Conservation WatchConservation Watch A publication of

The Garden Club of America

Volume XXIIIVolume XXIIIVolume XXIII

Issue IIIIssue IIIIssue III

FallFallFall

The The The

PollinatorPollinatorPollinator

ChallengeChallengeChallenge

In This Issue

Update on Bees and

pesticides

What you can do to

promote pollinators

Web sites to aid in

meeting the challenge

And more…..

Conservation Watch Fall, 2014

Index

Update on Plight of the Honey Bee ___________________________________________________2

By Jane Henley

_Honey Bees—Where is the Buzz? ____________________________________________________3

BY Susan Lammert

U. S. House and Senate Fail to Provide Funding for Bills for the Innovation Institute on Pollinators and Pollinator____

Health____________________________________________________________________________________________6

By Martha Phillips

Let the Buyer Bee-ware: How Lethal Neonicotinoids are Sneaking into Our Gardens _____________________7

By Carol Carter

Pollinators in Peril: The Challenge ________________________________________________ 9

By Jennifer Fain

GCA Scholars on the Forefront of Pollinator Research _________________________________________15

By Teed Poe

Fellowship Intern Report _______________________________________________________________16

By Elliot Gardner

Seed Share and Propagation—How to Attract Pollinators to your Garden! _______________________________ 17

By Barbara Tuffli

The Milkweed Project _____________________________________________________________________ 20

By Town and Country Garden Club (Zone XI)

The Pollinator’s Garden _______________________________________________________ 21

By Litchfield Garden Club, Zone II

The Great Healthy Yard Project: Our Yards, Our Children, Our Responsibility : A Book Review___________________ 23

By Fayetta Weaver

Now is the Time to Plan How You Will Meet the Pollinator Challenge _____________________________ _ 23

Marsha Merrell

The Garden Club of America Pollinator Resource List _____________________________________________24

Update on Plight of the Honey Bee By Jane Henley, NAL Resource Committee, Dolley Madison Garden Club, Zone VII

In the past year, saving bees has continued to capture the imagination of Americans. Beehives have even

sprung up on the rooftops of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New

York. Still, their plight remains somewhat of a mystery. Although the causes of colony collapse disorder

(CCD)—a phenomenon involving the disappearance of worker bees that was identified by this name in

2006— has not been solved, new beekeepers are coming out of the woodwork, hoping to identify its source.

Neonictinoids, a class of pesticides (neonics) prevalent in the agricultural world since 2006, are widely sus-

pected of being at least one of the culprits.

What follows is a chronological list of important bee-saving actions that have been taken so far:

June, 2013: 50,000 bumblebees were killed in a Target’s parking

lot in Wilsonville, Oregon after being sprayed by neonicotinoids,

July 19, 2013: Representatives Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, and

John Conyers, D-Michigan, introduces H.R. 2692, the Save Ameri-

ca’s Pollinators Act of 2013,calling for the suspension of neonico-

tinoids until a full review of scientific evidence indicates they are

safe for pollinators. (https://www.govtrack/113/hr2692)

August 2013: EPA releases rules and new labels for pesticides

containing the neonicotinoids imidacioprid, dinotefuran, clothi-

asidin and thiamethoxam and includes a warning to prohibit use of

these products where bees are present.

(www2.epa.gov/pollinator-protection)

August, 2013: Pilot study co-authored by Friends of the Earth and

Pesticide Research Center finds that 7 of 13 samples of garden

plants purchased at top retailers in D.C., San Francisco Bay area,

and Minneapolis contain neonicotinoids through pretreatment be-

fore sale. (www.foe.org/beeaction)

February, 2014: The 2014 Farm Bill directs USDA to encourage

farmers to protect habitat as part of their conservation plan and grants

emergency funds for honeybee loss. USDA also funds research projects managed by the Pollinators Partner-

ship, most importantly the “Bee Informed Partnership.” (beeinformed.org)

May 9, 2014: A study conducted through the Harvard School of Public Health publishes research findings in

Bulletin of Insectology links neonictinoids to CCD. (www.hsph.harvard.edu/)

May 23, 2014: Bee Informed Partnership releases results of the survey of honeybee colony losses for

2013/14 winter season. Loss rate was 23.2 percent, 7.3 percent better than 2012/13. Acceptable rate is 18.9

percent. Yearly survey funded by USDA. ( beeinformed.org/2014/05/colony-loss-2013-2014)

Photo from buzzaboutbees.net

2

3

June 20, 2014: President Obama announces the first-ever comprehensive federal pollinator initiative to cre-

ate a federal strategy to save dying pollinators and ramp up federal efforts to address the decline in the bee

population.

(www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/20/presidential-memorandum)

June 20, 2014: USDA announces an incentive program totaling $8 million to encourage landowners in the

Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan to create pollinator-friendly habitats on their property.

(www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome?/contid=2014/06/0130.xm:)

June 30, 2014: Home Depot and BJ’s Wholesale Clubs announce that plants sold at their chain stores which

contain neonicotinoid pesticides will be so labeled by the end of 2014.

(www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/2

July 31, 2014: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System announces it will ban

the use of neonicotinoids and genetically modified seeds on its US lands by January 2016.

(www.refugeassociation.org/2014/08)

Let us continue to raise awareness and provide solutions to a very serious threat to our food security.

Honey Bees—Where is the Buzz?

By Susan Lammert, Vice Chair NAL for Agriculture

Garden Club of St. Louis, Zone XI

The decline of bees was featured in major publications such as: Time

Magazine's cover story, “A World Without Bees” (August 19, 2013);

National Geographic’s “The Plight of the Honey Bee” (May 10,

2013); and Smithsonian’s The secret Life of Bees” (March 20, 2012).

