| Where the Wild Bees Roam |
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23 September 2005, for Science Bees are crucial pollinators, second only to wind, but their numbers have been dropping. If electric companies would stop mowing under power lines and allow shrubs and brambles to spread in these right-of-ways, however, they could become bee refuges, scientists say. Conservation biologist Kimberly Russell of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City compared bees caught in dense scrub with those found in nearby grasslands. The scrub held one-third more species of wild bees and three-quarters of the rarest species, she and her colleagues reported in last month's issue of Biological Conservation. They calculate that if the roughly 2 million hectares of power-line strips in the country went unmowed, wild bees could pick up the slack for domesticated honeybees, whose numbers have dropped 50% since 1945 because of parasites, environmental toxins, and loss of habitat.Conservation biologist Gretchen LeBuhn of San Francisco State University in California says this plan could lead to more creative management of biodiversity in the midst of civilization. "Wouldn't it be great to do this at corporate headquarters?" LeBuhn says. "Instead of expanses of grass, you could have ponds for frogs." |