By Katherine Grayson
Here’s a situation to think about: you are in a classroom with the windows and doors open, and a small bee flies in. Do you, a. find a way to kill the bee before it gets a chance to sting someone, or b. let it find its way back out the window into its natural habitat?
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), “One out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators like bees, butterflies, moths, birds, bats, beetles and other insects.” However, a number of environmental issues have been severely diminishing the populations of these important insects and animals. Diseases, parasites and environmental contaminants cause pollinators to die off or lose their habitats.
Pollination is an extremely vital part of nature. These thousands of species exist to transfer pollen to flowers and fertilize them so plants can generate fruits and seeds. Our future, ecosystem and food supply depends wholly on the process of pollination.
The most important contributor to agricultural pollination is the honeybee, whose population has decreased 25 percent in the last 15 years. Many other species of pollinators such as bats and amphibians are also declining as a result of widespread fungus invasion.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has records of over 50 pollinator species that are endangered or threatened. Aside from the issue of fungus and disease, pesticides and habitat destruction due to land being altered are killing off insect pollinators.
It is true that some plants can self- or wind-pollinate, but 75 percent of the planet’s flowering plants depend on pollinators and need to be artificially fertilized without them, which costs us millions. In other words, further decreases in the activity of pollinators could bring about serious economic consequences for the United States and the rest of the world.
To help these species thrive, there are actions recommended by the Department of Agriculture that anyone can take. Firstly, do not kill them if they get in the way; simply guide them to where they belong. Also, try to reduce your use of unnecessary pesticides, while planting crops that benefit pollinators such as flowering plants and shrubs, and dogwood, blueberry, cherry, willow or poplar trees. Essentially, spread the word about the protection of some of the planet’s most valuable organisms.
http://www.esa.org/ecoservices/comm/body.comm.fact.poll.html
“Ecosystem Services Fact Sheets: Pollination.” ESA. Ecological Society of America, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2013.
http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2228
Shah, Sonia. “Behind Mass Die-Offs, Pesticides Lurk as Culprit.” Yale Environment 360. Yale University, 7 Jan. 2010. Web. 03 Oct. 2013.
http://usda.gov
http://nrcs.usda.gov
(I used a pamphlet because I couldn’t access info from the site due to the government shutdown, but the source is USDA and NRCS)