Given the broad media coverage of the precarious state of bees and

their essential role in agriculture, one would think that the Farm Bill of 2014 would have adopted a provision

requiring the government to address the problem. Despite the support of nearly 80 conservation organiza-

tions, there was nothing in the final bill except language directing USDA to encourage farmers to protect

pollinator habitat as part of voluntary conservation plans. Reference to Conservation Watch, Vol. XXII,

Issue 1, Summer 2013, “Bring back the Bees” by Jane Henley provides a helpful perspective on how little

progress has been made in preventing colony collapse disorder or reversing the negative trends in the popu-

lations of all pollinators. Her up date is in the preceding article.

4

To fill in the gap, President Obama issued a memorandum on June 20, 2014, the “Federal Strategy to Pro-

mote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators”. Obama established the Pollinator Health Task Force

to be co-chaired by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. Along with

the co-chairs, the Task Force includes representatives from fourteen other government agencies, including

the State and Interior Departments. Within 180 days of the date of the president’s memorandum, the Task

Force is charged with developing a National Pollinator Health Strategy which will include explicit goals,

milestones, and metrics to measure progress as well as a Pollinator Research Action Plan to focus federal ef-

forts on understanding, preventing, and recovering from pollinator losses. The Plan shall be informed by re-

search on relevant topics and include: assessments of the status of native pollinators, restoration of pollinator

friendly habitat, identification of best practices to reduce pollinator exposure to pesticides, and new cost-

effective ways to control bee pests and diseases.

On the same day that the president issued this memo, The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) an-

nounced an $8 million grant to offer incentives to the Conservation Reserve Program for Michigan, Minne-

sota, North and South Dakota, and Wisconsin farmers and ranchers to replace common cover crops with

“nutritious pollinator forage.” More than half of managed honey bees are in these five states. Earlier this

year the USDA targeted $3 million to support bee populations in midwestern states through the Natural Re-

sources Conservation Service on Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

The 2014 Farm bill authorized $80 million for Specialty Crop Research Initiatives in the fiscal year 2014.In

spite of its failure to focus on the issue; the 2014 Farm Bill did offer economic incentives to study the polli-

nator problem. On August 6, USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced a $6.9

million grant made to Michigan State to develop sustainable pollination strategies for specialty crop farmers

who grow, fruits, vegetables and nuts. The goal stated on the NIFA website is “to develop and deliver con-

text-specific Integrated Crop Pollination (ICP) recommendations on how to most effectively harness native

bees’ potential for crop pollination”. ICP, a program led by Michigan State, is defined on icpbees.org,

“Members of the Project Team are investigating the performance, economics, and farmer perceptions of dif-

ferent pollination strategies in various fruit and vegetable crops. These include complete reliance on honey

bees, farm habitat manipulation to enhance suitability for bees, and use of managed native bees alone or in

combination with honey bees.”

The most controversial issue in the determination

of policy is the role that pesticides containing ne-

onicotinoids play in making bees more susceptible

to disease. Research on this issue seems to be in-

conclusive, although a major USDA study last

year found evidence that such pesticides are one

factor in bee die-off’s. In May of 2014 Dr. Chens-

heng Lu, a professor at Harvard’s School of Pub-

lic Health linked neonicotinoids to winter losses to

bee colonies. Jeffery Pettis’, who stepped down

as head of the USDA’s Bee Research Laboratory

in July, strongly believed that pesticides were a

key stressor on bee health. On August 1, 2014,

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service became the

first federal agency to announce that it will phase

out the use of neonicotinoids (as well as genetical-

ly engineered crops) to feed wildlife in all of its

refuges. In Europe three neonicotinoid pesticides

have been banned for two years and Canada is

considering a ban.

5

An article by Jon Entine in the February 8, 2014, edition of Forbes reports that new data presented at the

Beltway Cotton Conference in New Orleans by Dr. Gus Lorenz, extension entomologist with the University

of Arkansas, shows that neonicotinoids may not be as harmful as previously thought because levels of actual

exposure are lower than claimed.

The picture is far from clear. Scientists believe that bee losses are likely caused by a combination of stressors

that include poor bee nutrition, loss of forage lands, parasites, pathogens, lack of genetic diversity, and expo-

sure to pesticides. There is a divide between green organizations and agribusiness, each side giving different

weight to the various causes of bee mortality. It is to be hoped that a consensus will emerge before it is too

late.

Sources: E&E News, “Bees get short shrift in farm bill,” Amanda Peterka, February 5, 2014

Presidential Memorandum - The Federal Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators,

whitehouse.gov, June 20, 2014.

E&E News, “Obama announces sweeping new effort to save honeybee colonies”,

Tiffany Stecker, June 20, 2014

USDA Office of Communications, Washington, June 20, 2014, USDA Provides $8 Million to Help Boost De-

clining Honey Bee Population.

USDA Office of Communications, Washington, Aug.6, 2014. USDA Awards Grant to Michigan State University to

Study Pollinator Solutions for Specialty Crops.

ICP.bees.org

www.nifa.usda.gov/newsroom

E&E News, Agriculture: “Outspoken head of USDA’s bee lab steps down”, Tiffany Stecker,July 7, 2014.

E&E News, Pesticides: “FWS bans GMO feed, bee-killing chemicals nationwide”,

Tiffany Stecker, August 1, 2014.

E&E News, Pesticides: “New study links insecticides to bee deaths”, May 9, 2014.

Amanda Peterka.

