By Bill Duesing
The
Act Concerning Pollinator Health, passed by the
Connecticut legislature this year and signed into law by the Governor, is
important and pioneering legislation. CT NOFA is part of the Safe Grounds
Coalition which pushed hard to get this bill passed.
Thanks to all our members who testified or
contacted their legislators in support of this Act. Special thanks to long-time
CT NOFA member and Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station entomologist Kim
Stoner.
Her expertise from years of
studying bees and pesticides informed this law and will be important in the
future.
While pollinators are important for many food crops, that is just
the beginning their value and importance in ecosystems. And, the pollination services they provide
farmers for the few weeks a year fruit trees are flowering or the few months
that Cucurbits need pollination are largely just a side effect of the
pollinators' desire to sip nectar for much of the year.
What are pollinators? Wikipedia says:
A pollinator is the biotic agent (vector) that
moves pollen from the male anthers of a flower to the female stigma of a flower
to accomplish fertilization or 'syngamy' of the female gametes in the ovule of
the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grain....
Insect pollinators include bees, (honey
bees, solitary species, bumblebees); pollen wasps (Masarinae); ants; a variety
of flies including bee flies and hoverflies; lepidopterans, both butterflies
and moths; and flower beetles. Vertebrates, mainly bats and birds, but also
some non-bat mammals (monkeys, lemurs, possums, rodents) and some reptiles
(lizards and snakes) pollinate certain plants. Among the pollinating birds are
hummingbirds, honeyeaters and sunbirds with long beaks; they pollinate a number
of deep-throated flowers.
Look for Pollinators
 |
| Goldenrod and asters
are important nectar sources for pollinators. |
One of these warm sunny days, find a patch of goldenrod or asters
in bloom and look closely at the insects feeding on their flowers. Seems like
there are hundreds. Some are so small you can barely see them.
Others are over an inch long. There are bees
of many kinds (our state is home to
337 species of bees), wasps, flies
and more.
They're mostly after the
nectar (created out of air, water and a few soil minerals using sunlight) but
they pick up and spread pollen as they dine.
At other times of year, you'll see pollinators by looking at
dandelions, clovers, mints, linden trees or some of the many other flowering
plants that participate in these finely tuned relationships evolution has
created. If you can't find a patch of goldenrod or asters, you've found one of
the big problems we have. Asphalt and lawns don't provide food or habitat for
pollinators.
Pioneering Legislation
The new law supports pollinator health through restrictions on
pollinator poisons and encouragement for creating more pollinator habitat. The law could certainly be better, but it is
the first in the nation. It attempts to
limit the use of and the damage caused by the neonicotinoid class of
pesticides, or at least those that have a bee advisory box on the label.
One of the biggest uses of these very powerful pesticides is as
seed treatment. Farmers plant neonicotinoid coated corn seeds so that each
plant will repel/kill insects most of its life. Unfortunately, often much of
light pesticide powder escapes from the planter and can be blown a long way
with devastating effects on living things. The law mandates creation of best practices to minimize this damage and
works toward registering
those treated seeds as a pesticide.
Although it isn't just the fly away dust that is the problem. Years ago folks in France found out that
sunflowers grown from seeds treated with neonicotinoids contained enough toxin
in their nectar months later to cause bees who sipped from the flowers to lose
their way home.
The law mandates that all neonicotinoids labeled for treating
plants be classified as restricted
use. This means that as of
October 1, 2016, they can only be sold to licensed pesticide applicators. In
addition, it is illegal to apply these powerful toxins to any plant when it has
blossoms or to linden (basswood) trees.
If you think we should go further in limiting these neo-nics, you
could sign
this petition to the President.
Encouraging Pollinator Habitat
 |
| Honeybee on goldenrod. |
The law provides encouragement for planting and protecting
pollinator habitat. It requires amending
the state plan of conservation and development to give priority to
"development that includes model pollinator habitat, ... and to
expenditure of state funds for conservation purposes when an aspect of such
conservation includes the protection or enhancing of pollinator habitats."
It also requires the establishment of model pollinator habitat as
part of conservation plans on land to which the state acquires rights using
federal funds.
Next year the Experiment Station will publish an online citizen's
guide to model pollinator habitat. The Department of Transportation is required
to submit a report on the opportunities to replace nonnative, cool-season turf
grasses along state highways with native plant communities and to plant
vegetation including pollinator habitat in areas along state highways that have
been deforested.
The law requires the director of the Connecticut Agricultural
Experiment Station to appoint three of the station's knowledgeable scientists
to a Pollinator Advisory Committee to provide advice to the legislature's
environment committee.
It also requires the State Entomologist to report on the
conditions that increase the presence of varroa mites to that legislative
committee.
Creating Pollinator Habitat
According to the new law, a model pollinator habitat should
include "a succession of flowers, wildflowers, vegetables, weeds, herbs,
ornamental plants, cover crops and legume species to attract honey bees and
other pollinators" in groups or clumps to provide a long season of
continuous bloom. In addition, bee
nesting sites should be protected.
I recently attended a workshop on creating
urban oases
offered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in collaboration with the
Audubon Society. Although the focus was on the showier species - birds
(especially the ones that fly here from the tropics to breed), butterflies and
moths - the approach presented also provides good habitat for the less showy
pollinators. To protect our environment and our ability to live here, we should
•
Reduce or eliminate pesticide use. Insecticides
harm the pollinators directly.
Herbicides remove their habitat.
•
Manage invasive plants. Non-native, invasive plants support far few
species than native species do. They also push out native species.
•
Conserve water. This summer shows us how
precious water is.
•
Protect water quality. This is an additional
benefit of having a diverse, native plant, pollinator and bird-friendly buffer
along and around water courses and bodies. Limiting or eliminating chemical
fertilizers is very important too.
•
Plant native species. Native plants provide food
and habitat for many species as they use the sun's energy to turn common
materials into leaves, nectar, seeds and fruit to feed insects and birds. I've
never thought of caterpillars the same way since I heard
Doug Tallamy
describe them as the way nature turns leaves into bird food, passing the sun's
energy up the food chain.
The three important aspects of creating habitat are using native
plants, increasing variety or biodiversity and encouraging vertical structural
diversity. It is easy to understand how a landscape with trees, shrubs and
meadows, gardens or diverse farms make a friendlier habitat for birds and other
species than a lawn or large cornfield, for example. Apparently community
gardens are magnets for birds and other species, so many of us are already on
the right path with our diverse organic gardens and farms. A diverse ecosystem
with many native flowering plants is also one of the best pest control
strategies for farms and gardens.
Fortunately there are many online resources to assist in creating
appropriate habitats.
Enhancing your Backyard Habitat for Wildlife
is specific for Connecticut.
The Xerces
Society has a number of good publications including
this one specific
for New England. It has enough information for those who want to plant acres of
pollinator habitat, but has good lists of pollinator friendly plants. Audubon
has a number of
resources for creating oases and attracting birds.To
learn more about Pollinator Habitat and Biology, and Natural Resources
Conservation Services programs for farmers,
go here.
If we want the services pollinators provide, we need to create
(or let nature create) pollinator friendly habitats for them.
