Conservation Spotlight: Protecting The Pollinators
“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don’t they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.” – Ray Bradbury
If you type the word “bees” in any online search engine, you’ll find countless articles, blogs and news reports signaling the world-wide decline of the honey bee population.
Before one can understand the ramifications and severity of this decline, it is necessary to understand the critical role honey bees play in satisfying the most basic of all human necessities – hunger.
In a document entitled Bee Basics – An Introduction to Our Native Bees prepared by the USDA Forest Service and Pollinator Partnership, bees provide an invaluable service – pollinating about 80 percent of flowering plants worldwide. Additionally, they pollinate approximately 75 percent of all the fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in this country.
As with any issue of global and economic proportions, the scientific community, as well as environmental groups and agencies, struggle to identify a single reason for the decline of the honey bee population.
Many experts believe it’s a combination. Disease and pest issues, continuous drought conditions, habitat destruction, a lack of available nutrition, climate change and the misuse of pesticides are believed to be the culprits. But as studies continue to reveal, the circumstances change from state to state and country to country.
So, what is SavATree doing about it?
Here at SavATree, we believe it’s our responsibility to not only educate our customers about pollinator conservation, but also how we’re changing our processes and treatments in order to do our part.
First and foremost, we follow all the pollinator safety requirements for the products we use – often going beyond what is legally required to assure the safety of pollinators on the properties we service. Our team members are aware of our commitment to pollinators, and we continue to train and retrain whenever label requirements are revised.
We have also changed the way we treat for several pests, and completely eliminated some treatments altogether, because they could not be completed in a way that wouldn’t be potentially harmful to pollinators. That is the commitment we have to the industry and the community.
But the plight of the honey bee may not be as dire as it first seemed. Bloomberg News recently reported that the number of honey bee colonies in the United Sates rose 3 percent in 2017 as compared to the previous year. Better conservation and responsible practices, as well as adding new colonies, are aiding in the increase.
