Bees, a key player in the agriculture and ecosystem of the United States, are in trouble. According to experts, native American varieties of bee across the U.S. are hovering on the brink, a situation that is a lot more dire than most people might guess. These flying invertebrates, often thought of as pests by homeowners, pollinate about 15 percent of all crops grown in the U.S., worth about $3 billion annually. Not to mention the environmental impact of losing such a major part of the life cycle of many flowering plants.
That’s why the Society for Invertebrate Conservation and University of California at Davis entomologist Robbin Thorp have formally petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect a specific species of bumblebee – Franklin’s bumblebee – under the Endangered Species Act.
Franklin’s bee was chosen because it’s decline has been well documented. Thorp found 94 Franklin’s bumblebees in 1994, but he hasn’t seen any since 2006. Bees of all kinds are suffering because of habitat loss, pesticides and diseases being introduced to local populations by imported bees in greenhouses.
“The decline in Franklin’s bumblebee should serve as an alarm that we are starting to lose important pollinators,” Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of the Xerces Society in Portland said. “We hope that Franklin’s bumblebee will remind us to prevent pollinators across the U.S. from sliding toward extinction.”
So what does that mean for you, and your family? It’s time to start teaching kids to respect bees, rather than fear them. Teach your kids how to recognize different types of bee, what bees do and how they do it. While you want a child to know not to poke a bee hive or wasps nest, a healthy respect, rather than a fear, of these winged pollinators, is the best approach.
