Why Nature Needs Its Native Bees
The Buzz on Bees
By Divya Abhat
Wildlife professionals know well that when habitat degrades, wildlife suffers. New research on the critical role of healthy habitat is suggesting that wildlife managers spend time examining some of the smallest members of the wildlife brood.
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January 3rd, 2009 at 10:27 pm
First off, thanks much for providing this information. I have referred many folks in the Puget Sound area to your site.
Second, I have witnessed a sharp decline in the number of birds, bees, bats, butterflies, dragonflies, etc. in the 12 years I have lived in my small house. This in spite of the fact that I have planted a large number of trees - evergree, deciduous, fruit - as well as shrubs and perennials. I have an area set aside as a wild woodland garden (20×20) filled with all kinds of plants. This spring and summer was the worst I’ve seen it, with many fewer pollinators. I worried that some of my fruit trees would not produce, but in fact they did although some are self-pollinating.
Third, and most seriously, I have witnessed a severe loss of habitat in the small north King County,WA city where I live. On the street where I live, homeowners to the immediate north, south, across the street, kitty-corner from my backyard, two houses up from me and around the corner, folks have removed old evergreen and dediduous trees. This loss of habitat removes places where various creatures can live, to say nothing about removing oxygen from increasing air pollution.
Ther has been no replanting of anything. Just more sunlight coming in, even while we here in the Puget Sound region are, as of the end of 2008, almost six inches short of our average annual rainfall.
My response, thanks to information from your website, is to call attention to this problem to my community, to City Council, City Manager and Parks Dept about what can be done. As well I will be writing a LTE to the local paper to reach a broader segment of the community.
But we humans cannot continue destroying our environment and the habitats of so many other creatures without paying a stiff price, and the price will be that we will aphxiate ourselves, and find that we can no longer afford to eat the food that once was so abundant when pollinators prevailed in larger numbers.