A Climate Change with Matt Matern Climate Podcast

A third of what we eat, one out of every three bites, is because of a pollinator pollinating a crop. 1000 crop species are supported by pollinators. So just a tremendous importance to agriculture and to our food, pollinators help. About 85% of all flowering plants reproduce. Without the pollinators, we wouldn’t have all these plants. They’re really doing a whole lot for humans as well as you know, the rest of the living beings on the planet.

You’re listening to A Climate Change, this is your host, Matt Matern. I’ve got a great guest on the program, Kelly Bills. Kelly runs an amazing organization. She’s the executive director of pollinator partnerships, which was established 1997 and she is working to save the bees. So Kelly, tell us what’s buzzing.

Hi. Well, Hi Matt, thanks for having me here. I’m excited to join you today. So yes, our organization, pollinator partnership, our mission is to promote the health of pollinators, so all pollinators, including bees, and we do this through conservation, education and research.

So tell us, you know what? What is included in the pollinator world? For those of us who are, you know, new to pollination, sure. So there are over 200,000 species of pollinators worldwide.

Yep, bees are just one type of pollinators. They’re probably the one you hear about the most, the ones that are most important for pollination, and particular, you know, for our agriculture, but there are also butterflies, beetles, bats, birds, even in the tropics, there’s some mammals and and reptiles, so quite a big breadth of different pollinators out there. That’s fascinating. Yeah, I saw that your organization had awarded various organizations businesses that had supported monarch butterflies, which I normally don’t think of monarchs as pollinators, but I guess they hang around flowers and probably pollinate.

So tell us what your organization has done in in that respect for these other pollinators that don’t get as much press as the bees, the bees seem to have the best agents. They are. They getting the most of the headlines.

That’s right. Yes. So for our other pollinator work, we definitely have a lot of really strong monarch butterfly programs. The monarch butterfly is a charismatic species that people can recognize. It’s got a wonderful migration story. They are definitely pollinators. Butterflies are moths are that’s the Lepidoptera we’re talking about. So we do a lot of habitat work for butterflies and moths, putting in different host plants for their caterpillars, as well as different nectar plants, which is what they’re eating throughout their migration, or just their, you know, daily visitation.

What tell us? So, what is the, you know, the big problem? I mean, I’ve certainly, some of us have read about and seen some documentaries regarding bees and the collapse of bee I guess, populations across the country and across the world. What, what has been happening in the last few years? Has Has that stopped, or have we stopped the decline or is it still going down rapidly?

Yeah, so it’s definitely a complex issue. I will say not all pollinator species are declining. So just to clarify, you know, not all of them are, however many are, which is definitely alarming. Insects overall, worldwide are decreasing, which is a really big problem. They’re kind of an they’re an indicator group of animals that can maybe sound the alarm for what might be coming for other species.

So there is very important to acknowledge the decrease in insects for pollinators, in particular for bees. You know, we have honeybees here that we use for agricultural crop pollination, and last year, they had their worst overwintering numbers in the past, basically two decades. So this is really concerning. We also have other pollinator species, other bees, like bumblebees, that are now endangered.

We’re seeing more proposed listings to the Endangered Species Act. The monarch butterfly, for example, is is proposed to be listed because their numbers are down. So it’s definitely um, a concerning time for pollinators. We’re seeing this largely due to loss of habitat, so the food that they need out on the landscape is decreasing.

Yeah, we also are seeing the misuse or overuse of chemicals in terms of pesticides, which can be a real issue as well.

And we see an increase in pests and diseases too. So there’s viruses that, you know, pollinators can get, just like we do, and they can cause real harm. And all of this is kind of exacerbated by climate change. So climate change is certainly connected to to all of these issues.

Well, tell us how, how climate change is connected to all this, and how would that cause hive collapses and things of that nature, and sounds like the insect world are kind of the caterpillar in the coal mine, if you will.

Yes, that’s right. So in terms of climate change, there’s a few things going on that negatively impact pollinators. We’re seeing more extreme weather events, so that’s going to directly impact pollinators, things like drought and fires, even hurricanes, we see those decimating habitat and even directly damaging, you know, honey bee colonies, or other native pollinator colonies and populations. We’re also seeing with things like increased temperature.