Forbes, “Bee Deaths Reversal: As Evidence Points Away from Neonics as Driver, Pressure Builds to Rethink Ban,”

Jon Entine, February 8, 2014.

Just in - A letter to the EPA from 17 environmental organizations quotes new evidence that links neonico-

tinoids to bee deaths and declining health. The International Union for Conservation cited 800 peer-

reviewed journals which concluded “that neonicotinoids persist in the environment and are toxic to aquatic

species, invertebrates and vertebrates.” This report is being published serially in Environmental Science and

Pollution Research. The letter lists these additional key conclusions: As they accumulate in the environment

the active ingredients increase “their toxicity by increasing the duration of exposure of non-target spe-

cies...the most affected group of species include soil invertebrates and insect pollinators with high exposure

through air and plants and medium exposure through water.”

President Obama’s executive order in June establishing the Pollinator Health Task Force should expedite

measures to accomplish this mission. The letter urges that the schedule for reviewing Systemic Pesticides,

including neonicotinoids, be accelerated. The current timetable calls for a review 2018-9.

On October 2, 2014 NAL speaker Rep. Earl Blumenaur(D-Oregon) and Rep. John Conyers(D-MI) joined 58

other legislators in cosigning a letter to EPA to restrict neonicontinoids.

Sources:

“Enviros pressure EPA on Bee Deaths.” E&E News, Tiffany Stecker, September 25, 2014. National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Weekly Roundup. www.sustainableagriculture.net October 2, 2014

5

Addendum to “Honey-Bees, Where is the Buzz”

5

U.S. House and Senate Fail to Provide Funding for Bills for the Innovation Institute on

Pollinators and Pollinator Health By Martha Phillips, NAL Vice Chairwoman for Legislative Updates

Litchfield Garden Club, Zone II

As of November 14, the House and Senate appropriators have not provided funding in their bills for the inno-

vation institute on pollinators and pollinator health as requested by the Agriculture Department. The White

House has issued a veto threat over this, as well as a dozen other issues. The requested institute would be a

public-private partnership to leverage knowledge and funding resources from both private and public sources

to support research into pollination and pollinator health. The Agriculture Department asked for $25 million

a year for five years. Of these funds, $5 million a year would go to a multi-agency effort to address the de-

cline of honey bee health and Colony Collapse Disorder.

NAL Chairwoman, Lindsay Marshall and Conservation Chair, Jenny Fain sent letters to the House and Sen-

ate appropriators asking that they reconsider and include the funds for the innovation institute in the Continu-

ing Resolution.

6

Let the Buyer Bee-ware: How Lethal Neonicotinoids are Sneaking into Our Gardens

By Carol Carter, Albemarle Garden Club, Zone VII Conservation Representative

Our home gardens can support significant communities of bees, butterflies and other pollinators even though

home and city gardens comprise a small fraction of the larger landscape. That is good news. There is grow-

ing awareness about the dwindling populations of pollinators and many concerned gardeners are conscien-

tiously planting pollinator friendly plants. That is also good news.

The bad news is that neonicotinoids—a class of insecticides chemically related to nicotine— can persist in

plants that we purchase from garden centers for as long as 18 months or more. This class of pesticide acts

systemically, which means that it is absorbed by the plant and then is expressed in all parts of the plant from

tissue to nectar and pollen. A study by the Pesticide Research Institute that sampled plants purchased from

garden centers (particularly big box garden centers) showed that over half of the plants contained levels of

neonicotinoids at levels of 2 through 748 parts per billion. Scientists estimate that a dose of 192 parts per

billion will kill a honeybee and lower doses can impair their ability to fly, navigate, forage and reproduce.

This means that some of the plants that we purchase and plant in an effort to help save pollinators could in-

advertently be harming them.

Much attention has been paid to agricultural use of neonicotinoids which were first introduced in the 1990s

and now are the most commonly used class of pesticides. Far less attention has been paid to the prolific use

of these “neonics” in home garden products where they can be found in concentrations far greater than al-

lowed in agriculture---as much as 120 times greater. The lethal levels allowed in home garden products and

the long lived nature of the toxicity is of great concern to pollinator advocates.

“Nursery” courtesy of cbenjasuwan for freedigitalphotos.net

7

“Neonics” are water-soluble and are easy to administer by soil drenching, spraying, trunk injection and even

through coated seeds. This makes them highly attractive in agriculture, as does the fact that they are less tox-

ic to humans than some other pesticides. Commercial nurseries apply pesticides to protect their investment

and the levels can persist in the plants and soil well after the home gardener has planted the plant. There is

concern that neonicotinoids also harm earthworms and soil beetles along with pollinators. It is increasingly

complex to create safe havens for insects and other wildlife.

What can we do?

According to the Xerces Society:

Avoid use of garden products containing neonicotinoids (imidaclopid, dinotefuran, clothianidin, and thia-

methoxam)

Ask your garden center if they carry plants that have been treated with neonicotinoids

Encourage your city or park district to use alternatives

Create patches of pesticide-free pollinator friendly plants

Share this information in your local community

Resources:

http://www.wired.com/2014/06/garden-center-neonicotinoids/

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/NeonicsInYourGarden.pdf

http://www.xerces.org/beyond-the-birds-and-the-bees/

8

Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles Freedigitalphotos.net

9

POLLINATORS IN PERIL: THE CHALLENGE

Jennifer Fain, GCA Chair of the Conservation Committee

Bees and butterflies are making headlines these days and the news is not good. Bees are dying from a mys-

terious ailment called “colony-collapse disorder” (CCD). Honeybees and native bees are all disappearing.

The monarch butterfly population has declined by as much as 8o percent in the last decade. Why is this

happening? Is there anything we can do about it?

