Pollinator Partnership

CURRENT POLLINATOR NEWS AND EVENTS

NAPPC, the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, will be held in Washington, DC on October 20-22nd, 2010.
To learn more about the conference, register, attend the open symposium and much more, please visit www.nappc.org.

The 4th Annual National Pollinator Week was June 21st - 27th, 2010. Find out about all the events by clicking here.

August 2010

August 30, 2010
InterContinental Boston Abuzz with First Honey harvest from Own rooftop apiary of 40,000 Bees

Miel “Brasserie Provençale” Hosts New ‘Honey Harvest Dinner’ incorporating Hotel’s Honey on Sept. 21, 2010 during National Honey Month

BOSTON - (August 26, 2010) - A roof deck at the InterContinental Boston, a luxury hotel located on Boston’s waterfront, has been abuzz with Boston’s first hotel rooftop apiary. This September, National Honey Month, the InterContinental Boston will be harvesting its first crop of honey. And in honor of this first harvest, Miel “Brasserie Provençale”, a Provence-inspired brasserie (Miel means ‘honey’ in French) located in the hotel, will be offering a four-course “Honey Harvest Dinner” ($75 per person including wine) on Tues., Sept. 21, 2010 incorporating the hotel’s own honey.

In late June 2010, the InterContinental Boston introduced at first 10,000 honey bees onto its roof deck apiary and the colony has since has grown to more than 40,000! For the past months, the bees have been hard at work pollinating the flora of an approximate 4 mile radius of the hotel which includes Boston’s expansive 21-acre green space, the Rose Kennedy Greenway, upon which the InterContinental Boston sits and InterContinental Boston’s own waterfront floral and herb gardens. Once home – and they always return – the bees begin producing honey. September will be the harvest for the work these busy bees have put in over the past months. It is anticipated that approximately 40 lbs of honey will be collected.

“Bees are in important element in the sustainability of nature and we are proud to do our part in helping nurturing the local environment,” say Didier Montarou, Executive Chef at InterContinental Boston. “Not to mention, we are excited for our first crop of urban Boston wildflower honey anticipating it to be a good floral mix of flavors. In addition to its reputation as Mother Nature's nutritive sweetener, honey's unique composition makes it a healthy antioxidant and an ideal complement to Miel’s Provence cuisine.”
To read more, click here.

August 27, 2010
UK bee industry abuzz with mite resistant breed
(Reuters) - A British beekeeper said on Wednesday he may have discovered a strain of honey bee immune to a parasite that has been gradually wiping out populations of the vital insect worldwide.

Scientists have been trying to find a way to fight the pesticide-resistant Varroa mite.

But now a retired heating engineer who has spent 18 years searching for a mite-resistant breed may have made a breakthrough.

Ron Hoskins, 79, from Swindon in southern England, says he has managed to isolate and breed a strain of bees which "groom" one another, removing the mites.

Since making his discovery, which he said happened by chance, he has been artificially inseminating queen bees in the hope they will establish themselves.

"The Varroa mite has been causing havoc with colonies in countries all over the world, apart from Australia. It has spread at an alarming rate and is very destructive," Hoskins told Reuters.

"If this problem is left unchecked it could be a disaster for the food chain waiting to happen," he added.

He said recent research had found that more than two thirds of all Britain's honeybees have been lost to the parasite. He is now looking for funding to further his research and has had an invitation from Australian officials and counterparts eager to keep the parasite at bay.
To read more, click here.

August 13, 2010
Pollinators Celebrate 2010 USDA-CIG Awards Across the Country

SAN FRANCISCO, CA: Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) awards were announced this week form USDA offices in Washington, D.C., sending a clear message in support of pollinators. The CIG program promotes projects that take conservation knowledge and put principals into action. Requests for proposals included a focus on the importance of pollinators to wild and agricultural landscapes, making it clear that pollinators are indeed a national priority. With over $700,000 dollars of matching funds going toward projects that provide habitat for and support pollinating species, the bees, bats, beetles, butterflies, and birds are the real winners!

As part of the 2010 CIG program, the Pollinator Partnership (P2) has been awarded funding for a unique habitat development plan that is working to promote an important portion of the native bee community – the wood-nesting bees. Available nesting sites are often more limiting to bee health and population growth than other ecological factors including available host flowers, or parasitism. Taking a total habitat approach to native bee conservation, scientists at P2 and local collaborators at the American River Parkway in Sacramento, California and at the Native Seeds/SEARCH conservation farm in Patagonia, Arizona will being work on developing habitat sites with a mix of food plants and nesting resources.

In addition to the P2 project, pollinators will benefit across the US landscape from the work of other research and conservation groups. Major agricultural pollinator assessments will be under way at the University of California, Davis as researchers and partners work to refine planting protocols for pollinators in agricultural landscapes. Mississippi State University will be working to promote pollinators in biofuel landscapes though habitat development guidelines within the state. The Xerces Society and partners at the Monarch Joint Venture will promote a network of milkweed plantings throughout the country.