We’re seeing changes in phenology, or really like the timing of of biology of plants and animals. So what we’re seeing, for example, is that the plants that the pollinators need at a particular time in their life cycle are not there on the landscape anymore because spring is warming up sooner, so flowers are emerging before the bumblebees do. So that’s a real issue in terms of reproduction and population health. We’re also seeing with that kind of climactic variability and change.

We’re seeing populations of pollinators either like decrease in size or range, or maybe they’re shifting in range. We used to find, you know, certain bees in Southern California that now we only see in Northern California, for example. So that really does cause issues in the ecosystem. So all of that is definitely, you know, really concerning.

Well, let’s back up a second. Just say, hey, what was the reason that, or some of the reasons that kind of drew you into this area and to this type of research and advocacy?

Sure, so I kind of happened on pollinators a bit randomly. I saw a Craigslist job posting and went for it, and that’s 13 years later. I’m still working here at pollinator partnership. So I had a background in environmental management and ecology, and so I was always interested in that. Once I started to learn about pollinators, I realized just how incredible and how essential they are. So they’re, you know, keeping our agriculture and food system safe and secure.

They’re providing a third of our food, a third of what we eat, one out of every three bites, is because of a pollinator, pollinating a crop. 1000 crop species are supported by pollinators. So just a tremendous importance to agriculture and to our food. But then we look at, you know, the natural world, and they’re also incredibly important. So pollinators help about 85% of all flowering plants reproduce. Without the pollinators, we wouldn’t have all these plants. And with that, you know, they’re also helping the whole food web.

So with the native plants that pollinators are supporting, we’re supporting other wildlife. We’re also supporting things like erosion control, water filtration. So they’re really doing a whole lot for humans as well as, you know, the rest of the living beings on the planet. So what percentage of the pollination is done by bees, as opposed to, kind of all the other pollinators, almost all of it. So they’re really the bees are the heroes of our agricultural system. So honey bees are, are most prevalent because they’re they’re managed by humans.

So they actually are considered livestock in the United States. So the honeybees, apis mellifera, they’re actually a non native species. They’re from Europe, but they have been here for many, many years. Came over with the colonists, and we use them for a lot of our agricultural pollination needs. There’s also a lot of other native pollinators that are great at at pollinating certain crops. So bumblebees, for example, help pollinate blueberries and tomatoes. There are other specialized pollinators, like a fly that pollinates the coffee plant or the the chocolate cacao plant. So there are some specialized pollinators, like non bee pollinators, but most of it really are the bees. Yeah.

Okay, so I should be less antagonistic towards flies when I see them in the future. They might be, you know, taking care of some coffee and some chocolate. So okay, and bats, good. Bats are another fun one. So bats have a special relationship with the agave plant, which is where we get tequila. So that’s another kind of specialized, interesting relationship, too.

I’m not a tequila drinker, so I guess that me so much. But tell us kind of what your organization is up to. I see that you’ve given a lot of research grants and things like that. What are the types of things that you’re working on? Yeah, so our organization, like I said, does kind of a lot in terms of all pollinator health and promotion.

We work with agriculture a lot. So we work directly with farmers and producers, as well as retailers or food companies that might be purchasing pollinated ingredients.

How so?

So we have a couple programs in which we work with agriculture. We have one called bee friendly farming, and that’s actually a program with a certification where farmers can get certified and verified by a third party to be considered bee friendly, in which they meet certain criteria, and they get a seal that they can use on packaging. So it’s a wonderful program, and we’ve been doing that for about 10 years now.

How many different food vendors are you working with on that one?

We have about 800 members involved in the bee friendly farming program, and that’s throughout North America. But we actually also have bee friendly farming operating in Australia as well. We work with a lot of almond companies. Almonds are completely reliant on honey bee pollination, so we work with companies like Blue Diamond, the Almond Board of California, and we actually just launched with silk almond milk. So that’s a really big sector for us right now. But we also work with, you know, different row crops, specialty crops, and you know, farmers of all size through that program.

