1. Native Pollinators: Habitat Conservation for Wild Bees
Presented by Mace Vaughan, Director
The Xerces Society Pollinator Conservation Program
Photo: Edward S. Ross

2. What is the Xerces Society
An international non-profit that works to protect wildlife and biodiversity through the conservation of invertebrates.
Photo: © Edward Ross

3. The Xerces Society Agricultural Pollinator Program
What is the Xerces Society
The Xerces Society Agricultural Pollinator Program
Mission: Support the sustainability and profitability of farms, while conserving habitat for pollinators and wildlife.
Photo: © Edward Ross

4. Talk Outline Talk Outline
Importance of pollinators for crops and wildlife
Declining pollinators
Research on native bees and crop pollination
Research linking natural habitat and crop pollination
Biology and habitat needs
Three-step approach to pollinator conservation
Financial opportunities available to growers for bee conservation
I’m going to present a lot of information. My goal is not for you to remember all of it, but certainly by the end of the afternoon you should have an increased understanding of the role pollinators, where you might find habitat that supports pollinators, as well as a framework for understanding how to improve this habitat on your farm or backyard.
Photo: Bruce Newhouse

5. Importance of Pollinators
Pollinators provide an ecosystem service that enables plants to produce fruits and seeds.
About 70% of the world’s plants require a pollinator
35% of crop species, worldwide
Value of crops in U.S.: $18 to $27 billion
One in three mouthfuls of food and drink we consume
Photo: USDA-ARS/Peggy Greb

6. Importance of Pollinators
Photo: Karen Ward, NPS
© Marie Read
Fruits and seeds are a major part of the diet of about 25% of birds, and many mammals
Pollinators are food for wildlife
© NRCS Jeff Vanuga
© Robert Parks

7. Main Groups of Pollinators
Photos: James Cane; Jeff Adams; Dana Ross; Bruce Newhouse
Photos: Mace Vaughan, Bob Hammond, David Inouye, Bruce Newhouse

8. Bees: The most important pollinators
Bees provide for their young
Bees actively collect and transport pollen
Bees exhibit flower constancy
Bees regularly forage in area around nest
Photo: Edward S. Ross

9. The Pollination-for-Hire Industry
Most pollination is - and will continue to be - done by the European honey bee.
This leaves us reliant on a single pollinator, one that is experiencing many problems.
Managed hives of the European honey bee can take credit for most crop pollination, but there is trouble in relying on a single pollinator as we know with the probs facing European honey bees.
Photo: USDA-ARS/Scott Bauer

10. Crop Pollination: Honey bees in decline
Fewer honey bees available
50% decline in managed hives since 1950
70-100% decline in feral colonies
: 31% losses
: 36% losses
Causes: Disease, pests, honey prices, and Colony Collapse Disorder
May not have noticed a shortage this year because of bees being shipped in from Australia.
Photo: USDA-ARS/Scott Bauer

11. Crop Pollination: Honey Bees in Decline
Colony Collapse Disorder
In , about 25% of beekeeping operations in the U.S. lost an average of 45% of hives.
Price for honey bee rentals for crop pollination likely to rise: already reported higher for blueberries in New England and at least one big supplier in PA doesn’t have enough bees to fulfill apple contracts in NY.

12. Crop Pollination: Honey Bees in Decline
Colony Collapse Disorder
Disease/pathogen?
Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus?
New strain of Nosema?
Pests?
Poor diet?
Insecticides?
Stress?
We are familiar with Nosema apis (Fall/Winter), but new Nosema = N. ceranea (seems to hit in the summer and acts faster)
Photo: USDA-ARS/Scott Bauer

13. Crop Pollination: Honey Bees in Decline
Honey bee colony rental rates for selected California crops, 1995–2005.
“Average fees jumped from $35 per colony in the late 1990s to $75 in 2005 (Burgett, 2005; Burgett et al., 2004), and fees can go as high as $150 per colony ( FROM THE NAC “Status of Pollinators”
The prices = result of: (1) good rental markets, (2) the probs of honey beekeeping, and (3) decline in honey prices

