Good & bad news for pollinators: a news digest

While the news has been dominated by stories about the COVID pandemic, we thought readers might appreciate a digest of stories about pollinators.

At the Dakota Free Press on Friday, Corey Allen Heidelberger reports in More Honey, More Money: Beekeepers Bounce Back in 2019:

South Dakota’s beleaguered beekeepers managed to bounce back last year. According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, South Dakota produced 19.4 million pounds of honey in 2019, up 62% from a rough 2018. That’s the second-biggest honey haul in the United States, behind only North Dakota’s 33.8 million pounds. The Dakotas produced 33.9% of America’s honey in 2019. Nationwide, honey production rose 1.9%. . . .

There's more at DFP. The news is not so good in Becca Most's story at the Minnesota Daily, Honeybees dying from "deformed wing virus," research finds:

University of Minnesota researchers found in a study published last month that a common virus causes honeybees to forage prematurely which significantly contributes to colony decline worldwide.

In a collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Washington State University, researchers found that deformed wing virus (DWV) impacts the sensory and behavioral centers of a bee’s brain. 

By analyzing the correlation between gene expression and how a bee matures and behaves, researchers will be able to better understand the virus and its greater implications on bee colony decline.

Although some infected bees have physically deformed wings, many do not, meaning the virus affects more bees than previously thought.

DWV is usually spread by infected mites, which can attach themselves to bee larvae. Infected larvae develop a deformed wing as they mature, but the mite can also attach to fully grown bees, thus infecting them without leaving the characteristic wing deformity.

“The name of this virus is misleading,” said Declan Schroeder, the study’s co-author. “It's put a lot of scientists on the wrong track for a long time.”

Schroeder said understanding how DWV changes bee behavior helps explain why so many colonies may have collapsed and disappeared. For many beekeepers, their colony’s decline was a mystery for a long time.

According to the team’s research, DWV makes honeybees act like they are older than they really are, said Jessica Kevill, a University research associate.

Because honeybees have different age-related tasks, the fact that they are not doing them can be disastrous — both for the colony and the greater pollination cycle, she said. . . .

Learn why honeybees acting old beyond their weeks an issue at the MN Daily. Not all reports of research is gloomy. In Innovative Research to Improve Bumble Bee Habitat, posted at Crossroads: Minnesota's transportation research blog, Micaelaresh reports:

Entomologists have developed an innovative method for surveying bumble bees alongside Minnesota roadways, the results of a new research study funded by the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Research shows that MnDOT roadsides offer rich bumble bee habitats. The study offers information on surveying bee habitats and recommendations for improving habitats.

As recently as 20 years ago, the rusty-patched bumble bee was one of the most common bumble bees found from the northeastern and southeastern United States to the upper Midwest. It is no longer found in over 90 percent of its known range, earning federal designation as endangered in 2017.

One of few areas in which Bombus affinis still survives in depleted numbers is the metropolitan area of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Entomologists do not have a strong accounting of bumble bee populations and habitats, in part because of the challenges in counting these and other pollinators. When observers count bees in an area and see no rusty-patched bumble bees, it’s not clear if the bee has been overlooked or if it is absent from the site.

Roadside greenways offer conservation potential for wildlife like bumble bees. Nurturing populations will require recognizing whether species are present in these environments, identifying conditions that favor bumble bee survival in roadside greenways and improving roadsides to offer healthy bumble bee habitat while still serving road user needs. . . .

Read the rest on the blog. According to its About page:

Crossroads is a collaborative effort among the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Office of Research & Innovation, the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies and the Minnesota Local Road Research Board

Much of the pollinator news is upbeat as people begin to think of spring gardening. In a column, Community Voices: It's almost time for spring, garden plans, Jessica Lamker writes for the SW News Media chain:

I have a few friends who, like me, watch spring unfold with hope and confidence for the next growing season. We met through the Sweet Sioux Garden Club chapter of the Federated Garden Clubs of Minnesota, and as spring edges closer I asked them to share their garden plans for 2020.

Member Kim Turner of Savage said she wants her garden pots to entice butterflies, bees, and especially hummingbirds for beauty and practicality. Turner isn’t the only gardener on the bee-friendly bandwagon. As essential pollinators, Minnesota’s bees are critical to food production for humans and wildlife.

The Star Tribune recently reported Minnesota’s Board of Water and Soil Resources will select 500 homeowners from more than 6,000 applications to receive funding under a trial program that will pay residents up to $350 to plant pollinator gardens or convert their traditional grass lawns to more bee-friendly yards. It’s nice to see passion and resources for restoring the bee population in Minnesota. . . .

