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To: Arthalion

In some of my research I found that native bees are pretty resilient. In agricultural settings, honeybees effectively replace native bees. However, once the land is returned to a somewhat (usually severly degraded)natural conditions, native bee populations returned within 5 years. Granted you do lose some diversity but overall they rebound rather nicely. My work was with bees in the midwest so it may be a bit different. Aside from a few specialized pollinators, most bees do not reside in forested areas. That said, forest isn't really native in the area we did our work. Forests were the result of mass fire supression and altered hydrology.


34 posted on 03/28/2005 10:31:54 AM PST by GreenFreeper
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To: GreenFreeper
Aside from a few specialized pollinators, most bees do not reside in forested areas

That's the other issue. California has over 1000 native species of bees and wasps, but most of them are special pollinators. Since most of this land was seasonal marshlands and desert before irrigation and modern farming transformed it, most of the species here are very specialized (many only pollinate a single type of plant). An environment with temperatures that stay from the high 90's to the low 100's from early July to September (with zero rainfall) typically has few year-round flowering plants and is very unkind to nonspecialized bees.

Before the importation of bees, most of the Central Valley was covered in wheat because it was one of the few things that could be reliably grown here. Since then, the valley has almost completely been given over to pollinated plants. An elimination of imported honey bees would be an economic and social disaster for our area, and would seriously affect food prices across the entire country.
36 posted on 03/28/2005 10:45:26 AM PST by Arthalion
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To: GreenFreeper
That said, forest isn't really native in the area we did our work. Forests were the result of mass fire supression and altered hydrology.

The same is true in the Santa Cruz Mountains where I live. Meadows are among the most threatened habitats around here, most often due to weeds.

Actually, I'm now in from the house from a weed walk in order to do some research before settling on a weed control method for a patch of ridgeline meadow.

37 posted on 03/28/2005 10:45:28 AM PST by Carry_Okie (There are people in power who are truly evil.)
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