By Katie Kieffer

Bees are an essential part of our national economy.  Did you know that we rely on bees for one-third of our food supply? Pollinators are essential to helping “over 70 percent of the world’s wild and cultivated flowering plants reproduce,” Brian Devore states in his column, “A Sticky Situation for Pollinators,” in Minnesota Conservation Volunteer. There is an “estimated $20 billion in services pollinators provide U.S. crops annually,” says Devore.

Clearly, if the bees continue to fade away, much of our agricultural economy and independence will be at stake. There are various explanations for why the bees are dying off. Ultimately, we want to know what to do to help save them – and protect our food supply.

One of the best solutions I’ve seen proposed so far is to start creating year-round habitats that are needed by bees. Bees need a “seasonal succession of blooming plants to get through spring, summer and fall – and prepare for the winter,” states Devore. This means that you can’t preserve the bees by putting a pot of annuals on your porch. Bees need a more permanent, three-season home, or habitat. Conservation Volunteer reports that we’d likely see a 50 percent increase in the wild bee population, if we planted our highway roadsides, ditches and buffer strips with native prairie grasses - if a study performed by the University of Kansas in 2008 holds true.

I come from a real estate background, and I understand growth and development. And, as a LEED AP, I think there’s more that we can do to help ensure that we don’t undermine our economy by bypassing opportunities to protect or create habitats for pollinators as we grow and develop the land.

As we put up new structures and developments, we need to assess whether there is a natural habitat that we’re impacting. I don’t think we need more government legislation or restrictions on positive development. Most commercial real estate developers are well-aware of the environmental impact of their projects. Many of them are incredibly conscious about incorporating green roofs, green space and rain water gardens into their developments. I think we need to think long-term and prioritize this crisis over less-urgent environmental concerns.

There is more opportunity to do good and reverse the trend of endangered bees along a long stretch of road that extends for hundreds of miles than within a single real estate development. Our country has many long stretches of road that could easily be planted with native grasses. In Minnesota alone, the DNR estimates that there are “525,000 roadside acres that could be planted with native” plants, reports Conservation Volunteer.

The bee crisis is urgent because of how it impacts our economy, jobs and future agricultural growth. As a state and a country we need to act now before it’s too late. Building and preserving sufficient habitats for pollinators should be at top of mind for young Americans concerned about the environment.

On the scale of urgency for things to do to protect the economy and the environment, this may be more pressing than worrying about human contributions to climate change. In fact, just last week, CNS News reported that a group of scientists presented, “evidence backing their claim that climate change is caused not by man but by nature, and that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant but the hope for a greener planet.”

A new Pew Research Center Poll shows public opinion has taken the biggest drop in three years regarding global warming. Said differently, fewer people today believe that humans are causing global temperatures to rise.

Likewise, business people like Warren Buffett and H. Leighton Steward, and scientific evidence question green regulations that do not have a proven, reasoned and financially sound approach to controlling human/commercial sources of greenhouse gas emissions. As a young professional, I think it’s interesting to note that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has called for increased transparency from the EPA regarding regulations of greenhouse emissions under the Clean Air Act.  The Chamber is concerned that, “any regulation of greenhouse gases using existing environmental laws not harm the economy and American jobs, be based on sound science and allow for public review of all underlying data and scientific analysis.”

Bottom line, bee extinction is a here-and-now crisis, whereas some other environmental concerns and their solutions are still debatable. As good stewards of the earth, we should allocate our time and money wisely and move this crisis to the top of our list.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Economy, Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.