WHITE SALMON — When was the last time you looked, really looked, at the teeming world of insect life bustling at our feet or busily flying from wildflower to fruit tree or hive? If you haven’t done so recently, you are missing one of the most stunning examples of co-evolution the natural world has to show us. Over 75% of all plants are pollinated by animals and bees, and bees are the most effective and numerous of all pollinators. Clark College professor Steven Clark drew upon his deep knowledge of bees and lively sense of humor to dive into the biology of the bee. His presentation on Native Bees in Washington on Friday, April 12 was part of the Wild About Nature series curated by Joy Markgraf in partnership with the Friends of the White Salmon Valley Community Library, the Suksdorfia Chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society, and Friends of the White Salmon River.
Clark began with some ancient history. The first bees likely evolved from wasps 120 million years ago, morphing from predators to collectors of nectar and pollen. All but a few bees are hairy, an evolutionary adaptation that helps them gather pollen. Pollen is essential for the reproduction of both bees and flowers, so the two groups have co-evolved for mutual success. Adult bees evolved behavioral and physiological adaptations to gather and transport pollen. Perhaps the most spectacular adaptation that bees have over the millennia is the evolution of flowers into a form preferred by a particular pollinator. For example, the squash bee pollinates only flowers in the squash family. Clark sprinkled a number of other fun facts about bees throughout his presentation:
There are 600 species of bees in Washington state (and 4,000 in the entire U.S.).
Most bees are solitary, with females living underground individually and raising their own young. Entrances to their nests are small piles or dirt or patches of bare soil.
It’s very unlikely you’ve been stung by a native bee as the females do not defend their nesting areas and are unlikely to sting, posing little or no threat to people. Males may seem aggressive, but they lack a sting and are also harmless.
Some bee species are parasitic, with the parasite bee laying her egg in a host nest and her maturing offspring consuming the host’s young.
Bees never chill: they go busily about their business and if it sits for any length of time it’s a sick bee and will die soon. When a bee arrives at a flower it actively goes about its business and is constantly in motion as it gathers nectar and pollen. If you see an insect sitting still on a flower, it probably isn’t a bee.
Female mason bees fly around looking for a tube in which to lay their eggs. Female eggs are deposited at the back of the tunnel away from predators and male eggs deposited in the front. Mason bees seal the openings of their nesting tubs with mud at the end of the season.
The honey bee is somewhat of an oddball in the bee world. They are native to the Mediterranean, not the United States. Most bees live one year while honeybees live several years.
A yellowjacket is not a bee. Clark asserts “you’ve probably never been stung by a native bee”.
Clark continued to regale the audience with one fascinating bee fact after another, drawing laughter ranging from chuckles to guffaws as he gave voice to the thought process of bees as they go about their daily business. However, the mood turned somber as he described the challenges that bees face in today’s developed world. the greatest concern is our fascination with lawns over flower beds, which means many fewer opportunities for bees to carry out their evolutionary mandate.
On the positive side, over the past 10 years or so the public has become increasingly aware of the important role that bees play in our ecosystems. Last year Clark College was certified as an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program, joining many other colleges and cities across the U.S to create environmentally friendly campuses. Professor Clark is leading his college’s effort to plant wildflowers to make the campus more attractive to pollinators and to educate the community. We can help by planting flowers, especially native plants, and refraining from using pesticides. As Clark concluded, “There may be no more significant way to enhance ecology than for schools, yards, and businesses to offer pollinator habitat.”
The second presenters examined another species that poor land use decisions have imperiled: the Oregon Spotted Frog (OSF). Robyn Reeder King and Trevor Sheffels took the floor to discuss Oregon Spotted Frog Recovery at the Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge. With its 6400 acres of wetlands, forests, prairies, and streams, Conboy Lake historically served as a traditional summer ground for the Klickitat and Yakama people who continue to collect plants for food and religious purposes.
Before Conboy Lake was established as an official national wildlife refuge in 1964, European settlers had developed the land and diverted water into canals for farming. Settlers to the area from the southern U.S. stocked non-native bullfrogs and bull-headed catfish in their waterways and as their numbers grew the Oregon Spotted Frog (OSF) population declined. Today the Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge is one of only two OSF habitats that remain east of the Cascades in Washington State, having disappeared from California and the Willamette Valley.
The OSF is a beautiful amphibian with colorful skin and golden eyes that tip upwards. (It’s Latin name, Rana pretiosa, translates to “precious frog.”) Designated as an endangered species in August 2014, their numbers are declining. A contributing factor is that their habitat requirements are the same as that of the American bullfrog, an invasive species with which the OSF can’t compete due to appetite or breeding. Bullfrogs live in a wide variety of habitats; are voracious and indiscriminate eaters; breed prolifically; and are highly cannibalistic. They outcompete and prey upon native species and their population is not at risk anywhere across their range.
In an effort to conserve and recover the OSF population, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is funding a Bullfrog Removal Action Team. This group of dedicated experts in ethically dispatching bullfrogs was hired by the Mt. Adams Resource Stewards to remove as many bullfrogs as possible from Glenwood Valley. The technique that has worked the best is to hunt the bullfrogs at night with spotlights.
And, progress is being made. King and Sheffels reported that since 2020 the team has removed more than 80,000 bullfrogs from Glenwood Valley. Every March the refuge technicians walk out into the wetlands to count as many egg masses as they can find. Applause broke out when Sheffels and King reported that OSF egg masses increased threefold, close to 1,500 masses, bullfrog numbers are declining, and there is less competition for resources. For now, at least, we’re winning.
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