Tom Van Arsdall, P2 Public Affairs Director, commented: “We greatly value the support of pollinators to agriculture and now, the support of agriculture for pollinators. So much potential good can come from these practical land based initiatives for a sustainable and productive agricultural future.”

Pollinators are essential to terrestrial ecosystems and are responsible for the production of one of every three bites of food that we eat. Pollinator decline would have serious negative consequences for all living things. The development of habitat and refugia sites is central in helping to preserve these valuable species. Efforts across the country will collectively contribute to great, positive landscape change for pollinators.

July 2010

July 27, 2010
Shade-Coffee Farms Support Native Bees That Maintain Genetic Diversity in Tropical Forests
Shade-grown coffee farms support native bees that help maintain the health of some of the world's most biodiverse tropical regions, according to a study by a University of Michigan biologist and a colleague at the University of California, Berkeley.

The study suggests that by pollinating native trees on shade-coffee farms and adjacent patches of forest, the bees help preserve the genetic diversity of remnant native-tree populations. The study was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"A concern in tropical agriculture areas is that increasingly fragmented landscapes isolate native plant populations, eventually leading to lower genetic diversity," said Christopher Dick, a U-M assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. "But this study shows that specialized native bees help enhance the fecundity and the genetic diversity of remnant native trees, which could serve as reservoirs for future forest regeneration."
To read more, click here.

July 23, 2010
Bee Murder at San Francisco's Hayes Valley Farm: Unknown Attacker Sprays Hives with Pesticide
I was just at Hayes Valley Farm this past Sunday, volunteering at the urban farm turning a crumbling freeway into crop land for local food production and education. I was working within 15 feet of two bee hives the entire time and barely noticed the insects as they went about their busy day. With bees acting as such neighborly workers, buzzing around to pollinate our city's plants and produce fantastic honey, what would bring someone to come to the farm earlier this week and spray pesticides at the entrances of the hives, wiping out two thriving hives of 60,000-100,000 bees each and killing about 60% of a third hive? It's along the line of those crazy people who go around tossing poison-laced meat into the backyards of dog owners. As urban farming, and with it urban beekeeping, grow in popularity (and necessity), an incident like this calls into question the acceptance of urban bee keeping by citizens.
To read more, click here.

GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON ENTOMOLOGY

March 5-9, 2011, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Web site: www.entomology2011.com

Scope of the Conference:

The main objective of the Global Conference on Entomology is to showcase advances in entomological research and development in the insect world. The skills and knowledge of entomologists are needed worldwide helping farmers to produce crops and livestock more efficiently through sound pest management strategies, fighting to save endangered species and fragile ecosystems, and preventing insects from spreading agents that cause serious diseases.

Insects provide a readily accessible resource for you to use in developing a better scientific understanding of the world around you. For more than 350 million years, insects have evolved and adapted to become the creatures we know today. Through the millennia, insects have become an essential part of every terrestrial and freshwater ecosystem. They are the most numerous and diverse form of life on Earth. About one million species are known, and it is estimated that 10 million are undiscovered. The study of insects helps us increase the bounty of the land and preserve its natural beauty. It also helps us understand how to protect lives and property from harmful insects. Food shortages still exist in many parts of the world. About 40 percent of the world’s food production is lost to insect pests each year. Sound entomological research and extension programs are at the forefront of the sciences involving these important problems. Although reducing vast insect-caused losses will not automatically solve the hunger problems - other economic and cultural factors are important too - entomology is a central part of the solution. Vast areas of the world are dominated by insects that transmit parasites that cause yellow fever, river blindness, Chagas disease, and sleeping sickness. Malaria, plague, and tick-borne fevers are diseases of worldwide importance, and entomologists lead the way in research to combat these ailments. Entomologists are seeking new, less expensive ways to prevent these losses.

The scheduled conference organized by the Century Foundation, Bangalore in association with other organizations will provide a scientific platform to exchange the information on the recent advances in entomological research and to bring together the International scientific community involved in the study of insects.

Topics of the Conference

1. Ecology
2. Nature protection, landscape management, insect conservation - in a changing environment
3. Agricultural entomology
4. Genetically modified organisms
5. Forest entomology
6. Systematics, taxonomy and zoo-geography
7. Medical and veterinary entomology
8. Insect genetics (genomics, developmental genetics, population genetics, etc.)
9. Neurobiology and toxicology

10. Physiology, and behaviour
12. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

13. Parasitic Mites: Regional and world-wide issues

14. Advances in Apiculture

15. Cultural entomology

16. Sensory ecology (Pheromones)

17. Soil entomology

18. Drosophila genetics
19. Applied Research in Wolbachia

July 20, 2010
Tiny radio transmitters track flight of tropical orchid bees
Rare tropical orchids can be few and far between in the wild, often separated by spotty landscape and human-made obstacles. But powerful tropical orchid bees do the leg—or wing—work, flying great distances to pollinate isolated flowers and keep the flora gene pool fresh.

