Thank you for the timely and informative article on
the role of native bees in pollination (HCN,
6/11/07). It is important for farmers, gardeners and the general
public to learn about how the 4,000 species of bees native to North
America play a crucial part in the pollination of food crops. It
was interesting to note that blue orchard bees have such increased
rates of pollination efficiency compared to honeybees. Few people
know that native bees can effectively increase pollination of crops
like almonds, apples, raspberries, melons and squash, among others,
by up to 90 percent. It may also surprise some that a number of
crops rely exclusively on native pollinators to set fruit. Besides
their affinity for fair weather, honeybees lack the flight muscles
for accomplishing “buzz pollination,” a method of sonically
discharging pollen required by crops like blueberries, peppers, and
tomatoes. A variety of other specific plant-pollinator interactions
have been documented, revealing that flowering plants and their
insect pollinators have a long history of co-evolution.
So much remains to be learned about the contributions of wild bees.
And in the face of continuing habitat loss, agriculture is in a
position to lose what it does not even know it has. The Wild Farm
Alliance recently published a briefing paper called Wild
Pollina-tors: Agriculture’s Forgotten Partners. Available
on their Web site, www.wildfarmalliance.org, this informative piece
suggests ways of encouraging native pollinators, chronicles stories
of farmers who have successfully done so, and features a list of
crops that benefit from native bees. The lessons we are learning
from pollinators underscore society’s need for the wild. Let’s hope
that knowledge inspires us to change the way we grow our food and
care for our ecosystems.
Joanna
Johnson
Wild Farm Alliance
Watsonville,
California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The return of the native.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
