Abstract
Bee decline is a threat worldwide. An extension project was initiated to make the general public, industry, and municipalities aware of this problem. This study demonstrated pollinator habitat suitable for Maine farms by developing cooperation between the Maine wild blueberry industry and a regional commercial waste landfill. The reason for involving the landfill industry was to demonstrate and encourage non-farm enterprises to become involved in pollinator conservation. This project arose from previous research of ours on pollinator reservoirs in the Maine (USA) wild blueberry agro-ecosystem with the objectives of: (1) comparing three seed mixes, (2) providing demonstration areas where farmers and the general public can see such gardens, and (3) encouraging others to plant for pollinators. The methods involved planting two types of gardens in 2015, one that contained three different commercially available pollinator forage seed mixes, and one that contained shrubs and some perennials that are visited by pollinators early and late in the season, but that are not readily grown in a wildflower meadow. For all three seed mixes, at least some plant species produced flowers that were visited by bees, but there were also gaps in flowering and some species on which we saw few bees. We observed more bees coming to flowers of corn poppy, tall yellow clover, oxeye daisy, black-eyed Susan, anise hyssop, and bergamot. Ox-eye daisy and black-eyed Susan were not in any of the seed mixes but were allowed to grow among the sown plants. More than 600 people came through the booth or toured the gardens at four open houses in 2015 and 2016, and many people know of the project through presentations we have given. The stakeholders and public learned about bees and floral resources. Several municipalities and farmers have planted pollinator reservoirs since this project was initiated. Key words: Pollinator reservoirs, wildflower seed mix, demonstration, landfill, wild blueberry.
Highlights
We suggest waiting until the first true leaves have developed before making a decision to pull or not
Producers will want to allow sufficient budget to cover the garden maintenance, as we found this to be a necessary labor -- an estimated 1-2 h per week will help keep a perennial/shrub border that is 5 m x 10 m in size deadheaded, weeded, watered, and looking its best, offering maximum forage for bees
By making a place for these on the landscape, we allowed for the contribution such plants can make
Summary
Pollinator decline is a major problem worldwide (Potts et al, 2010, Lever et al, 2014), especially for the most important pollinators, the bees (Garibaldi et al, 2009). Decline of pollinators has significant implications not just for crop pollination, but for the reproduction of most wild angiosperm plants that are the basis of natural. Landscapes (Dibble et al, 2017) They could be impacted by pesticides, natural enemies, diseases, habitat degradation (through invasive plant encroachment), habitat fragmentation, and climate change (Brown and Paxton, 2009; Goulson et al, 2015; Kerr et al, 2015). In Maine where a large economically significant obligate bee pollinated crop is grown, wild blueberry, there is much concern
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
