Bees need help

The jury’s still out on the cause of a decline in the honey bee population, but there are clear steps that can be taken to address the problem.
Honey bee decline is a result of “a combination of things, a multitude of effects” certified arborist and horticulture manager Dustin Stillinger said Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Jay County Soil and Water Conservation District at the Jay County Fairgrounds.
Pesticides, loss of habitat, stress and disease all probably play a role in drops in the honey bee population, Stillinger said.
Beekeepers have seen losses of 30 to 40 percent of their honey bees, a non-native species first brought to America during the colonial era. Today, large-scale beekeepers truck their hives to various parts of the country to make sure fruit trees and orchards are properly pollinated, and even that process may be contributing to the stress.
“I’m not anti-pesticide,” said Stillinger, but he stressed that educated and thoughtful application of pesticides was imperative. “Understand the impact you have,” he added.
From Stillinger’s perspective, the question of habitat loss is central. It’s also the one that can be actively addressed.
“Habitat loss is a huge issue,” he said. “But we can plant habitat. It’s not that hard.”
Noting that there are something like 4,000 species of native bees in the United States, he added that it’s important not to overlook other pollinators besides honey bees. Mason bees, bumblebees and carpenter bees all play a role. “Most of our bees are solitary” and don’t live in hives the way honey bees do.
He suggested landowners look at ways to create additional habitat for pollinators by making use of marginal land, ditch banks and river buffers.

Among the plants that could be added that would be pollinator-friendly, Stillinger cited:
•White cloud.
•Strawberry seduction.
•Echinacea purpurea.
•Short-toothed mountain mint.
•Solidago rugosa, a type of golden rod.
•Asters.
•Grey headed coneflowers.
•And a wide variety of milkweeds.
“Milkweeds are a great pollinator plant, absolutely crucial to the monarchs,” he said.
What’s most important, Stillinger said, is having an understanding of the role pollination plays and how vital stewardship is.
“We can’t sustain our food production without pollinators,” he said.
In other business at the annual meeting, GNL Farms of Jay, Adams and Blackford counties was honored as 2015 Conservationists of the Year.
Kurt Theurer was re-elected to a three-year term on the district board and was sworn in by county commissioner Doug Inman.
The district is involved in the Upper Salamonie Watershed, the Upper Mississinewa River Watershed, the Upper Wabash River Basin Commission, Clean Water Indiana and InField Advantage. It also maintains two cover crop demonstration plots, one 5.5 miles north of Portland on U.S. 27 and one 1.5 miles west of the Jay-Blackford line on Indiana 18.