National Pollinator Week

June 18, 2008

Warren, Pa. – The Pollinator Partnership is proud to announce that June 22-28, 2008 will celebrate the 2nd Annual National Pollinator Week. The first National Pollinator Week 2007 was officially declared by the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Pollinators, such as insects, birds, and bats, are important because they help grow the food society needs to survive.

Did you know?
· Animal pollinators (insects, birds, and bats) are needed for the reproduction of 90% of flowering plants and one third of human food crops.
· Worldwide, approximately 1,000 plants grown for food, beverages, fibers, spices, and medicines need to be pollinated by animals in order to produce the goods society uses.
· In the United States, pollination by honeybees and other insects produces $40 billion dollars worth of products annually.
· The decline in the health and number of pollinators pose a significant threat to global food webs, human health and plant diversity world wide.

What are Pollinators?
Pollinators are responsible for assisting over 80% of the world's flowering plants. Without them humans and wildlife wouldn't have much to eat or look at! Animals that assist plants in their reproduction as pollinators include bats, butterflies, moths, flies, birds, beetles, ants, and bees.

What is pollination?
Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create offspring for the next generation. One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds. Seeds contain the genetic information to produce a new plant. Flowers are the tools that plants use to make their seeds.

Why do pollinators visit flowers?
Insect and other animal pollinators obtain food in the form of energy-rich nectar and/or protein-rich pollen from the flowers they visit. In return, the flowers receive the services of pollinators carrying pollen from one flower to another flower.

What’s Happening to our Pollinators?
Today, possible declines in the health and population of pollinators pose a significant threat to biodiversity, to global food webs, and to human health. Factors which could contribute to declines include: improper use of pesticides and herbicides; habitat fragmentation, loss, and degradation causing a reduction of food sources and sites for mating, nesting, roosting, and migration; aggressive competition from non-native species; diseases, predators, and parasites; climate change; and lack of floral diversity.

What can I do to Help?
Many people enjoy gardening and with minor changes to our practices, pollinators can be given a helping hand. Pollinators need different kinds of flowers because they have different kinds of mouth parts; some short and some long. Providing an array of native flowers ensures that there will be nectar for a variety of our pollinating friends. In addition, limiting the use of insecticides and herbicides can provide a safer landscape for pollinators to forage in, and plants for their young to live on. Providing items such as bee-blocks, homes for our native bees which provide breeding and rearing spaces, are also another important piece to the pollinator puzzle.

Find out more at:

North American Pollinator Protection Campaign
Working to protect the pollinators of the North American continent
www.nappc.org

USDA Forest Service Celebrating Wildflowers - Pollinators
www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/index.shtml

Comments

Colin Henshaw said…

It is well established that insects are vitally important to crop production. What is not generally appreciated is the fact that environmental groups have reported steady declines of common insects, birds and other animals over the past forty or fifty years. This is a serious concern. The reasons usually cited for this is habitat destruction or pesticides, but there is another reason that has rarely ever been considered. That is light pollution as a result of the twenty four hour day that prevails in our cities. Unfortunately this has far reaching ecological effects. It is well known that lights attract insects. Some more than others, but all are culpable. If they are not killed outright by the heat of the lights, insects will spiral around them until they drop to the ground exhausted. They will then be either too tired either to feed or to procreate. With city lights left on all night every night, three hundred and sixty-five nights a year, cities will sweep up insects from surrounding areas like a vacuum cleaner. One light may kill hundreds of insects per night. Insect populations will then decline and this will have concomitant effects on higher order consumers that are dependant on them. This will explain many of the observed declines in birds, reptiles, amphibians, spiders and small mammals. However, insects are also important as pollinators, so plant diversity will also be affected. This will exacerbate the situation for insects even further as they will have less to feed on.
The situation will only improve if there is a universal culture change in our attitudes to energy use, especially lighting at night. Full cut-off lighting needs to be introduced everywhere, and 11.00p.m. curfews on street lighting need to be imposed on minor roads. Security lighting should to be motion operated and aimed downwards so it only comes on when needed and does not stray onto adjacent properties. Decorative lighting of any description (floodlighting of public buildings and churches, illuminated regeneration follies, skybeams and lasers) needs to be eliminated altogether as it doesn't serve any useful purpose. Sports lighting should be roofed over or sports enthusiasts encouraged to confine their activities to daylight hours. Lighting should only be used sparingly, on a needs must basis, when needed, where needed and in the correct amounts.

June 21, 2008 at 1:23 AM

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