[Pollinator] Maintaining pollinator habitat

Fri Apr 20 13:11:23 PDT 2018

Rick, I’m sorry to say this, but I don’t believe that the U.S. EPA is paying enough attention to the dangers of pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides to cause illness, disruption of life and productivity, and death in humans, pets, pollinators, wildlife. The political influence of those greedy creeps who make billions of dollars each year from producing, selling, and applying those toxic chemicals prohibits rigorous trials and honest results from being part of the public record. 

www.beyondpesticides.org

From: Richard Johnstone 
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2018 2:47 PM
To: Holmes, Nancy 
Cc: pollinator at nappc.org 
Subject: Re: [Pollinator] Maintaining pollinator habitat
I always find it interesting how so many people are afraid of using chemistry that is developed, tested and registered with our government to target only specific pests, i.e plants for herbicides, while not adversely affecting other species such as insects, grubs, worms, ants and nesting bees, etc. Is no one concerned that the plastic is literally cooking the life out of a multitude of species??? 
Rick

On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 11:16 AM, Holmes, Nancy <nancy.holmes at ubc.ca> wrote:

  Hi Sabrina: If you’re like me and don’t like the idea of using herbicides (mostly just afraid of worsening my already fraught relationship with the earth)  I think there are other options, but they’re slow.  I’ve had permaculture guys suggest grazers too but in the end I just couldn’t figure out how to do that properly.  Getting a great native meadow-building book or guide is helpful.  We have been experimenting on various methods for replacing invasive grasses and other species over the past two years on our Pollinator Pasture site http://borderfreebees.com/kelowna-public-art-pollinator-pasture/.  We have been most successful with plastic solarisation methods that kill the invasive grasses and species, then we  seed over.  We get donated plastic from lumber yards—that big lumber wrap.  We’d done about half an acre at a time  (and we donate the plastic to others to use as solarisation sheets to try to keep stuff out of the landfill!)   The solarisation does a great job of killing off the invasive grasses (we left the plastic on for spring and summer one season- ok- and a whole year – better!) but pesky bindweed seems pretty unkillable!  But I think we’re making the conversion slowly though I am trying to not expect perfection!

  Best of luck,

  Nancy Holmes

  From: Pollinator [mailto:pollinator-bounces+nancy.holmes=ubc.ca at lists.sonic.net] On Behalf Of Richard Johnstone
  Sent: April-19-18 11:53 AM
  To: Kathleen Law <kl at pollinator.org>
  Cc: pollinator at nappc.org
  Subject: Re: [Pollinator] Maintaining pollinator habitat

  You should use selective herbicides to target the non-native grasses first to allow your forbs to grow. With the right herbicides there is no need to mow or use sheep. If you use sheep without killing the non-native grasses, they will most likely eat the native grasses and forbs first, and leave the non-native grasses alone to dominate the site.

  Rick Johnstone

  On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 2:24 PM, Kathleen Law <kl at pollinator.org> wrote:

    Hi Sabrina,

    I have no direct experience but here's a list of studies on the topic to get you started:

    Bai, Y. G., Z. Abouguendia, and R. E. Redmann. 2001. Relationship between plant species diversity and grassland condition. Journal of Range Management 54:177–183.

    Black, S. H., N. Hodges, M. Vaughan, and M. Shepherd. 2007. Pollinators in natural areas: a primer on habitat management. Lloydia (Cincinnati):8.

    Carvell, C. 2002. Habitat use and conservation of bumblebees (Bombus spp.) under different grassland management regimes. Biological Conservation 103:33–49.

    Dover, J. W., S. Spencer, S. Collins, I. Hadjigeorgiou, and A. Rescia. 2011. Grassland butterflies and low intensity farming in Europe. Journal of Insect Conservation 15:129–137.

    Elwell, S. L., T. Griswold, and E. Elle. 2016. Habitat type plays a greater role than livestock grazing in structuring shrubsteppe plant–pollinator communities. Journal of Insect Conservation.

