{"id":4706,"date":"2016-01-15T19:32:08","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T19:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=4706"},"modified":"2016-01-15T19:32:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T19:32:14","slug":"report-wild-bee-decline-threatens-u-s-crop-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=4706","title":{"rendered":"Report: Wild Bee Decline Threatens U.S. Crop Production"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>by Eric Galatas<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>AUSTIN, Texas<\/strong> &#8211; Wild bee populations in the U.S. are disappearing in many of the country\u2019s most important farmlands, including West Texas, California\u2019s Central Valley, and the Great Plains and California\u2019s Central Valley according to a national study led by the University of Vermont.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor Ricketts, professor and director, University of Vermont\u2019s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and the report\u2019s senior author, says continued losses could disrupt the nation\u2019s crop production.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWild bees are important because they help pollinate our crops,\u201d says Ricketts. \u201cAbout 70 percent of the most important global crops require bees or other pollinators to set the fruit and vegetables we grow them for. That\u2019s worth billions, in the U.S. alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4707\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4707\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4707\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/gr-49695-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Wild bee populations are on the decline in many of the country\u2019s most important farmlands. Photo: Derek Keats\/Wikimedia Commons\" width=\"600\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/gr-49695-1-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/gr-49695-1-1-300x219.jpg 300w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/gr-49695-1-1-405x296.jpg 405w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4707\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wild bee populations are on the decline in many of the country\u2019s most important farmlands. Photo: Derek Keats\/Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The report found bee numbers dropped by 23 percent between 2008 and 2013, and cites a loss of habitat, pesticide use and climate change. Ricketts says farmers with crops that depend on pollinators, from apple orchards to pumpkin patches, face a growing mismatch between rising demand for pollination and a falling supply of bees.<\/p>\n<p>A team of seven researchers from four universities created a map of wild bee populations across the \u201cLower 48\u201d states, and zeroed in on areas with the largest losses. Ricketts says he\u2019s hopeful the report will help conservation groups focus their efforts to carve out spaces more friendly to wild bees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe good news here is, it\u2019s not a mystery,\u201d says Ricketts. \u201cThey need three things: they need places to nest, they need flowers to feed from, and they need to not be poisoned by agrichemicals, like pesticides.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ricketts calls the nation\u2019s nearly 4,000 species of wild bees a \u201cprecious natural resource.\u201d He says protecting them is critical to maintaining a $3 billion a year farming industry and keeping fruits and vegetables on dinner tables across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Eric Galatas AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; Wild bee populations in the U.S. are disappearing in many of the country\u2019s most important farmlands, including West Texas, California\u2019s Central Valley, and the Great Plains and California\u2019s Central Valley according to a national study led by the University of Vermont. Taylor Ricketts, professor and director, University of Vermont\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4706"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4709,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4706\/revisions\/4709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}