And that balance has already been upset. Declining bee populations and a shortage of traveling hives (due in part to CCD) to service growing acres of almond fields, have been hurt the almond crops for the past few years in California, said Pollinator Partnership spokeswoman Judith Hulka.

Replicate that problem around the world, in varying degrees, and you’ve got a serious threat to food production, especially when you factor in that 70 to 90 percent of plants rely on pollinators to reproduce.

“There’s lots of evidence,” Hulka said, “that all around the world there’s a decline in pollinator species.”

But the Pollinator Partership has a plan for how everyone can help. The group used its week in Washington to announce the “Plant for Pollinators” program, which enlists virtually everyone in the effort to revive the environment for pollinators.

“Plant for Pollinators” will roll out a series of 35 online guides designed to help people identify how to plant vegetation to protect and nurture these important insect, bird and mammals species.

The guides – aimed at everyone from farmers to city planners and backyard gardeners — are unlike any other publication because they go beyond just advocating native plants to explaining how people in specific regions of North America (US) can set up medians, parks, landscaped common areas and even their backyards to support pollinators, Hulka said.

“The idea is to match people with the natural habitat in which they live, which has different boundaries than anything they think about” she said

The guides, the first six of which were posted this week, should fill an information gap, in which the general public, barricaded in the “built environment” of offices and houses, has become disconnected from a close relationship with nature in their region, or has come to see nature as that narrow band of plants that have been inserted into planned landscapes.

“…The large organizations that focus on saving land, and all the professional environmentalists, they know these things, they have nurseries that respect the nature environment…, “ Hulka explained. “But the average person doesn’t understand that just because something will grow there, it doesn’t necessarily contribute to the natural habitat.”

People can learn from the guides, however, how to get in sync with the natural backdrop. For instance, residents of the Eastern Broadleaf Forest habitat – which covers parts of the Midwest from Tennessee through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri and parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota – could
learn from their regional guide that the specific butterflies in their area (such as the Swallowtail, Skipper and White) feed on bright red and purple tubular flowers.

They (the butterflies not the flowers) also need areas of moisture and mud, and benefit from tasty snacks like rotting fruit.

“So don’t clean up all the messes in your garden!” prompts the guide, which, like the others, has been informed by the scientific and ecological expertise of the members of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign.

Getting in tune with nature requires such knowledge, and also, for homeowners, the will to change a landscape in ways that cut across the grain of standard mores. Many insects, birds and small mammals benefit from a wild area where they can breed, feed and cocoon, according to the habitat guides. So grooming down a suburban landscaping plan and leaving sections of parks and yards in a wild state is recommended.

“Resist the urge to have a totally manicured lawn and garden,’’ advise the Broadleaf Forest guide. “Leave
bare ground for ground-nesting bees. Leave areas of dead wood and leaf litter for other insects.’’

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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• Stung By Bee Colony Collapse, A BeeKeeper Fights To Retain 60-Year-Old Business
• Haagen-Daz Plans To Bee There For Apiarists

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