The GCA Conservation Committee is exploring these problems and offering ideas for garden club members

to make a difference--beginning in their own backyards.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Bees

If a grocery removed all food dependent on pollinators from its produce department, a lot would disappear.

Of 453 items in the picture above, on the left, 237 were removed—including lemons, apples, zucchini, on-

ions, cucumbers, broccoli and many more—resulting in the picture one sees on the right.

We know our bees are in trouble. Beginning in 2006, beekeepers noticed that their honeybees were dying

en masse and scientists began to study and identify CCD. Eight years later bees are still dying and the rea-

sons are mysterious and probably a combination of factors.

As gardeners we know that bees are the most beneficial insects in our gardens. They pollinate our fruits, veg-

etables and flowers. In fact over one-third of the world’s crop production is dependent on bee pollinators.

10

Although CCD has received a lot of recent news coverage, the bee population has actually been in decline

over the past fifty years. We now have half the managed hives in the United States that we had in 1945. The

reason is that our farming practices changed after World War II. We stopped planting cover crops like alfal-

fa and clover which return nitrogen to the soil. Instead, synthetic fertilizers were used. We also began the

widespread use of herbicides to kill weeds – many of which had provided flowers for the bees. Farmers also

began to grow monocultures - a single crop or plant species cultivated over a wide area for many consecutive

years. Ironically, our country’s vast farmlands have become an agricultural food desert for bees.

In their effort to discover the cause of CCD, researchers have focused on a new class of chemical pesticides

called neonicitonoids. These pesticides seem to have an adverse affect on the nervous system of bees and

other insects. (The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, has placed a two-year

restriction on the use of three pesticides due to concerns about their deleterious effects.) The evidence re-

mains unclear, however, that neonics, as they are called, are the sole culprit. Bees are also susceptible to

mites and viruses. Most likely all of these factors: disease, pesticide use, and loss of habitat are putting not

only our honeybees, but also our native bee population, at risk.

Although we’ve depended on non

-native honeybees to pollinate our

crops for decades, we may need to

turn to native pollinators to aug-

ment the transportable honeybee

industry. Native bees pollinate

squash, watermelon, apples, cher-

ries, and blueberries more effec-

tively than honeybees.

There are over 4,000 different

species of native bees, but they,

too, are disappearing. Their

decline, like that of the honey-

bees, is likely due to pesticide

use, loss of habitat, and disease.

Last summer more than 50,000

bumblebees died in Oregon when

linden trees were sprayed with

dinotefuran (also know as Safari)

in a Target parking lot. This pes-

ticide belongs to the chemical

group neonicotinoids.

The Xerces Society for invertebrate Conservation (wsww.xerces.org) has launched an educational program

called, “Bring Back the Pollinators.” Its publication, Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting America’s

Bees and Butterflies, focuses on four groups of native pollinating insects: bees and wasps, butterflies and

moths, flies and beetles.

Bumble Bee

11

Monarch Butterflies

“But most of all I shall remember the monarchs, that unhurried westward drift of

one small winged form after another, each drawn by some invisible force.”

Rachel Carson, Letter to Dorothy Freeman, September 10, 1963

In the last fifteen years our once ubiquitous monarch butterfly population declined by eighty percent. Mon-

archs feed on only one plant: milkweed (Asclepias).

Milkweed is the only host plant for the Monarch's reproduction. Milkweed was once commonly found in

meadows, farmland, roadsides and pastures. Now, due to urban sprawl, commercial farming, spraying of

herbicides, and mowing, entire habitats of milkweed have disappeared.

Vast monoculture crops like corn and soybeans are being bred for herbicide tolerance. The widespread use of

Glyphosate, a weed killer, has resulted in the emergence of a dozen herbicide-tolerant super weeds. As a

result, farmers now spray five times more weed killer on their crops than they did ten years ago. Farmlands

have suffered a 58 percent decline in milkweeds – and an 81 percent decline in monarchs from 1999 to

2012.

“Saving monarchs is about more than monarchs,” says Chip Taylor, the executive director of Monarch

Watch, based at the University of Kansas. “It’s saving all the species with whom they share the same habi-

tats, especially the pollinators whose service provides the food for other species.”

12

What Can We Do?

Although our pollinator populations are clearly in peril, the good news is that you can make a difference be-

ginning in YOUR OWN BACKYARD.

Here are five things garden club members can do:

1. ELIMINATE OR REDUCE THE USE OF PESTICIDES IN YOUR GARDEN

1. The first principle should always be DO NO HARM

2. Use pesticides as needed instead of preventively

3. Avoid using neonicotinoids in your garden. Read labels to find out whether or not a product contains

neonicotinoids. Look for imidacloprid, acetamiprid, dinotefuran, clothinanidin, and thiamethoxam.

Avoid them! An excellent resource is Xerces Society’s “Protectiong Bees from Neonicotinoid Insecti

-cides in Your Garden” which lists examples of garden products by name (www.xerces.org/pesticides)

4. When purchasing plants at a nursery, ask whether or not the plants were treated with neonictonoids

Diane Lewis, M.D., member of the Bedford Garden Club, has recently published The Great Healthy Yard

Project. A review of this book follows in this Con Watch. It’s an excellent resource for learning how to

take practical actions on your own property.

2. PLANT FOR BEES AND BUTTERFLIES

“A garden is only as rich and beautiful as the integral health of the system; pollinators are essential to the

system. Make your home their home.” Derry MacBride, Pollinator partnership Ecoregional Guides

Bees on Ajuga in Spring, photo by R. Merrell

13

Use native plants whenever possible.

