POLLINATORS IN PERIL

Why Pollinators?

Dr. Doug Tallamy, author of 'Bringing Nature Home', says it best.  Reprinted with permission from his website, he states:  "Gardening for Life:  Chances are, you have never thought of your garden - indeed, of all of the space on your property - as a wildlife preserve that represents the last chance we have for sustaining plants and animals that were once common throughout the U.S.  but that is exactly the role our suburban landscapes are now playing and will play even more in the near future."

Our page focuses on providing resource links to pollinators and the fight for biodiversity.  Many of these links provide plant lists to help you with plants specific to your growing zone.  Also highlighted is our club's Pollinator Project, co-sponsored with The Carriage Trail and the City of Charleston.

Kanawha Garden Club sponsored  a free/open-to-the-public lecture by Dr. Tallamy in April, 2015.  His message is one we should all hear and follow.  Dr. Tallamy is a Garden Club of America Honorary Member.  He is professor and chair of the entomology and wildlife ecology department at the University of Delaware.  "He has written more than 70 research articles during his 32 year career studying insect-plant interactions and the loss of biodiversity in suburban landscapes.  His research focuses on better understanding the interaction of insects with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities.  Bringing Nature Home explores how gardening in this crowded world carries both moral and ecological responsibilities that can no longer be ignored.  Dr. Tallamy argues that native plants play a key role in the restoration of our landscapes because only natives provide the coevolved relationships required by most animals.  By supporting a diversity of insect herbivore, native plants provide food for a large and healthy community of natural enemies that keep herbivores in balance and our gardens aesthetically pleasing  With as many as 33,000 species imperiled in the United States, it is clear that we must change our approach to gardening and landscaping if we hope to share the spaces in which we live and work with other things."

News paper articles by or about Dr.Tallamy include some of the following:
To Feed the Birds, First Feed the Bugs:  NY Times Anne Raver, March 6, 2008
The Chickadees Garden:  NY Times Op-Ed March 11, 2015
Why Native Plants Matter:  Audubon with a video by Dr. Tallamy


National Reference Sites:

US Fish & Wildlife Service: Pollinators
Pollinator Partners: Protect their lives, Preserve ours
USDA Forest Service: Wildflowers: Pollinators
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services New Hampshire
The Xerces Society:  a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.  For over 40 years, the Society has been at the forefront of the invertebrate protection worldwide, harnessing the knowledge of scientists and the enthusiasm of citizens to implement conservation programs.
Pollinators Keep the World Green: Dr. Scott Shalaway Charleston (WV) Sunday Gazette-Mail June 22, 2014

Bee Specific Articles

Rare Bumblebee Rebounding:  Sightings create hopeful buzz about future:  Sandi Doughon, The Seattle Times  June 27, 2014
Bees of singular Tastes & The Plants They Love:  Arlington Regional Master Naturalists; May 29, 2015
UN Science Report Warns of Few Bees:  Feb. 2016
Gardeners Flock to Bee's Defense:  Josephine Marcotty: The Star Tribune: May 8, 2016

Butterflies
Monarch Watch
Monarch Lab @ The University of Minnesota
Protecting Monarchs NAPPC
Monarch Butterfly Migration Numbers Down by 27% in Mexico


Trees
A fight for Urban Trees:  Lynda V. Mapes; The Seattle Times; August 2014
WV Native Plantings - WVDNR