In the past two blogs, we introduced Sam Droege and Dave Hunter, two of three guest speakers on the February 20th Wild Ones webinar on “Bees Beyond Honey, Understanding Native and Managed Pollinators” hosted by Sara Ressing, Wild Ones Education and Program Coordinator. In this third installment of this multipart series on “Bees Beyond Honey”, we introduce Lora Morandin, Associate Director, Pollinator Partnership, which is the largest organization dedicated exclusively to pollinator conservation. Lora has been researching bees and pollination since 1997. Her work focuses on understanding the intricate relationships between managed and wild pollinators, especially the roles honeybees and native bees play in our ecosystems. She brings a thoughtful perspective on balancing agricultural needs with biodiversity and conservation, while creating habitats that support all pollinators.
During her presentation, Lora posed the question: why do honeybees get so much attention? Honeybees contribute $18 billion added crop value annually due to pollination. Without honeybees, large-scale agriculture would have lower production. But she also pointed out that bee keeping of honeybees is not a conservation action. So why is bee keeping popular? Because honeybees pollinate crops, produce honey and other hive products, it’s educational, or it’s a fulfilling hobby.
Lora spoke about three possible ways honeybees negatively impact native bees: through direct competition of nectar and pollen, through changes in floral communities, and through potentially transmitting pests and diseases.
But do honeybees have a direct advantage over native bees for floral resources? A review of 19 studies were summarized, with 10 showing no negative or inconclusive outcomes to native bees, and the remaining 9 showing exploitive competition with negative outcome on native bees. These mixed studies indicate there could potentially be harm from honeybees in some situations, but not others. It’s likely very context specific.
So what do we do with this information? Lora says it makes sense to take a precautionary approach on where and how many honeybee hives we put into locations, especially in areas that are important to native bee conservation. “I suggest that we don’t pit honeybees against other bees. So to me, that’s like pitting food production against conservation. We need both in North America, we need food production, but we also want to need biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. We need those for their intrinsic value and because we’re part of ecosystems and we rely on the services that they provide. So we try to find ways to integrate conservation into agricultural landscapes and make agriculture less impactful on the environment. And we reserve other areas for conservation.”
“Honeybees are essential to our current agricultural production, and we need to support them as such while finding ways to minimize the impact to our natural world.” How can we support both managed and wild bees? We can “preserve the habitat we have and create more habitat. By creating more habitat, we can potentially reduce the competition among bees for resources and support all pollinators.”
In the panel session that followed the three presentations, Lora offered the following insights into the questions that Sara asked of each panelist. Note that these are excerpts of the answers and there is a wealth of additional information in the recorded webinar.
What does responsible management look like in practice?
“We need to manage our habitat, and we need to help manage bees. So many of our environments and our landscapes now are quite artificial. So, what can we do to help support both food production in an economical way, but also our native biodiversity that is so important for so many reasons? …. There’s some pretty easy entryways and there’s things that everybody can do. And if you do a Google search for a local native plant nursery and put a native plant or two into your yard and then watch the different bees that come to it, you might see some bees that you never saw on your herbs and things that attract lots of bees, but maybe not diversity of bees. So, trying to find those easy entry points, you don’t have to do everything at once. These small actions can make a big difference for supporting pollinators, both those managed pollinators, but importantly, of course, as well, the native pollinators.”
Can you share an example where just like a small change in management practices had a big impact on bee conservation?
“One of the big examples that I have of this that I think is a really good news story is during my postdoc work in the Central Valley of California, I was examining native plant hedgerows adjacent to crops and then comparing that to just what the standard is as weedy edges adjacent to crops. And what I found was that there was more abundant bees in these native plant hedgerows. But the really big thing was that there was about three times more types of species in these native plant hedgerows than there were in these weedy edges. And you’ve got to keep in mind that these areas are agriculture. There is very little habitat, you know, and really underscoring that principle of ‘you build it and they will come’ even in these areas where you might think it’s sort of a desert for biodiversity and bees. We were seeing this diversity of bees come into these native plant hedgerows. So that was, I think, a really great success story.”
“Another one that I worked on was at an airport garden at the Nanaimo Airport on Vancouver Island and we took it from an ornamental garden, which was quite pretty and people liked and they were concerned about turning it into a more native habitat. And we did this a few years back and I’ve been monitoring the garden for about four years now since it was converted into a native plant pollinator habitat. And what we’re seeing is there’s over a hundred times more bees in this native plant habitat than in the surrounding areas that are more ornamental type gardens. So there’s still some ornamental gardens around the terminal, but they’ve got next to no bees. And the couple of bees that I did see was either a honeybee or a bumblebee. Then this native plant garden is just buzzing with bees, and it’s increased over the couple of years or three years that I’ve been monitoring it. So those native bee populations take a little bit of time to build up, but they don’t really take that long to build up.”