Resources for your garden:

1. Seed Share and Propagation (SS&P) is a new GCA Horticulture Committee initiative with a webpage

filled with helpful information. Reach it by clicking the link in the SS&P section of the Horticulture

Committee page. There you will find information on Plants for Pollinators, Propagation Information,

and Seed Collection and Storage.

2 www.pollinator.org provides a list of plants for your growing zone and area. Their website features

a pollinator-friendly planting guide tailored to specific regions of the country. There are other sources

that can help you find appropriate pollinator- attracting plants by zip code

3 The Xerces Society’s website features a “Pollinator Conservation Resource Center”. Click on your re-

gion of the country to find information about plant lists, habitat conservation guides and more.

www.xerces.org/pollinator-resource-center)

4. Gardens with Wings helps you identify butterflies you can attract to your garden. Enter your zip code

on their website (www.gardenswithwings.com) to find a list of butterflies in your area and a list of the

nectar and host plants you can plant to attract them.

5. Monarch Watch has a database of nurseries that supply milkweed plants and seeds. Their website is

www.monarchwatch.org/bring-back-the-monarchs/resources/plant-seed-suppliers

www.monarchwatch.org/bring-back-the-monarchs/resources/plant-seed-suppliers. Another source is

www.mailordernatives.com. For monarchs specifically plant milkweed! Also, check native plant nurse-

ries to find milkweed plants for your garden.

4. ENCOURAGE YOUR CLUB TO HAVE A POLLINATOR PROJECT

3. BECOME INVOLVED IN YOUR COMMUNITY

Find out what’s being planted in local parks, public gardens, and median strips.

Ask your city or park department to avoid the use of neonicotinoids on plants and trees that are bee-

visited (like maple trees) or bee-pollinated (such as roses and linden trees).

14

5. PLAN A PROGRAM ABOUT POLLINATORS FOR YOUR CLUB:

Here are some ideas to educate your members on the issue:

Show Marla Spivak’s TED talk on bees. (www.ted.com/talks/marla_spivak_why_bees_are_disappearing)

Ask a local expert to lecture on POLLINATORS, focusing on pollinator-friendly plants for bees, butter-

flies, moths, beetles, flies, birds and bats. Challenge members to plant at least 3 pollinator-friendly plants

(both native and nonnative) in their gardens

Show a POLLINATOR movie and discuss the local implications. Suggested movies include Nature:

Hummingbirds: NOVA’s The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies: More than Honey: Nature: The Si-

lence of the Bees: Vanishing Bees: Wings of Life: Queen of the Sun. Refer members to

www.pollinators.org for the Pollinator Partnership ecoregional planting guide, Selecting Plants for Polli-

nators.

Create a Monarch Way station through Monarch Watch, www.monarchwatch.org where you can purchase

seed kits, one for east of the Rocky Mountains and one for west of the Rocky Mountains. These kits con-

tain seeds for milkweed and general nectar plants. You can also register and certify your site to become

part of the International Monarch Way station registry.

This issue of Conservation Watch is devoted to the Pollinator Challenge. Please refer to it for

more information, as well as the Conservation Committee’s webpage, on www.gcamerica.org

We challenge you to make a difference—beginning in your own backyard.

We are an organization of 18,000 gardeners.

Collectively we can help our pollinators make a comeback

15

How GCA is Meeting the Pollinator Challenge

GCA Scholars on the Forefront of Pollinator Research

By Teed M. Poe, Vice Chairman, Scholarship Committee

Cherokee Garden Club, Zone VIII

Fear not. Our GCA scholars are working diligently to discover what is impacting our pollinators (bees in

particular) and also milkweed growth which sustains butterflies.

Last year, the GCA Board of Associates created the Centennial Pollinator Fellowship which, in its inaugural

year with the support of additional contributions, was able to fund four outstanding Ph.D. candidates in their

study of different aspects of pollination. The Scholarship Committee has just received their interim reports

and expects more results to follow as the year proceeds.

Lauren Ponisio is working in Yosemite National Park studying the effect of fire and drought and how they

inhibit the pollinator communities. Drought appears to have a significant impact as she only gathered half

the number of pollinator samples compared to last year. Bumblebees were particularly impacted. Her overall

goal is to determine how the pollinator networks function in relation to dramatic changes in the ecosystem.

Evan Palmer-Young is studying how bumblebee diets affect disease resistance. Bumblebees forage on the

nectar and pollen of plants with antimicrobial properties. He is examining the impacts of these phytochemi-

cals on the growth of a parasite, C. bombi, and the resistance of bees to parasites. Evan’s findings so far sug-

gest that there are different strains of this parasite that have different impacts on the bees’ resistance. He has

narrowed his research to identify which particular chemicals have inhibitory effects against a variety of par-

asitic strains. Stay tuned.

Samantha Alger is studying bees in the Vermont region. Her focus is on flowers that may be “bridges” in

viral transmission from infected to uninfected bees. She has more tests to do and will interpret the findings

in the months ahead.

Elliot Gardner is doing his field work in Sabah, Malaysia researching the relationship between certain floral

and pollen morphology. He is studying Artocarpus plant species that are flowering at his research site. It

appears that the most common insect visitors to the A.odoratissimus, one of the species he is observing,

were nocturnal moths and cockroaches, as well as small beetles and flies. Another group of pollinators we

often overlook. More information will follow from his extensive collections of samples and observations.

Virginia Henson, one of our GCA Elizabeth Gardner Norweb Summer Environmental Studies

Scholars, has spent her summer examining how milkweed population density correlates with pollina-

tor diversity. She has counted how many pollen structures have been removed and inserted into

flowers closely following the activity of the monarch butterflies, another of our important pollina-

tors.