    Farruggia, A., B. Dumont, A. Scohier, T. Leroy, P. Pradel, and J. P. Garel. 2012. An alternative rotational stocking management designed to favour butterflies in permanent grasslands. Grass and Forage Science 67:136–149.

    Fischer, S. J., E. H. Williams, L. P. Brower, and P. A. Palmiotto. 2015. Enhancing Monarch Butterfly Reproduction by Mowing Fields of Common Milkweed. The American Midland Naturalist 173:229–240.

    Hoffman, S., M. Shepherd, and M. Vaughan. 2011. Range Management for Pollinators. Society for Range Management 33:9–13.

    Hudewenz, A., A. M. Klein, C. Scherber, L. Stanke, T. Tscharntke, A. Vogel, A. Weigelt, W. W. Weisser, and A. Ebeling. 2012. Herbivore and pollinator responses to grassland management intensity along experimental changes in plant species richness. Biological Conservation 150:42–52.

    Kruess, A., and T. Tscharntke. 2002. Contrasting responses of plant and insect diversity to variation in grazing intensity. Biological Conservation 106:293–302.

    Kruess, A., and T. Tscharntke. 2014. Grazing intensity and the diversity of grasshoppers, butterflies and trap-nest bees and wasps. Conservation Biology 16:1570–1580.

    Machmuller, M. B., M. G. Kramer, T. K. Cyle, N. Hill, D. Hancock, and A. Thompson. 2015. Emerging land use practices rapidly increase soil organic matter. Nature Communications 6:6995.

    MacPhail, V., and J. Kyle. 2012. Rotational Grazing in Extensive Pastures. Guelph.

    McGraw, R. L., F. W. Shockley, J. F. Thompson, and C. A. Roberts. (n.d.). Evaluation of native legume species for forage yield, quality and seed production. Native Plants:152–160.

    Morandin, L. A., M. L. Winston, V. A. Abbott, and M. T. Franklin. 2007. Can pastureland increase wild bee abundance in agriculturally intense areas? Basic and Applied Ecology 8:117–124.

    Sjödin, N. E., J. Bengtsson, B. Ekbom, N. E. Sj, J. Bengtsson, and B. Ekbom. 2015. The influence of grazing intensity and landscape on the diversity and abundance of composition insects 45:763–772.

    Sjödin, N. E., J. Bengtsson, and B. Ekbom. 2008. The influence of grazing intensity and landscape composition on the diversity and abundance of flower-visiting insects. Journal of Applied Ecology 45:763–772.

    Technical, B., N. No, and D. May. 2011. Attachment to Biology Technical Note No. KS-37 Dated May 31, 2011:1–23.

    Vulliamy, B., S. G. Potts, and P. G. Willmer. 2006. The effects of cattle grazing on plant-pollinator communities in a fragmented Mediterranean landscape. Oikos 114:529–543.

    Enjoy!

    Kathleen Law

    Outreach Program Manager

    Pollinator Partnership

    1139 College St.

    Toronto, ON  M6H 1B5

    c: 416-838-6373

    Head Office

    423 Washington Street, 5th Floor

    San Francisco CA 94111

    t: 415-362-1137

    w: pollinator.org 

    On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 2:17 PM, Sabrina Malach <sabrinamalach at gmail.com> wrote:

      Hello everyone!

      I am in the process of creating a 20-acre bee sanctuary with native plants. Two years ago, we piloted the project and planted 4-acre. The first year we had a drought and little showed up and last year there was tons of rain and things were blooming.

      I was advised to mow 3 times a year to keep the non-native grasses that had been there for decades at bay. 

      We hired someone to mow for us but it was expensive and carbon heavy. My friend has offered to let sheeps do the work and im wondering if anyone has utlitzed animals for ecological restoration. If so, please share your experience and lessons learned.

      Thank you,

      Sabrina 

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IVM Partners, Inc.
P.O. Box 9886
Newark, DE 19714-4986
www.ivmpartners.org
cell: 302-299-5919

IVM Partners is a 501-C-3 non-profit corporation operated exclusively for charitable, scientific, literary, and educational purposes to develop, educate professionals and the public with respect to, and apply best vegetation management and conservation practices and related activities.

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