14. Crop Pollination: Honey Bees in Decline
2008
2007
Honey bee colony rental rates for selected California crops, 1995–2005.
Plus almonds,
2006
“Average fees jumped from $35 per colony in the late 1990s to $75 in 2005 (Burgett, 2005; Burgett et al., 2004), and fees can go as high as $150 per colony ( FROM THE NAC “Status of Pollinators”
The prices = result of: (1) good rental markets, (2) the probs of honey beekeeping, and (3) decline in honey prices

15. Native Bees Also in Decline
Habitat loss, pesticides, exotic
bee diseases
One of the West’s most common bumble bee species in rapid decline

16. Pollinator Decline: real or hyperbole? Ask this man.
Why Do Bees Matter?
Pollinator Decline: real or hyperbole? Ask this man.
China:
World’s largest apple
producer
40% of crop is hand
pollinated
Photo: Business Week

17. Importance of Native Bees
What does all this mean for the sustainability of crop pollination?
Photo: Mace Vaughan

18. Crop Pollination: Important to diversify
May not have noticed a shortage this year because of bees being shipped in from Australia.
With fewer bees available, important to…
Diversify pollinators for production agriculture
Expand habitat to support honey bees and native bees
Photo: Bob Hammond, CO Coop Ext

19. Crop Pollination: Native bees
Research demonstrates contribution of native bees to crop pollination:
51 species recorded visiting tomato, sunflower, or watermelon in California
More than 80 bee species recorded visiting berry crops in Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia
Most of these native species are solitary, unlike the highly social honey bee.
Photo: Matthew Shepherd

20. Crop Pollination: Native bees
Native bees are very efficient:
active earlier and later in the day
collect both pollen and nectar
buzz pollination
keep honey bees moving
no rental fees
Native bees can supplement honey bees if they are hard to acquire.
Most of these native species are solitary, unlike the highly social honey bee.
Photo: Mace Vaughan

21. Native Bees Keep Honey Bees Moving
Example: sunflower pollination
When native bees were present, the seed set in hybrid sunflower fields more than doubled.
Might also be the case in other sp where pollen needs to transfer between cultivars (e.g. apples)
Photos: Sarah Greenleaf

22. Native bees buzz pollinate tomato
Example: cherry tomatoes
When native bees were present, the production of Sungold cherry tomatoes almost tripled.
Most people don’t think of tomatoes needing pollinators, but with pollinators produce better crop. (Tomatoes = buzz pollinated)
Photo © Burpee; Mace Vaughan

23. Managed native bees in orchards
Example: Blue orchard bee
300 individual females for a acre of almond orchard compared to 1 to 2.5 hives of honey bees (10,000 to 25,000 bees)
Photo: Stephen Buchmann

24. Wild Native Bees and Almonds: studies are underway
Wild native bees in almond
Wild Native Bees and Almonds: studies are underway
Challenge:
almond blooms very early
Preliminary studies show:
10+ species of unmanaged native bees
Quite a few flies
Abundance lower than mid-summer
UC Berkeley conducting a study in Colusa Co. and Yolo Co.
Almond bloom early (not native to CA) not much flying
Flies = syrphid, bombeleid
NOTE: in Israel at least 18 sp visit native almonds (Chris O’Toole, pers. observation)
Pic = Andrena on almond
© Sarah Greenleaf

25. Value of Natural Areas Pollinators need habitat.
The amount of natural areas on or close to the farm is a major influence on diversity and abundance of bees.
Photo: Sarah Greenleaf

26. Example: farms in Mid-Atlantic region
Value of Natural Areas
Example: farms in Mid-Atlantic region
In 90% of farms studied in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, wild native bees provided all pollination needed for watermelon.
Interesting situation because even the most intensively farmed landscapes, field size still less than 5 acres with lots of weeds and other small areas of habitat scattered about (within a couple hundred meters of fields). I think that this provides interesting lessons for the Midwest and west on the value of small areas of bee habitat scattered throughout the landscape: hedges, windbreaks, weedy borders, natural areas, etc.
Photo: Rachael Winfree

27. Example: watermelon in California
Value of Natural Areas
Example: watermelon in California
If more than 30% of the area within 1.2 km of a field is natural habitat, growers can achieve full pollination of watermelons by native bees in the Central Valley.
Photo: Mace Vaughan