Just how far and where exactly these bees fly, however, has remained relatively obscure to researchers. Some studies had tracked bees by marking them and using bait flowers to lure them in for counting or by scouting out specific flowers that bees appeared to return to. But these results have created only a rough sketch of the range and routes of these bees.

A group of researchers now has acquired far more specific data, attaching tiny, 300-milligram radio transmitters to the backs of male orchid bees (Exaerete frontalis) to track their movements.
To read more, click here.

July 19, 2010
Healing Honey And The New Queen Bee(keepers)
by Allison Aubrey

Beekeeping classes from Medina, Ohio, to the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and New York are seeing an unexpected shift in enrollment. Numbers are way up as thousands of novices take up the hobby. And who are these new beekeepers? Increasingly, they're women.

"The surge has really been with younger, urban women," explains longtime instructor Kim Flottum, who teaches beekeeping in Medina.

Flottum estimates that there are about 100,000 backyard beekeepers across the United States. Exact numbers are hard to pin down. But subscriptions to the publication Bee Culture are on the rise. And when Flottum published a how-to book — An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden — 60,000 people snapped up copies. The book is aimed at making the hobby easier and using more lightweight equipment.
To read more, click here.

June 2010

June 24, 2010
Congressional Briefing for National Pollinator Week
What: Congressional Briefing for National Pollinator Week (Downloable Flier)
When: Thursday, June 24th at 3:00 PM
Where: Longworth Office Building
Rm. 1302A
Washington, DC 20515

Open to the public, Members of Congress, Congressional Staff, Agency Personnel, and the press. Featuring pollinator treats- ice cream from Häagen-Dazs and lipbalm from Burt’s Bees!

June 23, 2010
Get the Buzz on Pollinators: From Pollinator Podcasts to USGS Research

It’s National Pollinator Week, and you can get the inside buzz on North America’s pollinators by listening to re-broadcast podcasts about the essential birds, bees, bats, and even beetles that pollinate your food and flowering plants, and make our wild areas beautiful and healthy. You can also find out about USGS research on our nation’s wild pollinators.

The National Academy of Sciences has reported that not only is there direct evidence for decline of some pollinator species in North America, but also very little is known about the status and health of most of the world's wild pollinators. Yet without them, the ability of agricultural crops and wild plants to produce food products and seeds is jeopardized. Over 75 percent of flowering plants rely on pollinators, and they are responsible for an estimated $15 billion in services to agriculture alone in the United States. Pollinators are equally as important to sustaining ecosystem functions and food supplies for wildlife.

Podcasts: These podcasts were originally produced for National Pollinator Week 2008 and 2009 by the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and its federal partners in the Department of the Interior.

Bees are Not an Option: The tremendous importance of native bees and pollinators in general, and how you can easily lend a hand to these tiny titans.

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Altitudes: Pollinators, Phenology, and Climate Change: How climate change may be affecting pollinators and the timing of their life events.
To read more, click here.

June 23, 2010
Bees, bats, birds and butterflies have a friend in Alcee Hastings

Posted by Anthony Man

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, is getting down to business. Make that b-b-b-business.

The b's he's interested in are pollinators such as bees, bats, birds and butterflies.

Becasue of the "indispensability" of these winged creatures, Hastings introduced a resolution commemorating the fourth anniversary of National Pollinator Week.

Better hurry to the Hallmark store for your National Pollinator Week greeting card, becuase it's already almost half over. It started Monday and ends Sunday, according to a news release from Hastings' office.

On a serious note, one-third of all food and beverages are derived from pollinators. "These animals are essential for the survival of ecosystems across the country as well as the sustainability and security of our food supply."
To read more, click here.

June 23, 2010
Soule Garden: Please praise pollinators; they feed us

In a national poll, a scant 15 percent of American adults were aware that pollen plays a critical role in plant reproduction.

The sad part of this statistic is that plant reproduction is what provides us with virtually all the food we eat. Even meat-itarians eat plants because the animals they consume eat plants, and if plants don't reproduce there would be nothing for animals to eat. (You would have to live on seafood and mushrooms to not need plants, but no butter for the shrimp scampi.)
To read more, click here.

June 15, 2010
Crops dot fallow S.F. spots until backhoes come
There's a bumper crop of fava beans this year in San Francisco's Hayes Valley. The vegetable's thick stalks fill planter beds on one side of Octavia Boulevard, and cloak a steep slope between abandoned freeway ramps on the other. Plenty else is popping up - tomatoes, squash, peas - but 40 pounds of the soil-replenishing favas already have been harvested. They also prove there's a way to revive empty city lots - even ones where buildings are scheduled to rise.
To read more, click here.