All of this is exciting research that GCA and your Scholarship Committee support and hope will

bring useful information to all who are concerned about our pollinator species.

16

Fellowship Interim Report

by Elliot Gardner, Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic

Garden,

Garden Club of America Centennial Pollinator Fellowship, August 31.

2014

I conducted fieldwork in Sabah, Malaysia (Borneo) in May, 2014 with

collaborators from the Sabah Forestry and Agriculture Departments.

Many Artocarpus species were flowering. I collected and preserved spec-

imens of 17 species for studies on floral and pollen morphology, includ-

ing observational data (for example, on phenology, or the presence of

floral scent) for most of these species. I trapped insects visiting A. odo-

ratissimus (terap), A. integer (cempedak), and A. anisophyllus. I set up

pollinator-exclusion experiments for A. odoratissimus and A. integer, and pilot studies for two additional

species: A. rigidus and A. limpato.

Preliminary results for A. odoratissimus indicate

that this species is likely insect pollinated. Four

bagging treatments were applied to flower heads,

and seeds were counted when fruits matured. Re-

sults suggest that while both large and small in-

sects play a role in pollination, wind likely does

not (Fig. 1). The most common insect visitors

were nocturnal moths and cockroaches, as well as

small beetles and flies. Moths were frequently ob-

served probing between flowers with their probos-

cises, indicating that the flower heads may pro-

duce a nectar-like reward. The tripartite mutualism

found in A. integer—where pollinators feed and

lay eggs in a parasitic fungus on male flower

heads—may play a role in A. odoratissimus as

well, because fungus-covered male flower heads

were often observed with gall midges. Identifica-

tion of insects and fungi, and data collection for

the other species, is underway. Results will con-

tinue to illuminate the pollination biology of these

underutilized tropical tree crops.

Figure 1. Box plot of seed set by bag treatment for A. odoratissimus showing me-

dian, 25%-75% range, and extremes (n=75, R2=0.61, F=39.85 on 3 and 71 d.f., p <

0.00001) (Gardner unpublished) In a pairwise t-test, all comparisons were signifi-

cant at p < 0.05 except fine (small insect exclusion) and closed (pollen exclusion

Elliott Gardner , GCA Pollinator Fellowship recipient, out on a limb for pollinators

open coarse fine closed

020

40

60

17

The Horticulture Committee Helps Members Meet

the Challenge

Seed Share and Propagation

How to Attract Pollinators to Your Garden!

Barbara Tuffli

Horticulture Committee Vice Chairman Seed Share and Propagation

Seed Share and Propagation (SS&P) is the new, rapidly growing, Horticulture Committee initiative that edu-

cates members about propagation, supports club propagation efforts, enables seed sharing across the coun-

try, and the sharing of propagation stories. Everyone can participate; we hope that everyone will. In the last

few months the Committee has significantly expanded the SS&P webpages, adding numerous resources,

including suggestions for club programs, ideas for flower show and PX seed classes, ways to introduce chil-

dren to gardening, a template for starting a seed library in your community, information on invasives, on

heat zones, and importantly, resources that will make it easy for you to add plants that support pollinators

and attract them to your own garden and gardens in your community.

Pollinators appear to be in trouble, especially bees and Monarch butterflies whose populations are declining

at an alarming rate. Some species may have disappeared altogether. We can help by adding pollinator-

friendly plants to our gardens. 18,000 gardeners can make a difference. Please join the Horticulture and

Conservation Committees in working on this exciting project!

Here is an easy way to add plants for pollinators to your garden: find out what to plant, where to find

the seed, and how to plant it!

1. Find plants that will attract pollinators to your garden and gardens in your area:

Include different types of plants with overlapping bloom periods to support pollinators for as

much of the season as possible

Include plants that attract as many different types of pollinators as possible

Pollinator Friendly Planting Guides, searchable by Zip Code: http://www.pollinator.org/guides.htm

Gardens with Wings (butterfly gardening): http://gardenswithwings.com/

Regional Plant Lists for Pollinators: http://xerces.org/providing-wildflowers-for-pollinators/

18

2. Save and Store Seeds, preferably seeds of native plants that attract pollinators.

Grow from seed if possible

Plant organic seeds that have been open pollinated when possible

Seed Size: https://www.flickr.com/photos/seedmoney/sets/72157623238048232/detail/

Seed Savers Exchange: http://www.seedsavers.org/

How to Save and Store Seeds: http://www.seedsavers.org/Education/Seed-Saving-Resources/

2014 Schedule of Free Webinars: http://www.seedsavers.org/Education/Webinars/

Community Seed Resources Program Downloads: http://www.seedsavers.org/site/pdf/crop_chart.pdf

Short, crop-specific seed saving guide: https://www.seedsavers.org/site/pdf/crop_chart.pdf

Seed Savers Exchange YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/SSEHeritageFarm

Seed Savers Exchange's webinar playlist: http://www.youtube.com/play list?

playlistlist=PLzNxg5un8z6EVfkbRDiswLYsLBFTSEwmB

Organic Seed Alliance's Seed Saving Guide: http://www.seedalliance.org/uploads/publications/

Seed_Saving_Guide.pdf

The Real Dirt articles on seed collecting, saving, and propagation:

No. 2, Fall 2004, “Seed Collecting Basics”

No. 6, Fall 2006, “Woodland Wildflowers: Easy Propagation of Fall-Fruiting Natives from Seed”

No. 27, Summer 2013: “Don’t Wait...Summer is a Great Time to Start Collecting Seeds! Collecting