What’s one policy or program that attendees could advocate for in their communities to support native pollinator habitats?
“I would say advocating for wildscaping and not having bylaws that restrict use of native plants. So we need to keep in mind aesthetics and that different people have different ideas of what gardens and lawns should look like. But there are definitely ways to incorporate wild plants, native plants, and wildscaping-type practices in your yard, and it can look beautiful and not messy and not unkempt. So I would say that is one of the biggest things that I think could help pollinators, especially in urban environments.”
In what ways can the average person provide data to conservation efforts?
“We do use iNaturalist quite extensively, so you can look up the Pollinator Partnership projects on there. We have year-long projects and we have a Pollinator Week BioBlitz that’s really fun and growing…. And then in terms of engaging communities and spreading knowledge, I really agree that we need this grassroots spread of knowledge and that’s the reason that we offer this Pollinator Steward Certification training because we want to train the trainers. We want to train people all over the place to spread the word and get this out there. What can you do to help pollinators? I think there’s a lot of different angles that we can come at this from in terms of collecting data and in terms of spreading the word and we really need to have this all-hands-on-deck and really spread the word and get data in different ways and educate people in many different ways in many different sectors.”
I’ve heard mixed opinions on insect hotels. What are the risks and benefits and what should people consider before installing one?
“We do advocate for natural habitat over putting in bee boxes, bee hotels, bee homes – they’re called many different things – because of many of those reasons that Dave said. They really need to be done properly in order for them to be effective. The biggest thing is they need to be able to be cleaned. Once you put organisms or invite them into an artificial setting, you become a farmer. You can’t leave cows in a barn and not clean it out. You become a farmer; you need to keep that environment clean at that point. We’re not against it necessarily, but it needs to be done properly, and I think it’s really important that people understand what they’re doing. They’re not necessarily supporting conservation by putting out these bee boxes. Maybe if there’s an orchard they want to pollinate and it’s not going to get enough early spring pollinators. So that makes a lot of sense. Or the biggest one I see these bee homes for is education. I think they can be an amazing education and outreach tools and get people into the world of bees, and it can really help people understand bees better. If you get these peekaboo ones you can even open them up during different development and see the bees developing in there which is really, really cool. And it can help people understand that bees are not coming out to sting you, so you can stand right by these bee boxes. They’re going to be going right around you, not bothering you, you’re not bothering them. So I think there is a really great educational component, but I think people need to understand what bee boxes are and what they’re not; and they need to do it with a bit of education. Dave has a ton of good videos on his site. We’ve got about a 20-minute video, a free video on our site about what to do and what not to do with bee boxes, what they are and what they’re not. So I encourage people to go look at those resources.”
What is one key action, big or small, that attendees can take today to better support pollinators in their own communities?
“I would say check out our ecoregional guides and look at the big list of plants in there. And go to a local native plant nursery and pick up one plant. And plant it in your existing garden bed, plant it in a pot on your balcony, plant it in your community garden. And just start there. Plant a plant a plant and watch it, see what happens, and go bigger from there.”
Lora is passionate about nature, as it was an integral part of her life growing up. In an interview with host Scott Luton in June 2022, Lora talks about the threats facing some pollinators today and the steps that the Pollinator Partnership is taking to protect them and their habitats.
And check out Lora’s interview with Dave Hunter of Crown Bees from June 2024. In this Crown Bees Partner Highlight, Dave engages with Lora Morandin, Anthony Colangelo, and Sara Wittenberg from Pollinator Partnership, the organization behind the creation of Pollinator Week, an annual event dedicated to raising awareness and supporting pollinator health. It offers various ways to celebrate and contribute, from planting pollinator-friendly gardens to participating in online workshops.
As mentioned during the presentations, bee houses are a popular and engaging way to learn about our native bees. However, if not constructed with the right habitat needs and health precautions in mind, these structures can harm bees rather than help. Ecologist and Pollinator Stewardship Coordinator Junaid Shahzad Khan speaks about the nuances and best practices of bee boxes in the video below.
Pollinator Partnership Resources
Celebrate Pollinator Week in June
Ecoregional Planting Guides – Selecting Plants for Pollinators guides are tailored to specific areas of the United States. You can find out which ecoregion you live in and get your free guide by entering your zip code.
Find Your Roots – a tool for creating pollinator-friendly native plant lists for your habitat project.
Pollinator Steward Certificate program – empowers people with the scientific know-how to make a real difference for pollinators, people, and the planet.
The Bee MD – a diagnostic tool to help beekeepers identify honeybee health issues
If you are interested in Lora’s research while affiliated with University of California, San Francisco and other places, check out her publications on ResearchGate.