May 2010

May 27, 2010
Nature lovers prepare for butterfly census
A zebra swallowtail butterfly flitted near the entrance of Congaree National Park’s visitors center Saturday afternoon and lighted on a man’s shoe. Twenty newly trained butterfly hunters went into a tizzy trying to take its picture and checking out its crisp black and white stripes. “Awesome!” said Christina Hulslander, a ranger who taught the class.The park hosted a butterfly identification class Saturday afternoon to train volunteers for the annual national census for the North American Butterfly Association. An official count will be held June 26 when volunteers and park rangers scatter across a 15-mile radius at the Congaree swamp to see how many different species of butterflies they can identify. Counting butterflies is important because it helps scientists identify environmental trends, Hulslander said.
To read more, click here.

May 26, 2010
Students in New Mexico convince lawmakers in the capital to proclaim National Pollinator Week
Every year, the Wild Friends – New Mexico students in grades 4-2 – write legislation to help the state's wildlife. During the legislative session, many of the young people travel to the Capitol in Santa Fe to convince the lawmakers to pass their legislation. This year, the Southwest’s birds, bees, beetles, bats and butterflies got a boost when the students pushed through twin memorials requesting the state to take various actions to promote the use of pollinator-friendly plants, including proclaiming “New Mexico Pollinator Week”. Wild Friends is a program of the Center for Wildlife Law at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Information about the program is available at http://wildfriends.unm.edu
To read more, click here.

May 3, 2010
Pollinators need help
Imagine Halloween without pumpkins. Thanksgiving without cranberries. Valentine's Day without chocolate — well, any day without chocolate. If it weren't for pollinators, that would be the case. Pollinators are the Masters and Johnson of the plant world, the facilitators of reproduction. They assist in the fertilization of many plants by carrying pollen from the anther of one blossom to the stigma of another. That allows the plants to produce fruiting bodies containing the seeds that eventually become new plants — fruiting bodies that we know as things such as apples, rose hips and cucumbers.
To read more, click here.

April 2010

April 15, 2010
Obama to take a grass-roots approach to conservation

WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to direct the federal government to foster community-based efforts to save the nation's rivers, coastlines, farms, forests and other outdoor spaces as part of a new approach to conservation.

Instead of just designating vast tracts of land to be protected from development, pollution and overpopulation, Obama wants the government to embrace a grass-roots approach to conservation that has quietly taken hold in recent years in U.S. cities and towns and across international borders. "Communities are uniting to protect the places they love," according to a directive Obama is scheduled to sign today at a White House conference on America's Great Outdoors.
To read more, click here.

April 13, 2010
President Obama Challenges Americans to Take Action to Improve the Environment in Honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day
WASHINGTON, DC – President Obama today challenged Americans to take action in their homes, communities, schools, or businesses to improve the environment in honor of the upcoming 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, April 22, 2010. In conjunction with the video message of President Obama, the White House unveiled WhiteHouse.gov/EarthDay as a resource guide for all those interested in learning how they can help make a difference in their community.

To recognize the importance of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, the White House has launched an Earth Day website (www.whitehouse.gov/earthday) to encourage you to:
a. GO GREEN by making small changes in your day-to-day activities.
b. GET INVOLVED in community service events on Earth Day and learn about jobs. The section will link to http://www.serve.gov/earthday.
c. LEARN MORE about what the administration is doing to build a clean energy economy and keep our water, air, and planet clean for future generations.
d. SHARE STORIES about what you are doing to protect our environment and keep your community healthy.

To learn more, click here.

March 2010

March 30, 2010
Bees at the Bee
Bees at the Bee
A benefit show for the
Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis
May 8, 2010

There's a buzz going on around town and it's all about The Bee's Second Annual Second Saturday. This year, come and celebrate all things Bee as we work together to promote the opening of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis.

On hand will be The Bee’s mascot Scoopy, honey tasting and a community art show that will Bee-inspiring. The Bee will once again open its courtyard to the community from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. on May 8 for an afternoon of fun. Political Cartoonist Rex Babin will be showing his award-winning cartoons as well as some bee-inspired drawings. There will be music by local musicians.

The art show, coordinated by local artist Laurelin Gilmore, will benefit the UC Davis Entomology department and the newest edition to the campus - the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. The community has responded in a big way to the art show, with more than 40 artists participating. The folks at UC Davis will be here along with their demonstration hive and lots of information on the new Honey Bee facility - which officially opens to the public on June 19.

Representatives from Sacramento Beekeeping Supplies on X Street will be here with honey tasting and Burt's Bees is donating give-away items.