So the be the farmers that sign on to that agree what not to use certain pesticides or certain practices that they use, tell us maybe how that plays out in real time. So the criteria is they have to have at least 3% of their land dedicated to pollinator habitat, so that can be cover crops in between. You know, Orchard rows, it can be a set aside, meadow hedgerows, things like that.

So they have to offer habitat. They have to offer permanent habitat. So not just temporary cover crops, but something that can serve as nesting habitat as well. For native pollinators, they do have to follow it a IPM plan, which means integrated pest management, and that’s something we promote at pollinator partnership, where the practice is to have a plan in place where pesticides is your last resort. Not of all of our farmers are 100% organic, but they make a commitment to IPM where the pesticides are their last resort, and they use other best management practices to monitor and treat for other pest needs they might have.

We also require they offer clean water and they pay a annual fee. So it’s a pretty achievable program, but it makes a big difference. Yeah, certainly, the more we take pesticides out of our food chain, the better off we all are in terms of the food quality and the water quality downstream, the less pesticides we use, the less we’ll end up in oceans and streams and lakes and everywhere else and in the animals that we end up eating if we are animal eaters.

So how are you encouraging and acting to preserve pollinators and bees. What do you think are the most important things that your organization is doing on that process?

Yeah, so I think in addition to working directly with agriculture, we have a lot of other habitat programs. So we work with everyday people to help with their home gardens. We work with communities, municipalities, companies, and really any level of landscape manager to put in habitat. So we’re helping people figure out what are the right things to plant for their location. And that’s really one of our top priorities, is getting more good, safe, clean habitat.

For pollinators in the ground. That’s kind of one of the most important things we do. But also we’re working on spreading education and awareness for pollinators. So to all of these different stakeholders we’re working with, we’re trying to, you know, meet them where they are, educate them on what they need to know so that they can better do their work while thinking about pollinator health, we have some fun programs like pollinator week every June, where we help people have the tools to celebrate pollinators and why they’re so wonderful, which has really gained a lot of momentum over the years.

We also have a program called the North American pollinator protection campaign, and this is a collaborative of 170 different partner organizations. So we also work to convene different parties to discuss what you know the current pollinator issues are, what’s the current research? How can we all get together to partner and collaborate to support pollinators in our various fields. And then we also do our own research too, so we have some research projects so that we can verify what we’re doing is going to help.

Well, that’s that’s a wide breadth of stuff. I keep you busy 170 different organizations. That’s a lot of organizations coming together.

What is the glue that kind of holds them together? You know, economic interest, because these farmers need to figure this out. Because they’re, they’re, you know, their land is, you know, it’s necessary to have pollinators, and their crops need this or what are, what are the things that are drawing these organizations to this event?

So the event is really a combination of federal, other conservation groups, businesses and, you know, different NGOs, university researchers, etc, coming together. So everyone kind of has a different connection to pollinators. Economics is definitely top of the list for a lot of these businesses, farmers, producers, but everyone acknowledges that whether we’re talking about the economy or we’re talking about ecosystem health, pollinators are completely connected and essential. So I think everyone just comes to find this common understanding that we need pollinators and they really need us.

So tell us in the theme of the show is kind of do something today. What are things that people can can do today that would help pollinators and maybe help your organization and help you know, help our environment in general.

So there’s several things people can do, and the great things about pollinator conservation is everyone really can help. Whether you live in an apartment building and just have a window box or a few pots on your balcony, or maybe you have a garden, or maybe you manage habitat, or you’re actually a farmer, anyone or you’re a consumer, anyone can play a part. So either putting in habitat or promoting good habitat is great.

So planting pollinator friendly plants, supporting local farmers and local beekeepers is great too. So using your consumer kind of stance to be able to ask for the type of food you want, the food that is bee friendly and produced in the bee friendly manner.

Definitely, if you do interact with land, reducing or eliminating pesticide use is really important. So don’t use chemicals in your garden setting. And if you’re a land manager, practice integrated pest management.

