Will bees get their piece of infrastructure bill? The race to save Bell Bowl Prairie. MN law would require cities allow 'native landscapes'. Bee communities different in restored and remnant prairies.
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Will bees and butterflies get their piece of the infrastructure bill?
Americans are currently waiting for millions of dollars to be authorized for roads, railways, water infrastructure, and high-speed internet as a $1 trillion infrastructure bill approved by the Senate sits in limbo. As members of Congress haggle over companion legislation expanding the social safety net in the U.S., it’s unclear whether the infrastructure bill will get a vote by October 31 in the House of Representatives.
However it’s not just human futures that have been put on hold. Bees and butterflies are also left waiting for thousands of acres of habitat to be funded along the nation’s roadways.
Here’s my latest story for Civil Eats about a section in the infrastructure bill that would authorize funding for roadside pollinator habitat across the nation – $2 million a year over the next five years. While this may not seem like a lot of money, $2 million has the potential to fund more habitat-related projects each year than you might think.
As always, many thanks to the people who took the time to talk with me and answer numerous questions for the story.
Conservation
(WTTW) Conservationists are in a race against the clock to save a five-acre patch of rare Illinois prairie, known as Bell Bowl Prairie, from being bulldozed as part of a 280-acre expansion of the Chicago Rockford International Airport’s cargo operation. On Aug. 8, 2021, the rusty patched bumble bee was seen at Bell Bowl. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources recommended “any work related to construction that disturbs the ground or may remove flowering plants be done between Nov. 1 and April 1 to prevent impacts to foraging (rusty patched) bees”. Environmentalists have until Nov. 1 to convince either the airport’s board of commissioners or Illinois elected officials to tweak the site plan for the cargo facility in order to spare the prairie, which has gone undeveloped for thousands of years.
Bell Bowl Prairie proponents have a proposal to save rare land and allow Rockford airport to expand
(WTTW) At a meeting held Tuesday evening and attended by 150 people, an alternative layout was presented for the expansion of the airport’s cargo facilities. Landscape architect Domenico D’Alessandro demonstrated how a road, currently planned to plow through Bell Bowl, could be rerouted. “The answer is simple,” he said. “Let’s realign this road. All this road has to do is skim around (the prairie). That’s all we have to do.”
(The Philadelphia Inquirer) In 2001, a New Jersey township bought 130 acres to protect it from the development boom that was transforming the rural landscape. Twenty years later, the grassroots nonprofit Save the Environment of Moorestown is leading an effort to transform the site, now called Swede Run Fields, into a destination for butterflies, birds, bees, other pollinators – and people. All of which are species under significant stress and in need of safe and nurturing places.
To learn bees’ secrets, count them one by one
(New York Times) The decline of bee populations is a looming crisis, but there is a dearth of scientific data. Hyperlocal researchers, with nets and notebooks, could be key.
The five biggest threats to our natural world … and how we can stop them
(The Guardian) The world’s wildlife populations have plummeted by more than two-thirds since 1970 – and there are no signs that this downward trend is slowing. The first phase of Cop15 talks in Kunming will lay the groundwork for governments to draw up a global agreement next year to halt the loss of nature. If they are to succeed, they will need to tackle what the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services has identified as the five key drivers of biodiversity loss: changes in land and sea use; direct exploitation of natural resources; climate change; pollution; and invasion of alien species.
Xerces Society annual report available
(Twitter, The Xerces Society @xercessociety) “Our 2020 - 2021 annual report is now available. Some highlights, made possible by our supporters: 154,000 acres of habitat restored, 45,564 people attended trainings, 59 communities joined Bee City / Campus USA, 174 species assessed for extinction risk”
Economics
Can honey bees survive varroa mites? The challenges, the tactics, the future
(Entomology Today) Varroa mites have been the bane of commercial and hobby beekeepers for decades. The mites latch onto the bodies of honey bees and hitch a ride back to the hive, where they infest both adults and immature bees, reproduce on developing larvae and pupae, and, along the way, transmit deadly viruses that can lead to the collapse of the colony.
Policy/Law
‘Native landscape’ bill would make Minnesota cities more pollinator friendly, one lawn at a time
(MinnPost) The chair of the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Committee has introduced a bill that would require all cities in the state to permit native landscapes. He called it a next-step in the state’s modest but popular Lawns to Legumes program, in which micro grants and how-to advice is given to residents who want to convert some or all of the lawns to native gardens that support pollinators, especially the rusty patched bumble bee.
Parts of pesticide program violate California law
(AP) A state-run pest prevention program partly violates California’s landmark environmental protection law with its approach to spraying pesticides, a state appeals court has ruled. The ruling centers on a pest prevention and management program run by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The court found the program violates the California Environmental Quality Act by failing to conduct site-specific environmental reviews and notify the public before sprays. The ruling also found the program doesn’t appropriately consider contamination to water bodies or mitigate harm on bees and that the department understated existing pesticide use.
(Nature) On 13 June 2021, the people of Switzerland voted on two popular initiatives that aimed to introduce stricter pesticide policies. Both initiatives were rejected, but the political and societal debate led to large changes in governmental and industry policies.
Science
Differences in bee communities between restored and remnant prairies
(Twitter, Zach Portman @zachportman) “New paper out (in early view)... comparing restored and remnant prairies. Some key findings: - Bee communities in restorations are more homogenous than remnants - Remnant prairies had more oligolectic bees.” Original paper
Biodiversity depends on pollinators: a first estimate of how many plants rely on animals
(The Conversation) “We estimate that, without pollinators, a third of flowering plant species would produce no seeds and half would suffer an 80% or more reduction in fertility. This means most plants would produce fewer seeds if they were less well pollinated by animal pollinators. In most plants, auto-fertility is very much plan B. Overall, we estimate only about 21% of plants are not vulnerable to pollinator declines at all. This includes 12% that are wind-pollinated and 9% that have very high auto-fertility.”
Grave-robbing by male Eulaema bees
(Twitter, Martijn Slot @martijn_slot) “Why are these bees competing over access to this dead bee? Turns out these Eulaema meriana males are stealing the scent from the hindlegs of their deceased conspecific! How cool is that? See this paper by @stri_panama colleague Dave Roubik:” Original paper (1998)
Society/Culture
(PBS) Taking refuge from the coronavirus pandemic, wildlife filmmaker Martin Dohrn set out to record all the bees he could find in his tiny urban garden in Bristol, England, filming them with one-of-a-kind lenses he forged on his kitchen table. Filming more than 60 species of bees, from Britain’s largest bumblebees to scissor bees, which are the size of a mosquito, Dohrn observes how differences in behavior set different species apart from each other. Eventually, he gets so close to the bees, he can identify individuals just by looking at them. This episode of Nature premiered on Wednesday, Oct. 20.
Technology
Researchers successfully build four-legged swarm robots
(Notre Dame) Researchers report building multi-legged robots capable of maneuvering in challenging environments and accomplishing difficult tasks collectively, mimicking their natural-world counterparts. The collective behaviors of ants, honey bees and birds to solve problems and overcome obstacles is something researchers have developed in aerial and underwater robotics. Developing small-scale swarm robots with the capability to traverse complex terrain, however, comes with a unique set of challenges.
One More Thing…
“Ghoulish!” From Jay Hosler @Jay_Hosler via Twitter.