![\"Bee](\"https:\/\/www.olentangywatershed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/bee-on-coneflower.jpg\")
<\/a>A pollinator enjoying an Echinacea flower. Photo by Sonya Afanasyeva<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\n In the mid-2000s scientists noticed a decline in the number of beehives and started to inspect the effects of neonics on bees. Throughout the 2010s, studies determined with growing certainty that neonics were in fact contributing to the decline of bee populations. According to a 2019 study, neonics have made the American agricultural landscape 48 times more toxic to honeybees than it was 25 years before. The Bombus Affinis<\/em>, a North American bumblebee, has decreased in 90% of its natural habitats. Much of this decrease has been attributed to neonics. Studies have also discovered that the toxin can be found in soil and pollen up to two years after treated seeds were planted.<\/p>\n Worker bees have complex routines. They learn to understand smells and patterns and memorize the best routes to and from food sources. Neonics affect bees\u2019 nervous systems. They hinder their ability to fly, learn, and memorize. While an encounter with a sublethal dose of neonics will not kill a bee, it affects its health and ability to work. An exposed bee is likely to spread the toxin and bring it back to its hive. As more bees are affected, the threat of colony collapse increases. Neonics can also harm the queens\u2019 ability to reproduce, leading to a decline in worker bee production. Affected larvae take longer to develop and exposed adults have shorter life spans. The toxin can also disrupt bees\u2019 immune systems, making them vulnerable to viral infections.<\/p>\n An American songbird. Photo from inhabitat.com<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Declines in bird populations have also been linked to neonics. Insect eating birds have been harmed both by a decline in their food source and by consuming affected insects. More notable is the dramatic decline in North American songbirds. Much like nicotine, neonics act as an appetite suppressant to seed eating birds. Birds migrate during spring when farmers are planting crops. During migration, gaining weight at stopover sites is crucial for birds. If a bird consumes part of a treated seed, it stops eating and loses weight. One study tracked birds that consumed a tenth of a treated seed. The birds were lethargic and did not have an appetite. They lost 6% of their body mass within six hours, and many stayed behind to recover for an extra three days. Even if a bird recovers, the delay can still damage its chances of surviving and reproducing.<\/p>\n There is good news, though. The Environmental Protection Agency is very concerned with the continued use of neonics in the United States. The agency is working on legislation that would ban or restrict their use. Early in 2019, over 140 garden retailers, including Home Depot, Lowe\u2019s, Walmart, Kroger, and Whole Foods, committed to cut products that contain neonics. Most stores have not yet announced whether they have accomplished this. Home Depot claims to be 98% free of such products. They also label the plants that contain neonics, making it easier for shoppers to avoid them.<\/p>\n You can also help to decrease the spread of neonics. When shopping for plants, ask your nursery staff if they know which products have been treated with neonics. Avoid insecticides with these ingredients: imidacloprid, acetamiprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin, and thiamethoxam, thiacloprid, nitenpyram. Finally, plant flowers that are safe and attractive to pollinators in your yard. Even small urban gardens are valuable to pollinators, who are in turn vital to the health of our ecosystems.<\/p>\n Article by Sonya Afanasyeva<\/p>\n Featured photo: A pollinator friendly garden. Photo by Sonya Afanasyeva.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Neonicotiniods, also referred to as neonics, were developed in the 1980s and soon became the most used insecticide in the world. Their popularity spread in part because manufacturers advertised them as \u201csafer\u201d insecticides. By some definitions, this is true. Neonics have a relatively low toxicity to mammals and humans. They can also be applied in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" The Olentangy Watershed is currently home to 283,000 people. The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) expects this number to nearly double to 500,000 by 2050. With more people comes more development and more impervious surface. Maintaining a healthy watershed with this growth is a challenge that requires careful planning and coordination among several key stakeholders. FLOW\u2019s Greenspace Plan is the first step of such coordination, ensuring that we are protecting and restoring the right places.<\/p> FLOW received funding from The Columbus Foundation to produce the Lower Olentangy Greenspace Plan. This was designed as a proactive planning effort to target the protection of high quality areas for the protection of the Olentangy watershed, while accommodating people\u2019s needs for access to greenspace. The Greenspace Plan illuminates the value of accurately inventorying our existing natural resources, provides a framework to educate our citizens, and serves as a tool for prioritizing future efforts and making informed decisions.<\/p> The value of greenspace must be recognized for the \u2018eco-services\u2019 it provides. We can no longer think of greenspace as \u201cjust undeveloped\u201d land. Greenspace provides very quantifiable benefits that cannot be replaced by any other means. Greenspace provides habitat, biodiversity, clean air, healthy places to recreate and heal, and mitigates heat island effects.<\/p> The Greenspace Plan assigned scores to land using 22 variables related to ecological resources and opportunities for restoration and protection. The scores were a result of weighting each variable and adding the weighted values of all variables for a particular piece of land. This was completed throughout the entire Lower Olentangy watershed. These were then categorized into five Greenspace Tiers, where Tier 1 represents those areas most important for water quality protection, and Tier 5 displaying the least opportunity for water quality protection. However, greenspace could exist in any of these tiers. Protection of these spaces may be more important within Tiers 1 and 2, whereas greenspace may need to be crated in Tiers 4 and 5.<\/p> This Greenspace Plan has been summarized in a report, and the results can be freely accessed\u00a0here.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0We hope our partners take advantage of this Greenspace effort for future planning. According to the Trust for Public Lands, the average greenspace in the 100 largest cities in the U.S. covers 15% of their total area. Currently, the Olentangy only has 9% greenspace, and that is without the development anticipated by 2050. Now is the time to plan appropriately for adequate protection of our waterways, and FLOW is now turning its attention to using our Greenspace Plan to prioritize our restoration efforts.<\/p><\/a><\/a><\/p>