Spreading awareness for pollinator education is key as well. So just talking to people about how important they are. There’s also great community science programs people can participate in so different monitoring, fun apps on iNaturalist and things like that. And I always like to acknowledge too, that folks can just work on decreasing the carbon footprint actually will help pretty much the whole world, but absolutely pollinators too, because we’re reducing carbon emissions, that’s going to help with climate change, that’s going to help pollinators.

Yeah, it’s fascinating how the timing is related to the temperature and throwing kind of the sequence of of when things are going to be growing, will, you know, just throw the entire system off and, and given the delicate balance that all of these, you know, different systems have, and different animals and all these. 200,000 species just to pollinators like it doesn’t take a whole lot to throw the thing into chaos.

So that’s right, and you know, one of our groups, we actually have a task force on climate change, just published a study, and we found that climate change, and in particular, warming temperatures is actually changing how plants and flowers it’s changing their characteristics. So it can change their color, their scent, their size. So all of these things are going to impact how pollinators are attracted to them. So it’s just, there’s, there’s a lot of consequences related to climate change and pollinators.

Well, I saw that the state of California is is making some grants. Do you get some of your grants from the state of California, or are you following? Is the state of California doing a lot to promote pollinator health in California?

Yes, I think California is the head of the curve on on a lot of pollinator issues. I mean, not only do we produce most of the food for the, you know, rest of the country, so obviously, there’s a big stake here in the state. There’s tons of other wildlife programs as well. The resource conservation districts, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, does a great job.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture actually started a new grant program last year called the pollinator habitat program, and we actually got a $2 million grant to give money directly back to landowners, to in particular, to agricultural producers to be able to put in pollinator habitat on their landscape. So I definitely there’s a lot of opportunity in the state.

What about your organization operates in two other countries as well, and Canada and Mexico.

And how is pollinator health in those countries? In particular, I’m curious as to Mexico, because they’ve heard that their environmental regulations are are far less stringent that here in the US, and so there tend to be more pesticides or things like that used. What’s your take on all of that?

Yeah, I think that overall, pollinators are faring about the same in all of North America and all of the countries there’s we’re seeing declines. We’re seeing the same rain shifts. We’re seeing most of the same issues. I will say in Canada, they do have less pests on honeybees. So there’s something called the varroa mite, which like a really big problem for honeybees.

And they actually have less prevalence. In Canada, they have pretty similar agricultural programs, so I think it’s quite similar to the United States, pretty good Pesticide Regulation, but you’re right. In Mexico, it is a little bit more challenging. I think there’s wonderful researchers, university programs and a lot of great community efforts, but it the funding is definitely lacking for Mexico, and I think regulation is challenging as well, because there are a lot of other issues going on that might take precedent.

I know the monarch butterflies, the central migration, does overwinter in Mexico, and their population has kind of gone up and down over the years. We do have issues in Mexico related to illegal logging and things like that that might be going on, which can be a real challenge to control.

And then I’ll also say, since Mexico does enter a bit into the warmer, you know, part of our world, and into the tropics, the tropics tend to actually have a little bit worse impact on or I guess they have worse effects from climate change in those areas too. So complex, but I think, you know, there’s work to be done in in all of North America, really, in in the whole world for pollinators.

Tell us about how Glo the decline in the pollinator population have affected global food security, particularly regarding crab crops that rely upon pollination.

Yes, so I think what we’re seeing across the board is that farmers and beekeepers are having to work a lot harder to keep crops healthy, crops pollinated, and to keep pollinators healthy that we need for that crop pollination. So I think it is overall becoming a lot more difficult to put food on the table, and those things are.

Related to things like drought and climate issues that we’re seeing. So I’m definitely seeing that it’s not, at least to my knowledge, that you know a single crop or produce or something is at imminent risk of not being able to be produced. But we are seeing a lot more challenges. We are seeing yields decrease in certain places for different produce. So it’s definitely a big issue.

