8 MAY 8-14, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Science now suggests that native pollina- tors deserve as much, if not more, concern than honey bees. While honey bees might pollinate our crops, even more species of fl owering plants — the native ones that make up our natural ecosystem — depend on pol- lination by native bees. But honey bees can be very competitive, and a recent National Library of Medicine study found that more honey bees in an area equate to fewer wild bee species. There are a few reasons for this. First, honey beekeepers can set up shop in urban and agricultural areas that have been cleared of native trees and other plants. Without those food sources, a habitat can’t support as many native bees, which don’t fl y as far as honey bees for food. Second, honey bees can pass harmful pathogens like vorroa mites, a contributor to colony collapse, to other bee species. Third, honey bees are aggressive forag- ers, detailed communicators and abundant reproducers. Most native bee species simply don’t measure up. Take bumblebees, for example. There are at least 24 bumblebee species native to Colo- rado, 20 percent of which are endangered. While a honey bee might travel up to fi ve miles to fi nd food, a bumblebee can only go one mile. A queen bumblebee might produce thirty babies in a season, while her honey bee counterpart produces half a million. Honey bees use a famously intricate “wag- gle dance” to tell their hive mates the exact location of food sources. Other bees communicate much more primitively. Colorado State University professor John Mola, who studies bees, put it this way: “If honey bees are using the internet, bumblebees are using tin cups.” A Native Bee Case Study Tom Keras, former Open Space Ranger for the town of Superior, is an advocate for native bees. He helped lead a collaborative proj- ect between Superior and local beekeepers aimed at boosting the area’s native bee populations in the aftermath of the 2021 Marshall fi re. When Keras surveyed Superi- or’s open spaces, he looked for a di- versity of native plant species. One indicator of biodiversity is bees. A healthy, biodiverse ecosystem relies on pollination by native spe- cies. Since Colorado’s 1,000 species of native bees have co-evolved with plants for maximum pollination effi ciency. native bees are both an indicator and a booster of native plant popula- tions, Keras suggests. As drought, freeze-thaw and fi re cycles shift out of balance, native plants with their deep roots and effi cient nutrient storage sys- tems are more likely to survive those cycles. “Putting these native bees back into our ecosystems is a step toward resilience in the face of climate change. It’s really important to have that biodiversity intact,” says Keras. His team mail-ordered colonies of mason, leafcutter and orchard bees to release in fi re-burned areas. They created habitat for the bees by drilling holes in tree stumps and introducing reedy “straws” that some bees use for nests. Keras hopes the bees will prolif- erate and boost native plant species in areas where the fi re was especially destructive. Alex Vargas and Miles McGaughey are the beekeepers on the revitalization project. Even though they keep honey bees, they know the importance of building habitat for native bees. In a mini-documentary about the project, McGaughey explains why the team isn’t installing honey beehives. “If you had only honey bees here, they don’t work the same plants and crops so we wouldn’t get the same benefi t. Although this might sustain a honey beehive,” he muses. When it comes to native plant pollina- tion, native bees are much better at carrying enough pollen where it needs to go. On aver- age, one native bee can pollinate as much as 100 honey bees can. But honey bees travel further, they’re hungrier and they are largely indiscriminate about their food. When honey bees get to fl owers faster, there might be no pollen left when a native bee fi nds a fl ower. Evidence suggests that a loss of food resources is the leading driver of native bee decline. A study co-authored by Mola shows the amount and continual availability of fl oral resources are the best predictors of colony size. In other words, bees do better when they don’t have to go for long periods without food. If food is scarce one year, beekeepers will often supplement their bees’ food in the form of sugar water. This isn’t a perfect solution, Mola notes. In a talk at the Niwot Honey Bee Harvest Festival, he explained how a honey bee population boost during a drought — which parts of Colorado are facing this summer — can put unnatural competi- tive stress on native bee populations left to fend for themselves. Flights of Fancy Despite the competition between honey bees and native bees, Vargas points out that honey bees are a useful proxy for tracking overall bee decline, since they are studied more. They face many of the same threats as native bees: pesticides, pathogens like mites, habitat loss and degradation, and climate change. “With global warming and honey bees, honey bees were kind of the canary in the coal mine,” says Vargas. “People started real- izing there’s something wrong here. But it’s something that we need a lot more data on.” In an effort to collect that data, Colorado commissioned the Native Pollinating Insects Health Study. The study estimated that Colo- rado’s native insects provide a value equiva- lent to billions of dollars via agriculture and ecosystem services like climate regulation. It also assessed threats to native pollinators in Colorado and suggested ways to protect them. As a result, last May lawmakers passed HB 24-1117, which added invertebrates and rare plants to the species that may be studied and conserved by Colorado Parks and Wild- life. Among the Coloradans who supported the Invertebrates & Rare Plants Parks & Wildlife Commission Act were scientists and activists particularly concerned about Colorado’s native bees. The bill also funded full-time staff to support pollinator and plant programs at the wildlife agency. Last November, CPW hired the fi rst of those staffers, Invertebrate and Rare Plant Program Supervisor Hayley Schroeder, who notes that Colorado, like most other states, now has the legal authority to manage in- sects. One of her team’s fi rst tasks is to determine which of Colo- rado’s invertebrate species face the greatest threats; these are the species that CPW will prioritize in its State Wildlife Action Plan, which will guide conservation efforts for the next decade. In the meantime, the agency is also working with the Xerces Society, one of the co-collaborators on the pollinator health report, on the Mountain States Bumble Bee Atlas, a citizen science project. Governor Jared Polis supports pollinator conservation and has been especially involved in the efforts, Schroeder says. He has pushed the team to collaborate with other government agencies in order to explore ways to inte- grate their work with the state’s transportation, water and fire management programs. Another path forward could be more oversight on beekeeping, although CPW hasn’t announced any plans along that line. The state once made efforts to prevent the spread of diseases from honey bee colonies through the now-defunct Colorado Bee and Bee Products Act; today, Colorado is one of only eleven states that doesn’t require honey beekeepers to register with the state. “It’s like loving something to death,” Mola says of honeybees. “We might love mountain biking or river rafting. But if everyone goes to the same trail, we are going to degrade that trail. So we have regulations and permit systems.” Buzz Off continued from page 7 continued on page 10 Andrea Montoya with the BeeChicas in Boulder. A bumblebee on a Gaillardia fl ower; a bee house created by BeeChicas at the Boulder Public Library. L AUREN WEINBERG SHARON O’BRIEN ABBY O’BRIEN
