Oregonian 

Email the author | Follow on Twitter 
on August 01, 2013 at 1:21 PM, updated August 01, 2013 at 1:37 PM 

When conservation biologist Richard Hatfield arrived at a Target parking lot
in Wilsonville on June 17, he was horrified. The ground under several linden
trees was littered with dead bees, and as he stood amid the carcasses, more
bees dropped from the trees. Upon hitting the ground, some crawled around,
twitching, until they eventually stopped, dead. 

"I was just shocked," Hatfield said. "I had never seen anything like that
before." 

June was a bad month for Oregon bees. First, an estimated 50,000 bees died
in that parking lot after trees were sprayed with Safari, an insecticide
used to control aphids. 

Then, just days later, hundreds of bees were found dead under a linden tree
in downtown Hillsboro. The tree also had been treated with Safari, though
the Oregon Department of Agriculture has not yet confirmed the cause of the
Hillsboro bee deaths. The agency has issued a six-month restriction on 18
insecticides that contain dinotefuran, the active ingredient in Safari. 

These two local incidents are, of course, just stark examples of a growing
problem. Bee populations around the world are in danger - two species of
North American bumblebees may have already died off, and experts say the
ripple effect of extinctions will become powerful if something isn't done to
reverse the trend. 

"We're potentially losing some of the pieces, and once we lose enough
pieces, we'll start to see real problems in how these ecosystems function,"
said Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of the Portland-based Xerces
Society for Invertebrate Conservation. 

Fewer pollinators lead to a decrease in food-supply stability, as well as a
drop in the abundance and diversity of many vegetables and animals, Black
said.

PollinatorProjectBruce Barbarasch, superintendent of natural resources and
trails management for the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District,
examines a snowberry plant. The snowberry will be included in the pollinator
habitat at Rock Creek Greenway.Anna Marum/Beaverton Leader 

One answer to the problem: special habitats, such as the carefully planned
pollinator Eden that the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District has in
the works at Rock Creek Greenway in the Bethany area. 

The habitat, scheduled to be completed by 2016, is the park district's first
attempt to create a diverse space that particularly caters to the needs of
bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators. Park district
officials consulted with the Xerces Society in planning the project. 

With bee populations declining, projects like this one are "unequivocally"
more important than ever, said Black. These special habitats, along with
more natural flowering plants in backyard gardens, may be enough to keep
local pollinator populations strong, he said. "Providing a pesticide-free
quality habitat will go a long way in helping these animals," he said. 

The project at Rock Creek Greenway, located at the corner of Northwest 185th
Avenue and Northwest West Union Road, is run by the park district's Natural
Resources department. The two-acre portion of the greenway set aside for the
project is covered with grass and weeds, and small trees and shrubs line the
nearby Springville Creek. 

BeeandasterA long-horned bee forages on an aster. Asters, which are
late-blooming, are on the list of wildflowers to be planted in the
pollinator habitat at Rock Creek Greenway. Matthew Shepherd/Xerces Society
Matthew Shepherd/Xerces Society 

Janelle St. Pierre of the park district is the project leader. She said the
habitat plan calls for the removal of non-native grasses, replacing them
with annual and perennial species, including wildflowers like lupine, aster,
goldenrod and checkermallow, as well as other wildflowers and native bunch
grasses. The new haven would also include native shrubs, brush and rock
piles to provide homes and nests for various pollinators, she said. 

Black of the Xerces Society said his organization works with farmers,
gardeners and land managers to protect invertebrates, which he said are the
underpinning of all life on the planet. He pointed out that without insects,
fish and birds wouldn't exist. Plus, without pollinators, Black said, humans
would be limited to a very poor diet, made up primarily of rice, wheat and
corn. Even meat would be limited because animals indirectly rely on
pollinators for food. 

Bees are the best pollinators, Black said, because they visit more flowers
than any other pollinator, collecting pollen to feed to their young. 

In light of the bee deaths in Wilsonville and Hillsboro, as well as the
overall, worldwide difficulty bees are having, pollinator projects are more
important than ever, Black said. 

"I think that the neat thing about projects like (Rock Creek Greenway)," he
said, "is that with pollinators, unlike with polar bears or lions or tigers,
pretty much everyone can do something about it." 

-- Anna Marum

_______

Scott Hoffman Black

Executive Director

     The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Chair

     IUCN Butterfly Specialist Group

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

628 NE Broadway, Suite 200, Portland, OR 97232, USA

 <https://webmail.integra.net/src/compose.php?send_to=sblack%40xerces.org>
sblack at xerces.org

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Toll free: 1-855-232-6639 ext. 101

Cell: (503) 449-3792

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The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation 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.

Buy our best-selling book:

<http://www.xerces.org/announcing-the-publication-of-attracting-native-polli
nators/> Attracting Native Pollinators. Protecting North America's Bees and
Butterflies

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