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The Bees Knees

Rebuilding from the bottom of the food chain up

hen it comes to creating a regenerative agriculture and combating climate change, we have allies in nature, particularly
certain keystone wildlife species whose restoration and protection will
enrich all our lives.
A keystone species is one that has an outsized role in the overall
health of an ecosystem, like the keystone in an arch of a doorway. Pull
it out and the doorand possibly the wallcollapses. One such keystone species is the gray wolf, which was nearly exterminated in the
twentieth century. The reestablishment of the wolf to its former range
in the northern Rockies beginning in the mid-1990s is one of the great
success stories of modern conservation. Its also a prime illustration
of top-down biology at work. Wolves are an apex carnivore species
whose presence creates a cascading effect downward through the food
chain. This keystone effect is an important one for ecosystem health
though you might feel otherwise if you were the slowest member of an
elk herd!
But what about species in trouble at the bottom end of the food
chain? Some, such as monarch butterflies, get lots of attention and
are easy to love, but what about bees and other insect species that
have a keystone role to play in ecosystem healthas well as human
food productionbut are much more charismatically challenged?
Wouldnt restoring their populations and habitat have a positive cascading effect upward? More to the point, could a bottom-up approach
be complementary to top-down conservation work that might otherwise not function as well on its own for lack of abundant prey? If so, is
it worth the time and money to educate the public to support pollinator
habitat recovery through Save the Bee campaigns?

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Early research suggests that the answer to the first question is yes
building the base of food chains has a significant effect all the way up
the line, including with ongoing predator recovery efforts. The answer
to the second is Hell yes! because healthy bee and butterfly habitat
attracts other insects that provide food for game birds and omnivorous
mammals, including us. Bumblebees, butterflies, and nectar-feeding
bats and hummingbirds, among others, are inextricably connected to
resilient and productive food chains, healthy water and mineral cycles,
and even to the creation of soil carbon via herbivore grazing and sustainable farming.
Of course, as with the wolf, native insects have every right to exist
and be healthy for their own sake. Linking them to human food production just increases their odds of survival.
To test these questions, a pioneering effort at bottom-up restoration has begun in the Sonoita Creek watershed of southern Arizona,
home to over 300 species of native bees, 180 different butterflies and
moths, 14 species of hummingbirds, and 2 types of nectar-feeding
bats. This collaborative effort is called Borderlands Restoration,
and its aim is to restore and protect ecological spaces for pollinators
and their nectar sources. Food chain restoration, a term coined by
ecologist and local resident Ron Pulliam, starts by repairing damaged
creeks and streams in the area, crucial habitat for pollinators. After
that, nectar- and fruit-bearing plants are planted along the healed
watercourses, which in turn supports pollinators, frugivores (fruit
eaters), herbivores, and predators.
The next step in the restoration process is to design and plant linear
corridors of fast-growing, closely spaced perennial bushes or shrubs
called hedgerows along the edges of fields, orchards, and pastures. As
in, lots of hedgerows. Bees love hedgerows, and so do ladybugs and butterflies. Research shows that beneficial insects are most active within
120 feet of such perennial habitat. Farmers have known this for a long
time, which is why the cultivation of hedgerows is an ancient human
activity. Alas, with the advent of industrial agricultural practices,
including the use of tractors, chemical pesticides, and fence-to-fence
food production, hedgerows have taken a severe beating around the
world (not to mention the soil beneath them). And with their increased
scarcity came the steep decline of native pollinators.
Recent news headlines about pollinator declines have focused on
the domesticated honeybee, populations of which have dropped by
at least 33 percent since 2007, triggered by deadly viruses, aggressive
mites, and widespread use of a neuro-based toxic chemical class called
neonicotinoids (which are banned in Europe). But Gary Nabhan, a

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The Bees Knees


University of Arizona agroecologist and coauthor of The
Forgotten Pollinators, notes that
declines have been just as precipitous for a variety of native
pollinators in North America
as well, including five species
of bumblebees and, to a lesser
extent, hummingbirds and bats.
These declines are significant because the pollination
services provided by honeybees
to American agriculture are
Insects of many kinds love hedgerows, including
estimated to be worth at least
native bees, ladybugs, and butterflies. Placing a
$30 billion a year, according to
hedgerow close to a farm field increases rates of
pollination. Photo by Stephen Lavery/Shutterstock
the USDA. Thats what it would
cost if honeybee hives had to
be imported to every farm in the nation (one honeybee hive can cost
a farmer $150 to $200). In California, 1.5 million hives are required
annually to pollinate the states vast fruit and vegetable cropsif hives
can be found. In Europe, a new study shows that the region is 13 million
bee colonies short of whats needed to pollinate its crops.
Which brings up a second concern: subsistence. As Nabhan and his
coauthor Stephen Buchmann have calculated, one in every three bites
of food consumed in the United States depends directly on insects for
pollination, including apples, apricots, avocados, asparagus, broccoli,
blueberries, carrots, celery, cherries, cucumbers, citrus, pumpkins,
squash, watermelons, olives, pears, peaches, onions, raspberries, and
sunflower seeds, and all sorts of nuts. Without pollinators, the fruit and
produce sections of our grocery stores would look very different indeed!
The Borderlands Restoration project aims to reverse the downward
trend among pollinators in its area by healing creeks and coordinating the planting of diverse varieties of native shrubs and flowering
plants, each with a different but complementary ecological purpose.
This includes native vines and perennial native milkweeds. Other
pollinator-friendly strategies include fences made of dried plant stalks,
rainwater-harvesting structures, water-efficient irrigation practices,
and anything else that extends the flowering season and keeps beneficial insects around as long as possible.
Its all good stuff for the economy as well.
Our vision is that the return of formerly forgotten pollinators will not
only curb the ongoing extinction of ecological relationships that plagues

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the continent today, wrote
Nabhan, but will also return
economic health . . . [to] the
now-impoverished borderlands
region, one in which new jobs
restoring productive habitat on
farms, in native plant nurseries
and at nature-tourism destinations would be most welcome.
In particular, he wants to
demonstrate that biodiversity
conservation on working landscapes of the Southwest can
alleviate the crippling human
One in every three bites of food consumed in
poverty and food-security levthe United States depends directly on insects for
els of border counties, which
pollination, including olives, apples, apricots, and
avocados. Photo by Olgysha/Shutterstock
are nearly twice the national
average. The key, says Nabhan,
is linking research, collaborative conservation, and sustainable food
production together so that each can learn from the other.
There are challenges to overcome in implementing food chain
restoration, of course, including hungry deer, persistent drought, and
tenacious weeds. Getting the right wildflower mix in a particular place
can also be difficult. Native seeds are often expensive, and newly planted
hedgerows can take as long as eight years before becoming useful to
pollinators. Still, the benefits outweigh the costs, as habitat restoration
projects and collaborative conservation efforts such as Borderland
Restoration demonstrate. And like the reintroduction of the wolf, the
effects of this good work are cascading.
In this case, from the bottom up.

TO LEARN MORE
For more information about bee-friendly
farming and conservation nationwide, see the
website of the Xerces Society: www.xerces.org
The Forgotten Pollinators by Stephen Buchmann and
Gary Nabhan. Island Press, Washington, DC, 1996.

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