April 2013
The Southwest Portland Post • 7
FEATURES
Dear EarthTalk: I’d like to have a
garden that encourages bees and but-
terflies. What’s the best approach?
– Robert Miller, Bakersfield, CA
Attracting bees and butterflies to a
garden is a noble pursuit indeed, given
that we all depend on these species and
others (beetles, wasps, flies, humming-
birds, etc.) to pollinate the plants that
provide us with so much of our food,
shelter and other necessities of life.
In fact, increased awareness of the
essential role pollinators play in eco-
system maintenance—along with
news about rapid declines in bee
populations—have led to a prolif-
eration of backyard “pollinator gar-
dens” across the U.S. and beyond.
“Pollinators require two essential com-
ponents in their habitat: somewhere to
nest and flowers from which to gather
nectar and pollen,” reports the Xerces
Society, a Massachusetts-based non-
profit that protects wildlife through
the conservation of invertebrates and
their habitat.
“Native plants are undoubtedly the
best source of food for pollinators, be-
cause plants and their pollinators have
co-evolved.” But, Xerces adds, many
varieties of garden plants can also at-
tract pollinators. Plant lists customized
for different regions of the U.S. can be
found on the group’s website
Any garden, whether a window box
on a balcony or a multi-acre backyard,
(Stock photo courtesy of Stock Seed Farms)
can be made friendlier to pollinators.
Xerces recommends providing a range
of native flowering plants that bloom
throughout the growing season to
provide food and nesting for bees, but-
terflies and other pollinators.
Xerces also says that clustering
flowering plants together in patches is
preferable to spacing individual plants
apart. “Creating foraging habitat not
only helps the bees, butterflies and
flies that pollinate these plants, but
also results in beautiful, appealing
landscapes.”
Along these lines, gardeners should
plant a variety of colors in a pollinator
garden, as color is one of the plant king-
dom’s chief clues that pollen or nectar
is available.
Master gardener Marie Iannotti, an
About.com gardening guide, reports
that blue, purple, violet, white and
yellow flowers are particularly attrac-
tive to bees.
She adds that different shapes also
attract different types of pollinators,
and that getting as much floral diver-
sity of any kind going is a sure way to
maximize pollination.
Another way to attract pollinators is
to provide nest sites for bees—see how
on the xerces.org website. The group
also suggests cutting out pesticides, as
these harsh chemicals reduce the avail-
able nectar and pollen sources in gar-
dens while poisoning the very insects
that make growing plants possible.
Those looking to go whole hog into
pollinator gardening might consider in-
vesting $30 in Xerces Society’s recently
published book, Attracting Native Pol-
linators: Protecting North America’s Bees
and Butterflies, which provides a good
deal of detailed information about pol-
linators and the plants they love.
Gardeners who have already encour-
aged pollinators can join upwards of
1,000 others who have signed onto
Xerces’ Pollinator Protection Pledge.
And the icing on the cake is a “Pol-
linator Habitat” sign from Xerces stuck
firmly in the ground between two
flowering native plants so passersby
can learn about the importance of pol-
linators and making them feel welcome.
CONTACTS: Xerces Society, www.
xerces.org, About.com “Bee Plants,”
http://gardening.about.com/od/
attractingwildlife/a/Bee_Plants.htm.
Dear EarthTalk: I heard that my food
choices can affect the use and therefore
availability of fresh water around the
world. How so?
– Denise Beck, Washington, DC
Our food choices and the availability
of fresh water are inextricably linked.
The crux of the problem is that human
population numbers keep growing—
we recently topped seven billion people
worldwide—yet the amount of fresh
water available remains finite.
And growing food and raising live-
stock to feed increasing numbers of
humans takes a great deal of water.
Worldwide, some 70 percent of fresh
water is used for agriculture.
The United Nations Food and Agri-
culture Organization (FAO) estimates
that, by 2050, two-thirds of the people
on the planet will lack clean water to
meet even basic needs.
According to the Vegetarian Re-
source Group, the livestock industry
is the largest user of fresh water in the
U.S. and in many other countries. The
billions of livestock animals raised
for food around the world each year
consume substantial amounts of water
directly.
The industry also negatively im-
pacts the replenishment of fresh water
through the compaction of soil, the deg-
radation of banks along watercourses,
the clearing of forests to expand graz-
ing, and other factors.
An even larger issue is the water
needed to grow the feed that livestock
eat. Researchers for the 2006 FAO report
“Livestock’s Long Shadow” report that
2,400 liters of water go into the produc-
tion of one hamburger, while only 25
liters are needed to produce a potato.
Likewise, a cheese pizza requires
1,200 liters of water—given the drink-
ing, cleaning and feed needs of dairy
cows—while a tomato pizza only needs
300.
Eliminating meat consumption would
be a surefire way to save vast amounts
of fresh water, and switching to a veg-
etarian or vegan diet is one way an
individual can make a big impact on
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