In addition, Haagen-Dazs® is donating honeybee-friendly seed packets and Pollinator Partnership will have fun giveaways as well!

As always, parking for the event will be free in The Bee lot on 21st Street. The Bee is located at the corner of 21st and Q streets.

If you have any questions, please contact Pam Dinsmore at 321-1024 or pdinsmore@sacbee.com.

To learn more, click here.

March 29, 2010
High Levels of Miticides and Agrochemicals in North American Apiaries: Implications for Honey Bee Health
Recent declines in honey bees for crop pollination threaten fruit, nut, vegetable and seed production in the United States. A broad survey of pesticide residues was conducted on samples from migratory and other beekeepers across 23 states, one Canadian province and several agricultural cropping systems during the 2007–08 growing seasons. Methodology/Principal Findings We have used LC/MS-MS and GC/MS to analyze bees and hive matrices for pesticide residues utilizing a modified QuEChERS method. We have found 121 different pesticides and metabolites within 887 wax, pollen, bee and associated hive samples.
To read more, click here.

March 24, 2010
Plight of bees worsens this winter and scientists spot stew of pesticides in pollen, hives By AP writers Garance Burke and Seth Borenstein
MERCED, Calif. (AP) - The mysterious 4-year-old crisis of disappearing honeybees is deepening. A quick federal survey indicates a heavy bee die-off this winter, while a new study shows honeybees'
pollen and hives laden with pesticides.

Two federal agencies along with regulators in California and Canada are scrambling to figure out what is behind this relatively recent threat, ordering new research on pesticides used in fields and orchards. Federal courts are even weighing in this month, ruling that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overlooked a requirement when allowing a pesticide on the market.

And on Thursday, chemists at a scientific conference in San Francisco will tackle the issue of chemicals and dwindling bees in response to the new study.

Scientists are concerned because of the vital role bees play in our food supply. About one-third of the human diet is from plants that require pollination from honeybees, which means everything from apples to zucchini.

Bees have been declining over decades from various causes. But in
2006 a new concern, "colony collapse disorder," was blamed for large, inexplicable die-offs. The disorder, which causes adult bees to abandon their hives and fly off to die, is likely a combination of many causes, including parasites, viruses, bacteria, poor nutrition and pesticides, experts say.

"It's just gotten so much worse in the past four years," said Jeff Pettis, research leader of the Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Md. "We're just not keeping bees alive that long."

This year bees seem to be in bigger trouble than normal after a bad winter, according to an informal survey of commercial bee brokers cited in an internal USDA document. One-third of those surveyed had trouble finding enough hives to pollinate California's blossoming nut trees, which grow the bulk of the world's almonds. A more formal survey will be done in April.

"There were a lot of beekeepers scrambling to fill their orders and that implies that mortality was high," said Penn State University bee researcher Dennis vanEngelsdorp, who worked on the USDA snapshot survey.

Beekeeper Zac Browning shipped his hives from Idaho to California to pollinate the blossoming almond groves. He got a shock when he checked on them, finding hundreds of the hives empty, abandoned by the worker bees.
To read more, click here.