Seeds”

No. 1 –15 with Index (Members/Resources/Publications/The Real Dirt Archives)

3. Seed Sources:

Horticulture Committee Seed Sharing: https://www.gcamerica.org/index.cfm/members:news/get?

id=49

Seed Saving Groups and a Few Organizations with Resource Lists: https://www.gcamerica.org/

members/seed-share?ResourceID=2024

4. Propagation Information:

Start with the Horticulture Committee’s Basic Plant Propagation Handbook and downloadable

guides

Check The Real Dirt for helpful articles

When in doubt, search the Internet: “Germinate…” followed by the name of the seed, or

“Growing information…” followed by the name of the plant

Basic Plant Propagation Handbooks are available for $3 through GCA Headquarters

19

Online versions, with additional detail, can be accessed:

Basic Plant Propagation: Vegetative Propagation: https://www.gcamerica.org/index.cfm/

members:publications/publicationdetails/pid/135

Basic Plant Propagation: Sowing Seeds: https://www.gcamerica.org/index.cfm/ members

bers:publications/publicationdetails/pid/136

Germination guide: www.onrockgarden.com/germination-guide/plants

Seed Planting Calculator: http://awaytogarden.com/when-to-start-seeds-calculator/

How to Sow Seeds Outdoors in Winter: https://www.gcamerica.org/_uploads/filemanager/

contentpageresource/winter_sow_brochure.pdf

5. Join the Horticulture Committee in writing Seed Share and Propagation Stories to document

where our pollinator-friendly gardens are making a difference.

If you propagate your plant by seed or some other method please share your story of how you did

it! https://adobeformscentral.com/?f=8AybDukeG-AnjpxyyP4gCw#

SS&P Stories include the names of the pollinators the plants attract. To read stories: https://

www.gcamerica.org/index.cfm/members:publications/details/id/20

20

GCA Club Projects Meeting the Pollinator Challenge

Tess Brown with children at the Ogden House Herb and Bee Tea.

The Milkweed Project

Town and Country G.C. (Zone XI)

New garden club member Nancy Selby was thrown into chairing her club's conservation exhibit for a flower

show. Panic set in, but only briefly. She created an actual butterfly garden, using native plants, at the flow-

er show. Her idea was to educate the public about the Monarch's life cycle, the migration process, and its

fragile habitat. Garden club members loved the project, pitched in, and supplied plants and hard work. A

handout was created showing the butterfly's life cycle and the plants that could be included in a butterfly

garden. A small plastic bag of common milkweed seed was included with each handout. This has led to fur-

ther research about seed stratification and, ultimately, the planting of seedlings by the club. The result is

mature plants that will be given out at the upcoming Zone XI meeting. Others will be planted in parks, pub-

lic gardens, and members' gardens. The club's goal is to establish a Monarch Waystation. Who knows

where this project will end? A wonderful habitat for the embattled Monarch Butterfly is the result. For

more information, contact Nancy Selby at nselby0489@charter.net.

21

Nancy Selby, Grace Mueller, Kaye Reinertsen, Helga Guequierre, and lab assistant Todd Donlinger hard at work planting

milkweed seeds.

The Pollinator's Garden

Litchfield Garden Club, Zone II

When your beautifully designed "Butterfly Garden" morphs into a salad bar for ruminants and rodents, and

a preferred nest for a snapping turtle, do what the Litchfield Garden Club Zone II did. Reimagine your pro-

ject, broaden the focus to include all native pollinators, remove invasive plants and "deer candy" plants, and

redesign with native plants. Interpretive signs now inform the children at the nearby school about what a

pollinator is and what native plants are.

Clearing the area a bit further each year, the garden is providing shelter for birds and tasty delights for polli-

nators. The club funds the purchase of seeds and plants and maintains the garden while educating the public

about pollination.

To learn more about this garden which started in 1998, contact Marana Brooks at

MLBrooks@optonline.net.

22

An example of one of the

Interpretative signs in the

Litchfield Pollinator Garden

Garden Club members hard at working their Pollinator Garden

23

The Great Healthy Yard Project: Our Yards, Our Children, Our Responsibility

by Diane Lewis, MD.

Dr. Diane Lewis, a member of the Bedford Garden Club, Zone III and practicing nephrologist, has written a

very compelling but useful book The Great Healthy Yard Project: Our Yards, Our Children, Our Responsibil-

ity. Dr. Lewis spoke at the NAL meeting in 2014 about a strategy to protect our drinking water by creating

restorative yards. She shares her understanding of the correlation between even small doses of carcinogens

and abnormal human cell activity in layman's language. There is a review of recent scientific studies that

suggest associations between the increased usages of synthetic pesticides, weed killers, and fertilizers and in-

creases in the incidence of neurologic problems, diabetes, autism, ADHD, and breast cancer. She provides

some frightening data about the especially deleterious effects these substances have on children.

The book provides helpful suggestions for ways to reduce our family's (and community's) exposure to these

toxic substances while maintaining pleasing yards and gardens. The strategies outlined in the book are very

helpful to gardeners who are developing pollinator friendly environments and participating in the GCA Polli-

nator Project. There are also specific strategies for eliminating toxic chemicals from homes. This is a book

that every gardener, Mom, and environmentalist should read.

Reviewed by Fayetta Weaver, past Chairwoman of the GCA Conservation Committee

Mill Valley Garden Club, Zone VII

Now is the Time to Plan How You will Meet the Pollinator Challenge

Visions of bees, butterflies and other pollinators are dancing in my head. My list is prepared for seeds to

come and new plants are all nestled snug in their flower beds. As I look forward to some down time this win-

ter in the garden, I dream about what is to come. I hope this issue of Conservation Watch has you also look-

ing at your current plantings and making some additions to insure pollinator attraction. On the next pages are

resources that should help you. Please write me to tell your story of how you are meeting the challenge.