I think climate change impacts are the major issue in terms of of drought, water resources, extreme weather. So the bottom line is, if, if we lose pollinators, or even, you know, just the important ones we need for crop pollination, we’re going to be in big trouble across the globe. So what are some of the most successful pollinator conservation programs or projects that you’ve seen, and what has made them effective? Yeah, so I think I’ll definitely point to a couple of pollinator partnerships, programs, bee friendly farming. We talked about that’s a really successful program, gaining a lot of recognition.

Our North American pollinator protection campaign, that’s the group where we convene, you know, 170 different member organizations. I think that’s huge. We also have seen great success in some of our more grassroots programs. So we have one called Project wingspan. This started in the Midwest, but now we’re doing it out in California as well. And this is a program where we train volunteers in seed collection, so you can go out into the wild and collect native seed that we then clean and put back on the landscape to help bolster native plant communities.

So we’ve been able to impact hundreds of 1000s of acres through this program to be able to improve pollinator habitat. So that’s one that, you know, we get great community participation in and it’s been just really successful on the land. Another successful program I would highlight from the corporate world is a relationship that we have with Toyota motors North America.

They set out with a goal of enhancing 26,000 acres of habitat for pollinators across North America, and that’s the same as their land holdings in North America. So a huge goal, but they’re actually well on their way, with help from organizations like pollinator partnership to be able to leverage our programs to be able to count them towards this goal of 26,000 acres. So that is just, I think, such a fun and commendable project from a huge company that I think, you know, from the automotive sector, I think that it’s great to see companies like that stepping up. Yeah, that’s a great story, and we could use more of it.

Can you give one simple tip for people to create a bee friendly garden, and what would, what would those tips be?

Yes. So there are certain plants to plant. So I think first you want to think about what does well in your area, and what will attract bees or other pollinators. So things from the sunflower family, from the mint family.

Those do really well. Lots of different herbs. Try to plant native plants, but if not, there’s also some good non native plants too. And key is to we have a rule, we call the three by three rule. So try to have at least three different species blooming throughout the three seasons, meaning spring, summer and fall. So that’s just kind of a basic way to think about it, and that way you’ll make sure that you have coverage throughout the year for the different pollinators.

Well, that’s a great tip. What do you see as the future in this in this regard, given the fact that we continue to have a changing climate that seems to be getting warmer and warmer what, what are the things that can be done? Can be done to protect pollinators in this environment, assuming temperatures keep going up to the levels that are predicted.

Yeah, it’s definitely a concerning time. It’s hard to say exactly what’s going to happen, but I think we know for sure that we need pollinators, and there’s a few things, you know, pretty easy, things we can do to support them, so reducing the impacts of pesticides, that’s pretty easy. I know that in modern day agriculture, sometimes they’re needed, but there’s a lot of overuse, I think of pesticides in the country, and then habitat absolutely is probably the top thing that we need to do is to increase the amount of habitat.

So we’re seeing a lot of loss of habitat due to things like climate change, but also due to things like expanding agriculture urbanization. So we need to take pollinators into consideration with the future plans for our country, for the rest of the world, if everyone could always just have pollinators in the back of their mind, I think we would be in a lot better place.

Well, certainly it is something that we all benefit from. It’s kind of invisible to us in many ways, but I think that your organization among others have brought kind of the spotlight on to our pollinators, and that’s great work, because obviously, for all the reasons you stated, how important they are in our food chain and and in so many other ways to preserve the natural world that we have, which is pretty amazing and miraculous. So thank you, Kelly for all the great work that you’re doing and all the work that pollinator partnership is doing and so everybody can check out what you’re doing at pollinator.org and donate to your organization, which is a wonderful nonprofit. What are other ways that people can get involved and help you out?

Well, we have a newsletter list that you can sign up for so you can always stay in touch with us. We have lots of different programs throughout the year. I will definitely put in a plug again for pollinator week, which is every June, the third week of June every year. It’s a great way to participate. And we have tons and tons of resources on pollinator.org planting lists. You can put in your zip code and get a planting list. So just check out our website and you’ll definitely find something.

Okay, fantastic. Well, Kelly, thank you again, and thanks for all the great work that you’re doing, and pleasure to have you on our show.

Thank you so much, Matt, it was a pleasure.

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