March 13, 2010
International Conference on Pollinator Biology, Health and Policy Hosted by The Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State
Register Now for the International Conference on Pollinator Biology, Health and Policy Hosted by The Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The first International Conference on Pollinator Biology, Heath and Policy is being hosted by the Penn State Center for Pollinator Research on July 24-28, 2010 at the University Park campus. The abstract submission deadline is May 15, 2010, and the early registration deadline is June 1, 2010. Registration is limited to 300 people. For more information and online registration, please visit the conference website at http://agsci.psu.edu/pollinator-conference.
The focus of the conference will be current research on pollinator biology and health, as well as policies related to pollinator conservation. The keynote speaker will be Dr. May Berenbaum, Professor and Head of the Department of Entomology at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Berenbaum is internationally recognized for both her research and conservation efforts related to pollinators, including chairing the National Research Council’s Committee on the Status Pollinators in North America in 2007. A full listing of the symposia and confirmed speakers is below, and can also be found at the conference website.
The conference is supported by generous donations from Häagen-Dazs, Anthropologie/Urban Outfitters, Bayer CropScience, Penn State's Department of Entomology, College of Agricultural Sciences, and The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. For more information, visit the conference website or contact conference organizers: Christina Grozinger, (814)-865-1895 or cmg25@psu.edu; Diana Cox-Foster, (814) 865-1022 or dxc12@psu.edu; or Ed Rajotte, (814) 863-4641 or uvu@psu.edu.
Additionally, a Pollinator Conservation Short Course will be offered by the Xerces Society at the conclusion of the conference on July 29. Topics include the basic principles of pollinator biology, the economics of insect pollination, recognizing native bee species, and assessment of pollinator habitat. More information is available on the conference website.
The Penn State Center for Pollinator Research is devoted to the study of pollinators, pollination, and pollinator management and protection. The Center combines the resources of 26 research and education programs spanning Penn State’s Departments of Entomology, Biology, Horticulture, Crop and Soil Science and Landscape Architecture; the Arboretum at Penn State; the PA Department of Agriculture; and the USDA. Center activities are supported by government grants, corporate gifts, the beekeeping industry and Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. For more information, please visit the Center for Pollinator Research website at http://ento.psu.edu/pollinators.
Symposia and confirmed speakers (as of 3/12/10) include:
• Behavioral Ecology - Robert Gegear, University of Massachusetts; Christina Grozinger, Penn State University;  Abraham Hefetz, Tel Aviv University;  Heather Mattila, Wellesley University ; Theresa Pitts-Singer, USDA-ARS; Peter Teal, USDA-ARS
• Evolving Policies on Pollinator Risk Assessment and Conservation -  Doug Holy, USDA-NRCS; Thomas Moriarty, Environmental Protection Agency; R. Thomas Van Arsdall, Pollinator Partnership; Mace Vaughan, Xerces Society
• Status of Pollinators Worldwide - David De Jong, University of São Paulo, Brazil ; Keith Delaplane, University of Georgia ; Yves Le Conte, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Avignon-France; Peter Neumann, Honeybee Pathology Section  Swiss Bee Research Centre, Switzerland ; Stuart Roberts, Bees Ants Wasps Recording Society (BWARS), UK; Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Penn State University;
• Impacts of Environmental Toxins -  Reed Johnson, University of Nebraska;  Chris Mullin, Penn State University ; Andreas Thrasyvoulou. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman, USDA-ARS
• Disease Ecology - Diana Cox-Foster, Rajwinder Singh, and Abby Kalkstein, Penn State University; Ben Sadd and Paul Schmid-Hempel, ETH Zurich, Switzerland; Marla Spivak, University of Minnesota; Rosalind James and Junhuan Xu, USDA-ARS; Michael Otterstatter and James Thomson, University of Toronto, Canada; Thomas H. Kunz, Boston University; Dick Rogers, Bayer Crop Science
• Conservation and Ecological Applications of Native Pollinators - David Biddinger, Penn State University ; Sydney Cameron, University of Illinois; Jim Cane, USDA;
Amotz Dafni, Haifa University, Israel; Tamar Keasar, University of Haifa , Israel;
Claire Kremen, UC Berkeley;  Yael Mandelik, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel ;David Mortensen, Penn State University;   Uma Partap, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Nepal; Mark Scriber, Michigan State University ; Sharoni Shafir, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, B. Triwaks Bee Research Center , Israel; John Tooker, Penn State University ; Baldwyn Torto, International Centre of Insect, Kenya

March 12, 2010
Vitamin Bee A new attempt to save the most vital workers in the orchards
Mar 4th 2010 | LOS ANGELES | From The Economist print edition
Now fattened with cookie dough. AT THIS time of year Gordon Wardell loves to stand amid the almond blossoms in California’s San Joaquin valley, listening to the “low-pitch, warm, happy hum” of millions of bees. But the bees are not as happy as they sound, which is why Mr Wardell, who has a PhD in entomology and is a de facto bee doctor, is here. More than 80% of the world’s almonds are grown in California and, to pollinate them, the 7,000 or so growers hire about 1.4m of America’s 2.3m commercial hives. Thousands of trucks deliver the hives in February—from Maine, Florida, the Carolinas and elsewhere—and will soon pick them up again. The bees’ job is to flit from one blossom to the next, gorging themselves and in the process spreading the trees’ sexual dust. Since 2006, however, bees have been suffering from “colony collapse disorder” (CCD), a mysterious affliction that has drastically reduced their numbers. As a result, says Joe MacIlvaine, the president of Paramount Farming and the largest almond-grower in the world, the rental cost of a hive has tripled in the past five years to about $150. Bee rental now accounts for 15% of Paramount’s costs. So Paramount has hired Mr Wardell, who has been studying bees for 30 years and CCD since it broke out. Its cause may be mobile-telephony radiation, viruses, fungi, mites and pesticides—or none of the above. In the absence of a clear explanation, Mr Wardell is concentrating on something different: nutrition. A healthy worker bee spends about four weeks in its hive, feeding on protein-rich pollen and nursing larvae, and then another two weeks in the field eating sugary honey until its proteins are depleted and it dies. For some reason bees are getting too little protein in the hive, thus dying after only about four weeks, almost as soon as they venture outside. So Mr Wardell is force-feeding them protein. He owns a patent for MegaBee, which he says “looks like cookie dough”. He puts a bit of this into the hives, blocking the bees’ entrance so that they have to chomp their way through it. As part of his new job, Mr Wardell is working with beekeepers across the country to supplement bee diets everywhere. So far he has noticed that hives are smaller this year and some colonies still collapsing. But he has hopes that his cookies will work, bringing more of a buzz next year.

