Nearly 80 percent of our world's crop plants require pollination. Pollinators are essential to life, according to the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and the Pollinator Partnership. June 22 - 28 is National Pollinator Week.
Crops requiring pollination provide food, fiber, drugs and even fuel. In addition, they feed the animals we rely on for meat. For fruit, vegetables and grains to develop, pollen must be transferred from the male reproductive parts of a flower to the female reproductive parts of a flower, from flower to flower or plant to plant.
Pollination occurs when pollen is moved within flowers or carried from one flower to another of the same species by birds, such as hummingbirds; bees; bats; butterflies; moths; other insects or animals; or the wind. This transfer leads to fertilization and successful seed and fruit production. Pollination ensures that a plant will produce full-bodied fruit and a complete set of fertile seeds, capable of germinating.
Why are pollinator issues worthy of attention? Today, pollinators' existence may be threatened. Since pollinators are largely overlooked, assessing their condition and economic importance; seeking to better understand their circumstances, biology and benefits; and working to help keep them healthy are positive, proactive approaches to conservation. Pollinators need protection. For example, bee populations, and some butterfly, bat and hummingbird populations are on the decline, according to the National Academy of Sciences report on the status of pollinators in North America.
Without pollinators, humans and ecosystems cannot survive. Due to land development, pollution and pesticide poisoning, we are losing pollinators around the world at an alarming rate. Gardeners often call cooperative extension and ask, "What happened to the bees? There are so few bees this year." Not only does habitat destruction impact insect, bat and bird pollinators, the rise in popularity of tequila, made from agave plants, has reduced the population of bats, the agave pollinator, due to poor timing of plant harvesting.
Whether you are gardener, a farmer, a resource manager, an educator, or simply an interested consumer, you may want to look at the Web site, www.pollinator.org, for news, resources, programs and more information to support you in helping pollinators. Reduce, or better yet, eliminate your use of pesticides, because many pollinators, particularly bees, are very sensitive to various chemicals. Diversify the plant and flower palette in your yard to attract a wider variety of insect and hummingbird pollinators. Build bee and bat houses. Find out what you can do to help pollinators thrive, and do it!
For more information on gardening, contact me, 887-2252 or skellyj@unce.unr.edu, or your local University of Nevada Cooperative Extension office. Check out many useful horticulture publications at www.unce.unr.edu. "Ask a Master Gardener" at mastergardeners@unce.unr.edu.
n JoAnne Skelly is the Carson City/Storey County Extension Educator for University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.
