Bee Aware, Bee Connected

The buzz about looking out for bees continues to grow.

Declines in populations of bee species, both domestic honey bees and wild bumblebees, have sparked a need to better understand these insects and what is happening to them. A project called Bumble Bee Watch turns to citizen science to collect data about bumblebee sightings.

Bumble Bee Watch works through a simple process. Individuals take pictures of the bumblebees they see, log in to the project's Web site, post the pictures, identify the species, and get expert verification on the identification. By posting the pictures, people contribute to science and conservation efforts and develop a virtual collection of the bees they've encountered. For more information about the project, click here.

I love that Bumble Bee Watch gives us insight that can help bumblebees survive. However, the project also allows us to connect with bumblebees and better understand their story. That's a key ingredient for a successful relationship.

It's great to gain knowledge of nature, but really getting to know it is even better.

Plan Bee

A recent piece of student-led research from the University of Oregon should have people buzzing.

Declines in bee populations have at least brought the details of our relationship with these insects into the spotlight, and as this announcement of the Oregon study shows, much can be done with our new knowledge to improve the human-bee connection. The study looks at the role bumblebees play in pollination. After showing that bumblebees pollinate at a rate three times faster than European honeybees, the study lays out plans farmers can use to attract more bumblebees to their land.

The study is exciting for several reasons. First, it gives us greater insight into our interactions with bees. Second, the practical ideas it produces are beneficial to both agriculture and native species of plants and bees. Finally, it represents what can happen when people collaborate to find solutions to problems.

Fostering ideas is crucial when we are confronted with challenges. In the case of Oregon's bee study, the university empowered its students to find ideas, the students responded with research that yielded results and gave them applied experience, and the local farmers embraced the findings.

That sounds like a plan that would benefit the whole planet.

Bee in the Garden

Gardens are becoming the last-chance places for bees.

Honeybee declines have received most of the attention, but bumblebees are also disappearing. Pesticides and habit destruction, in particular, have had devastating effects on these insects, and we are only just beginning to understand the full extent of the damage.

Gardening provides an opportunity for learning more about and doing something to stop the disappearance of bumblebees. A Web site called Beautiful Wildlife Garden gives tips for how gardeners can do both. These suggestions include avoiding the use of pesticides, tracking and reporting bee sightings, and providing habitat for bees. To learn more, click here.

We've known for a long time that gardens rely on bees, but it's becoming clear that bees are growing evermore dependent on gardens for their survival.

Bee Minus

At least 50,000 bumblebees were killed in less than a week in a single Oregon parking lot. They died just because someone wanted to get rid of some aphids.

According to this article from The Xerces Society, which advocates for the conservation of invertebrates, an insecticide was applied to some non-native, flowering trees in a Target parking lot because the aphids were dripping a sticky substance. After the poison was applied (it is illegal to apply it when plants are in bloom), bees, not sticky aphid residue, began falling from the trees. And they just kept falling.

The Xerces Society is providing ways people can help, and it is also joining scientists in calling for bans on the cosmetic use of insecticides.

How ridiculous have we become? We indiscriminately throw around toxins to stop stickiness from trees that we introduce to habits. At every turn of this story (right up until it sped off the cliff), we see examples of humans' blindness to their impact on the environment. Such negligence gives us a failing grade in our responsibilities to the environment and should be treated as a criminal act.

Whad'Ya Know?

For this entry, I'm linking you to a great story.

I saw it (and maybe you did too) on the Natural Resource Defense Council's Switchboard blog link on the right side of this page, but I wanted to make sure that it got a little more attention before the blog link updated to a new story.

This one has some interesting lessons about what people think they know about nature and their place in the environment. Even better, it has a happy ending. I hope you like it.