[Pollinator] Media Release-Pollinator Week 2014 Mobilizes America's Forests for Pollinators

Tue Jun 17 20:11:26 PDT 2014

WWW.POLLINATOR.ORGp2-logo-final2.jpg MEDIA RELEASEWWW.POLLINATOR.ORG

June 17, 2014  For Immediate Release

Tom Van Arsdall   <mailto:TVA at pollinator.org> TVA at pollinator.org
703.509.4746

Laurie Davies Adams  <mailto:LDA at pollinator.org> LDA at pollinator.org
415.362.1137

NOTE-Go to http://pollinator.org/media.htm for copy of release with photos,
plus downloadable images.

Pollinator Week 2014 Mobilizes America's Forests for Pollinators  

The Pollinator Partnership (P2) today finished the second of two pilot
trainings with United States Forest Service personnel to increase the
pollinator-friendly management of the nation's forests.  That these two
trainings took place during P2's signature initiative Pollinator Week
underscores its importance.  The two trainings provide regionally-specific
forest management practices including monitoring for pollinators and
eliminating chemical impacts on pollinators. The pilot trainings are in
their first year, and Pollinator Partnership Plant Ecologist Mary Byrne and
P2 Biologist Robinson Sudan are excited about the training 2.0 that will
roll-out in 2015.  

Ms. Byrne noted, "This first year was a fantastic first step to helping to
identify and support the needs of forest managers. Each new version will
provide more specific help for professional forest managers and their
partners."  Mr. Sudan added, "I think the training in monitoring bumble bee
species will provide much needed base-line data for potential annual
monitoring projects with Forest Service personnel and citizen scientists.
Getting out in the field and learning the protocol made a big impression on
the groups." 

The inaugural year of the trainings was initiated by Forest Service Region 9
through the work of Jan Schultz, USDA Forest Service Eastern Region Botany,
Non-native Invasive Species and Special Forest Products Program Leader and
Daniel Jordan also of USDA Forest Service. 

The first training was held in Missouri at the Mark Twain National Forest at
the MDC's Powder Valley Nature Center on the southwest side of St. Louis
last week.  The second, held today in Ironwood, Michigan at the Ottawa
National Forest, will influence several thousand acres of forest land.
Participants came from as far away as Louisiana and left with a new set of
skills to help protect and promote pollinators.  

They build on a long history of cooperation between the Forest Service and
P2 which have collaborated through a memorandum of understanding for more
than 12 years to provide mutually beneficial, science-based conservation
programs and tools, including the extremely popular Bumble Bee
identification guides for the United States which are found at
<http://www.pollinator.org/books.htm> http://www.pollinator.org/books.htm.
In fact, U.S. Forest Service Chief Botanist Dr. Larry Stritch facilitated
the very first Pollinator Day in 2007 through a proclamation signed by
then-USDA Secretary Mike Johanns.  

Pollinator Week has grown exponentially in scope each year with this year
June 16-22 designated by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, U.S.
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, and 45 governors as a week to
celebrate and protect the nation's pollinating animals (A complete list is
available at  <http://pollinator.org/npw_events.htm>
http://pollinator.org/npw_events.htm).  Pollinators, like bees, butterflies,
birds and other animals, bring us one in every three bites of food and
protect our environment. They form the underpinnings of a healthy and
sustainable future.  With this new training, Pollinator Week marks a new
dawn of wise land management across the country.  

"We are thrilled to see the enthusiastic reception this forest management
training has received," said Laurie Davies Adams, Executive Director of P2.
"It is a very good day for pollinators!" 

As feedback is received from these first two sessions, P2 will build on its
experience within commercial forests studying the management practices of
Greif, Inc.'s Soterra forests in Mississippi, studied under the supervision
of P2's Dr. Vicki Wojcik (pictured at right),including the elimination of
chemical impacts on pollinators.  Further, the training will include the
very well-developed USDA Forest Service techniques advanced by the visionary
leadership of Chief Tom Tidwell.

Efforts during Pollinator Week, and indeed year-round, are working to
reverse and prevent pollinator declines caused by loss of habitat, disease,
pesticides, parasites and other interconnected assaults on pollinator
populations.  

###

ABOUT THE POLLINATOR PARTNERSHIP (P2) 

Established in 1997, the Pollinator Partnership is the largest 501(c) 3
non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to the health, protection, and
conservation of all pollinating animals. Pollinator Partnership's actions
for pollinators include education, conservation, restoration, policy, and
research.  P2's financial support comes through grants, gifts, memberships
and donations from any interested party.  Its policies are science-based,
set by its board of directors, and never influenced by any donor.  To make a
donation or for information on events during Pollinator Week, visit
<http://www.pollinator.org/> www.pollinator.org.

R. Thomas (Tom) Van Arsdall, Director of Public Affairs

   Pollinator Partnership <http://www.pollinator.org/> 

   Cell:  (703) 509-4746

   tva at pollinator.org

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