And like many gardeners, past president Pat Almsted says she’ll be lucky to keep up with her weeding in her Burnsville garden. She said she wants to remove the landscape fabric that she reluctantly got talked into when she had another garden bed installed years ago. The soil is compacted underneath, and the weeds are harder to remove. She’s going to focus more on native plants and getting rid of more lawn to have less to mow and provide a better bee/butterfly friendly habitat. . . .

The culture of gardeners is changing as they begin to see pollinators as essential partners in their lawns and gardens. It's not just gardens. In Cropland to be restored to support future trout stream, the Austin Herald reports:

Just upstream from Austin’s Todd Park, 100 acres of cropland will be restored permanently this year to native prairie and wetlands, supporting a creek targeted by the state for trout stocking in spring.

Steve and Diane Persinger on Thursday finalized agreements with Mower Soil & Water Conservation District for enrolling their 100-acre parcel – an area about the size of 76 football fields – into the federal-state MN CREP program. . . .

Typically, MN CREP restorations involve restoring hydrology through tile breaks, tile blocks, scrapes, embankment construction and daylighting tiles, among other practices. The site is seeded with a highly diverse mixture of native grasses and forbs beneficial to wildlife and pollinator habitat. That also prevents erosion and filters surface and ground water. . . .

Some of the pollinator news is more symbolic. in the Duluth News Tribune, State symbols are part of what makes Minnesota home, Catherine Winter and other U of M Extension Master Gardeners in St. Louis County write:

An editor at the News Tribune was surprised recently to discover that Minnesota has a state bee. She made the mistake of asking me about it. If asked, I tend to go on about bees until people start edging away from me. Perhaps to change the subject, she asked whether master gardeners might like to write about other state symbols that have some connection to horticulture.

So we master gardeners set off to research state symbols. We discovered that we owe several of them to enterprising elementary school children who petitioned the legislature to adopt them. Other state symbols have their origin in groups of enthusiasts with keen interest in things like mushrooms or soil. And we discovered that Minnesota is on the cutting edge when it comes to state symbols. It’s one of only three states with an official state muffin, and one of only two with a state mushroom. More than a dozen states have adopted the honey bee as their state insect — even though the honey bee isn’t even native to North America — but Minnesota is the only state that has adopted a native bumblebee as a state symbol. . . .

The state bee is our newest symbol, adopted only last year.

Until very recently, the rusty-patched bumblebee was common in our region and throughout the northeast. But its population has dropped precipitously. This year, when volunteers from the Minnesota Bee Atlas fanned out across the state to capture and identify bumblebees, there was great excitement when one person captured a rusty-patched bumblebee in Carlton County.

That volunteer was me. Every summer, a partner and I participate in this citizen science project. We catch bumblebees in specimen cups, chill them in a cooler until they are calm enough to be photographed, try to ID them, and send photos to experts in St. Paul. (We let the bees go once they’ve posed for pictures.) Our route is near Cromwell, and the rusty-patched bumblebee hadn’t been seen there for decades.

The rusty-patched bumblebee was the first bee in the continental United States to be declared endangered. Experts believe its population crash is being caused by a deadly combination of disease, habitat loss and pesticides. It was placed on the federal Endangered Species List in 2017.

Bumblebees and other wild bees provide important pollination services to many crops, such as apples, tomatoes and blueberries, as well as to wildflowers. Without bees, we’d lose our most delicious and nutritious foods — as well as coffee and chocolate. So there’s good reason to celebrate our state bee and work to keep it and other pollinators from vanishing.

Another symbolic bit of news? At the City Pages, Jared Fagerberg reports in Local Suds: 5 Minnesota beers to drink in quarantine in March:

Inbound Contains Bees
Blonde ale, 5.2% ABV, 14 IBU

You remember Inbound Brewco’s 2019 release Contains Nuts? The milk stout with peanut butter that captivated their taproom last winter? Well, it’s back in spirit, and with more purpose than ever. Contains Bees takes the peanut butter sandwich motif and repurposes it as a blonde ale brewed with honey from Fieldstone Apiaries, a gesture of support for pollinator advocacy (sales from the beer’s February 29 release supported Pollinate Minnesota). With the added honey, Contains Bees tastes like liquid Bit-O-Honey, a swiggable toffee beer that ups the ante from last year. Maybe they’ll toss some Nutella into the mix next year and call it Contains Nostalgia.

That's the buzz for now. Stay home and wash your hands.

Related posts:

• Pew Charitable Trusts Stateline looks at Minnesota's bee lawn program national buzz
• VIDEO: Watch Republicans get totally offended by neonic-treated corn & soybean seed tag bill
• BWSR accepting applications for Lawns to Legumes grants for Fall 2020 projects
• VIDEO: MN House Enviro Finance endorses $7 million in funding for Clean Water Fund projects

Photo: A rusty-patched bumble bee.

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