March 10, 2010
Breezy Love, or the Sacking of the Bees
Birds do it. Bees do it. Beetles, bats and light summer breezes do it. I refer, of course, to that raunchiest of sex acts: the pollination of flowers. Bee on FlowerRuby Washington/The New York Times SEDUCTION Bee and flower meet. When it comes to sex, plants have more headaches than the rest of us. One problem is that they can’t travel about to find a mate — they are, after all, rooted to the spot — so they have to depend on intermediaries to bring egg and sperm cells together.
To read more, click here.

March 9, 2010
Researchers seek 'super' bee cure for a deadly disorder
By Wayne Anderson SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES "I'd like to give it a tighter timeline," said Mr. Pettis. "We're working heavily on a number of fronts." Through the growing science of genomics - the science of looking at molecular information in DNA - Mr. Delaplane's science team will select a super-resistant bee that is able to naturally combat CCD and a culprit in this disorder: varroa mites.
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March 1, 2010
National Pollinator Week featured in Better Homes and Gardens! Remember Bees when Ordering Plants & Seeds
As you’re putting together your mail-order plant wish list, think about species that sustain bees. I know what you’re thinking: “Bees might ruin my picnic!” Here’s my reply to that: “Cover your beer, and plant flowers that sustain bees anyhow.” I just got a press release from the organizers of National Pollinator Week reminding us that one out of every three bites of food humans consume is dependant on bees and other animals for reproduction. Now you can see why it’s so important to protect these critters (even if they do sneak into our open cans of PBR when we’re not looking).
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February 2010

February 11, 2010
2009 Zaagkii Project #1: Michigan Teens Protecting Pollinators
(Negaunee, Michigan) – Surrounded by a swarm of 150,000 loudly buzzing bees on a hot summer day, a group of Marquette County teens turned nervous faces and trepidation into smiles and a education that they heard loud and clear – to protect rather than fear pollinators. At first only two teens wearing protective beekeeping gear entered the apiary behind the Negaunee township home of Jim and Martha Hayward. The others wearing only shorts and t-shirts soon approached when they discovered that honeybees are not aggressive.
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January 2010

January 28, 2010
Vegetable seeds could be in short supply this year

Will there be a shortage of vegetable seeds for gardeners in 2010? It is possible, says Barbara Melera, owner of the oldest seed house in the country, D. Landreth Seeds of New Freedom, Pa. "In 2009, we had the worst growing season in 50 years," she said. Rain and disease destroyed crops and with them, the seeds for next year's garden. "Onion sets. And a cucumber seed shortage," she predicted. "We are being told that the cucumber harvest was catastrophic, attacked late in the season by woolly mildew. There was fruit, but no viable seeds inside. "We are being told that many, many varieties simply won't be available." Likewise, Europe had a terrible harvest this year, and Europeans purchased much of their produce from the United States, taking with it, the seeds.
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January 26, 2010
Bees, Beetles and Butterflies
Bees, beetles and butterflies will be the focus of discussion at the Lake County Audubon Society meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1 at Libertyville Village Hall, 118 W. Cook St. Cyndi Duda, an environmental education specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will make a presentation on these pollinators and why we should care about them. Duda also will discuss the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and will include handouts to help you attract and protect pollinators in your yard. The 90-minute program is free and open to the public. Call (847) 362-5134 for more information.

Network Theory
A Key to Unraveling How Nature Works In the last two decades, network theory has emerged as a way of making sense of everything from the World Wide Web to the human brain. Now, as ecologists have begun applying this theory to ecosystems, they are gaining insights into how species are interconnected and how to foster biodiversity. by carl zimmer Ecologists who want to save the world’s biodiversity could learn a lot from Kevin Bacon. One evening in 1994, three college students in Pennsylvania were watching Bacon in the eminently forgettable basketball movie The Air Up There.
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Plant Switches Pollinators When Caterpillars Strike
It is not a perfect situation, the relationship between coyote tobacco and hawkmoths. Sure, the hawkmoth does a good job of pollinating the plant, Nicotiana attenuata, which grows in the Western United States and flowers at night. But the hawkmoth has this habit of leaving behind its eggs, which develop into caterpillars that like nothing better than to eat the plant. So N. attenuata strikes back in a novel way, according to scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany. As they describe in Current Biology, it shifts the time of its flowering to mornings and attracts a different pollinator, a hummingbird.
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January 22, 2010
Protecting Pollinators
The disappearance of pollinating insects around the world has prompted global action. Work is being done by scientists, companies and organizations around the world to help to curb the decline in populations of pollinating insects. AT LEAST 80% OF the world's crop plant species require pollination with an estimated one out of every three bites of food coming to us through the work of animal pollinators which includes birds, bees, butterflies, bats and beetles that transfer pollen between plants. The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign is an alliance of pollinator researchers, conservation and environmental groups, private industry and state and federal agencies. According to NAPPC, the declines in health and population of pollinators in North America and globally pose a significant...
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Lemon Tree Inn of Naples, Florida is offering a Pollination Package
Conceived after the recent reopening of the Naples Botanical Garden, the Pollination Package includes three nights at the hotel including taxes, two tickets to Naples Botanical Garden, a guide on how to build your own pollinator garden, and a packet of flower seeds to help get the garden started. The Pollination Package is $399 now thru April 15, and $259 from April 15, until December 14, 2010. Rates are based on two people (double occupancy) for the three-night stay. Additional nights are available at an additional charge. “One of the best surprises about Lemon Tree Inn is our garden which has lemon trees, tropical flowering bushes and a variety of palms,” says Sid Kalmans, owner of Lemon Tree Inn, a charming tropical hotel in the heart of Old Naples, Florida. “The Pollination Package allows them to explore and learn about gardens and pollinators, all while enjoying a relaxing vacation.”
To read more, click here or visit the website at www.lemontreeinn.com