Marsha Merrell, Editor

Don’t forget the night

visitors to your garden

24

The GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA POLLINATOR RESOURCE LIST

BOOKS

American Bees and Butterflies and Their Habitat, Dr. Marla Spivak (forward), Mace Vaughn and Scott

Hoffman Black

Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies by The Xerces Society

Bee Basics: An Introduction to Our Native Bees by Beatriz Moisset and Stephen Buchmann

Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy

Conserving Migratory Pollinators and Nectar Corridors in Western North America by Gary Paul

Nabhan (editor)

Farming with Native Beneficial Insects: Ecological Pest Control Solutions by The Xerces Society

The Forgotten Pollinators by Stephen L. Buchman and Gary Paul Nabhan

The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden by Rick Darke and

Douglas W. Tallamy, July 1 2014

Managing Native Pollinators by Eric Mader, Marla Spivak, and Elaine Evans for The Xerces Society

The Status of Pollinators in North America/Edition 1 by Committee on the Statues of Pollinators in

North America, National Research Council

CHILDRENS’ BOOKS

A Butterfly is Patient by Diana Hutts Aston

A Seed is Sleepy by Diana Hutts Aston

Desert Giant by Barbara Bash

Monarch! Come Play with Me by Ba Rea (also in Spanish)

Isabel’s House of Butterflies by Tony Johnston

Look Up! Birdwatching in Your Backyard by Annette Cate

DVDs

Bees, Tales from the Hive (NOVA)

First Flight: A Mother Hummingbird’s Story directed by Noriko and Don Carroll

Flight of the Butterflies (IMAX)

Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air

The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies (NOVA)

The Life of Birds (BBC)

More Than Honey directed by Markus Imhoof

Silence of the Bees (PBS NATURE)

Vanishing Bees narrated by Ellen Page

Wings of Life directed by Louie Schwartzberg

25

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab www.helpabee.org

University of Minnesota Bee Lab www.beelab.umn.edu

University of Minnesota Monarch Lab www.monarchlab.org

ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

Bumble Bee Watch www.bumblebeewatch.org

Center for Plant Conservation www.centerforplantconservation.org

Creating Habitat www.plantmilkweed.org

International Pollinators Initiative www.internationalpollinatorsinitiative.org

Journey North www.journeynorth.org

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center www.wildflower.org

Make Way for Monarchs www.makewayformonarchs.org

Monarch Butterfly Fund www.monarchbutterflyfund.org

Monarch Joint Venture www.monarchjointventure.org

Monarch Larva Monitoring Project www.mlmp.org

Monarch Watch www.monarchwatch.org

North American Butterfly Association www.naba.org

North American Pollinator Protection Campaign www.pollinator.org/nappc

Pollinator Partnership (comprehensive info for every section of the country) www.pollinator.org

Project Monarch Health www.monarchmonitoringproject.com

Wild Ones www.wildones.org

The Xerces Society www.xerces.org

GOVERNMENT SOURCES

Natural Resources Conservation Service www.nrcs.usda.gov/pollinators

U.S. Department of Agriculture Plants Database www.plants.usda.gov

U.S. Forest Service Pollinator Information www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators

U.S. National Arboretum www.usna.usda.gov

26

PLANTS AND SEEDS

Applewood Seed Company www.applewoodseed.com/pollinator

Find Native Plants www.findnativeplants.com

Native & Uncommon Plants www.nativeanduncommonplants.com

Grow Organic www.groworganic.com

Monarch Watch Shop www.shop.monarchwatch.org (milkweed plugs)

Prairie Restorations Inc. www.prairieresto.com

Seeds of Change www.seedsofchange.com

Seeds Now www.seedsnow.com (non-hybrid, non-GMO)

Seed Savers Exchange www.seedsavers.org

TED TALKS

“Pollinators In Peril” by Jonathan Drori

“Why Bees Are Disappearing” by Dr. Marla Spivak

This Pollinator Resource List was compiled by Kathy Jones, Conservation Vice Chair for Endangered Spe-

cies. The list is also on the GCA website and will be updated periodically.

27

CONSERVATION WATCH | Fall 2014

CONTACTS

Jennifer Fain, Chairwoman Marsha Merrell, Editor

GCA Conservation Committee GCA Conservation Committee

Hancock Park Garden Club (CA)—Zone XII James River Garden Club (VA)—Zone VII

425 S. Windsor Boulevard P.O. Box 165

Los Angeles, CA Mentone, AL 36984

(323) 857-0931 (256) 634-0206

Wfain4@aol.com mr65merrell@gmail.com

Lindsay Marshall, Chairwoman Anne O’Brien, Assistant Editor

GCA National Affairs and Legislation GCA Conservation Committee

Cherokee Garden Club (GA)—Zone VIII Columbine Garden Club (AZ)—Zone XII

3656 Cloudland Drive NW 6018 East Cholla Lane

Atlanta, GA 30327 Paradise Valley, AZ 85253

(404) 949-0020 (480) 874-3323

lindsaywmarshall@gmail.com annie39ob@gmail.com

Conservation Watch, a publication of The Garden Club of America,

is produced by the GCA Conservation Committee. Readers’ ideas,

contributions, and suggestions are welcome, as are requests for

additional information on any of the subjects presented, and may

be emailed to the Editor.

Marsha Merrell , Editor