January 21, 2010
The Garden Guardian
LAURIE DAVIES ADAMS- Executive Director of the leading nonprofit Pollinator Partnership. Imagine our world without chocolate. Well, thanks to the efforts of Hillsborough’s Laurie Davies Adams, we don’t have to. As the Executive Director of San Francisco nonprofit Pollinator Partnership (PP), she is leading an international effort to study and protect the butterflies, birds, bees, and other bugs that supply one in every three bites of food that we consume—including chocolate. Before PP was founded in 1997, with Adams as its first employee, pollinator populations had never been studied or monitored, despite threats to many populations. “Colony Collapse Disorder—the bee die-off that received a lot of attention in 2007—is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Adams. “If they don’t have places to rest and forage, they die, and it’s at our own peril. Because food is important to us, pollinators are important.”
To read more, click here.

January 20, 2010
Vanishing of the Bees
The Honeybee Conservancy, Bee Native, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), HerFlix, Film Angels, and New Realities will be co-sponsoring a fundraiser for Vanishing of the Bees, a new documentary seeking to unravel the mystery of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The event includes previews of the documentary, Q&A with the directors George Langworthy and Maryam Henein, a silent auction, food and drink. Date: February 4, 2010
Time: 7:00 - 10:00 pm
Location: RAMSCALE West Village Lofts, 463 West St, 13th Floor, NYC 10014
Ticket donation: $20
More details about the event, as well as a link for ticket purchases, can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/VanishingoftheBees

January 19, 2010
Brisbane hearing on plan in butterfly habitat
The quest to build homes on San Bruno Mountain has once again stirred into action local conservationists who claim approval of a proposed development will ruin habitat for endangered butterflies.Fremont couple missing after camping trip 01.22.10 The Brisbane City Council will hold a public hearing tonight on whether to approve additional language in an environmental report that would allow 71 homes to be built on the mountain, 80 fewer than had been previously approved. Members of the conservationist group San Bruno Mountain Watch are opposed to the plan despite the reduction because they say it will cut off habitat for the endangered Callippe silverspot butterfly. "The plan does not leave a viable corridor for the butterflies, thus isolating them and preventing biological diversity," said Ken McIntire, executive director of San Bruno Mountain Watch, which has been fighting proposed developments on the mountain for years.
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January 18, 2010
Animals, Plants and Habitat
This excerpt from an Endangered Species Bulletin article sums up the problem: "Pollinating animals are critically important to the maintenance of virtually all terrestrial ecosystems, yet the population status of most pollinating species often goes unnoticed. Butterflies, moths, bats, birds, bees, beetles, flies, ants, and wasps assist almost all flowering plants in their reproduction, helping them to develop the seeds, foliage, nuts, and fruits that ensure the survival of innumerable wildlife and human populations worldwide. Sadly, many pollinator populations are declining precipitously around the world." This article, by Dr. Kim Winter, also lists examples of guilds of pollinators that are listed under the Endangered Species Act -- birds, bats, butterflies, moths, and beetles.
Honeybees are also in decline. They are suffering from what is being called Colony Collapse Disorder. Do an internet search on the phrase, and you will uncover countless articles and papers. Bumblebees are in decline too. Simply stated: our pollinators are in trouble, and if our pollinators are in trouble, so is our food supply, and so are we.
What can you do to help?
For such an important topic, we're guessing most people don't think a lot about pollination. Fortunately, groups such as the Pollinator Partnership have spent a lot of time thinking about it, and they have created or assembled a great deal of valuable information. Rather than repeat it all here, we encourage you to take a look at their web pages. Here is a list to get you started...
To read more, click here.

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