This piece was published in April, 2016 on our blog.

"The only acceptable dose of these systemic pesticides is just nothing. Zero." Dr. Jean-Marc Bonmartin, Deputy Chairman TFSP.
The Pollinators' Paradise team headed out to York University to attend the Symposium on Impacts of and alternatives to Systemic pesticides: A Science Policy Forum (April 19).
Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, the Honourable Glen Murray launched the day's lecture series. Murray stressed that Ontario government is currently taking "most aggressive action" towards climate change, pointing to two "transformative bills"; the Great Lakes Protection Act and the Low Carbon Economy Act. He talked about Ontario's efforts towards getting to 1.5 degrees Celsius and the work begun to get Ontario to zero waste. Minister Murray talked about how 80% of our food comes from California where there is a severe drought. Making the connection between climate change and water: "Lake Superior has 20% of the world's fresh water but is one of the fastest warming bodies of water," Minister Murray said. "The health of our eco-system is interrelated with food production: "We're growing food in a different climate."

Following this address, Dr. Laurence Packer (York University) took the floor to help us understand popular misconceptions about bees. Blame it on the domesticated honey bee--that's the reason for the confusion. Not many of us know that bees don't make honey, or at least the vast majority of bees don't. That's right. Packer says he likes honey, but isn't it interesting that most of the research dollars to study bee health go to this fraction of the bee population. Discrimination much?

But there is a great diversity of bees. There are over 20,000 described bee species in the world. Ontario has over 300 of these native bees. But they get no credit for the work they do pollinating in fields and such. And yet, greater diversity of wild bee pollinators increases crop yield.

Other misconceptions about bees (once you've properly identified them!): bees are mostly solitary. Most of them are ground nesting, (250 nests per square metres), most are not hardworking (some are cuckoo bees) and more than half of all individual bees can not sting!

What do native bees need to thrive?
​Well drained soils (oak savannah/prairie), "no pesticides zone," diversity of habitat (adding wildflower mixes increased bee abundance and diversity.) We need to maintain hot spot habitats. Packer pointed out that wild bees need places where honey bees are excluded (Watch for a post on this!). Minimize beekeeping: "Wild bee abundance and diversity increase with distance from apiaries," Packer said. Southfacing rockery is good.

What can we do in the city? Packer suggests minimizing mulching because bare patches of soil are good for the bees, plantbee-friendlyy flowers (or plants like raspberries. Additional bonus: bees nest in the dead raspberry canes). "Thousands and thousands of bees are being composted. Leave the dead stems alone!" Packer pleads."Spectacularly beautiful," the second edition of Packer's Bees of Toronto: A Guide to their Remarkable World (second edition) is forthcoming.

Task Force on Systemic Pesticides (TFSP).
​After Dr. Packer, we heard from biologist and conservationist, Dr. Maarten Bijleveld van Lexmond. While in the south of France, known as a "paradise of bio-diversity," biologist and conservationist, Bijleveld van Lexmond noticed a remarkable decline of insect population in 2003. "There was a true lack of answers from "the other side,""Bijleveld van Lexmond worked with international entomologists and ornithologists and launched the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides (TFSP) in 2009 to address these concerns.
Bijleveld van Lexmond gave us a historical perspective of how TFSP developed into an independent group of scientists from all over the globe, who came together to work on the Worldwide Integrated Assessment of the Impact of Systemic Pesticides on Biodiversity and Ecosystems.The mandate of (TFSP) has been “to carry out a comprehensive, objective, scientific review and assessment of the impact of systemic pesticides on biodiversity, and on the basis of the results of this review to make any recommendations that might be needed with regard to risk management procedures, governmental approval of new pesticides, and any other relevant issues that should be brought to the attention of decision makers, policy developers and society in general." Read more here. **

Dr. Jean-Marc Bonmatin, Deputy Chairman TFSP. (CNRS-Center for Molecular Biophysics (CBM), Orléans, France)
Dr. Jean-Marc Bonmatin took it away from there, discussing the impacts of the agricultural use of neonicotinoid insecticides and their impacts on biodiversity.
Dr. Bonmatin said that 40% of invertebrate species are facing extinction WORLDWIDE. Neonics act on the central nervous system (binding to nACH receptors). Neonics are used in more than 100 products in 100 countries. Systemic pesticides are distributed to every part of the plant. 5,000 to 10,000 more toxic than DDT. So combined with stress from parasites, pesticides and lack of flowers, this "cocktails of pesticides" acts inside and outside of the hive, and what is true for honey bees is true for wild bees." Shockingly, as Dr. Bonmatin pointed out, even the EPA states that in the case of crops like soybeans, there is no difference in soybean yields when treated with neonics as without.

Neonics contaminate soils. Meanwhile, 2 to 20% are taken up by plants. These neonics have a large impact on non-target species. "They are extremely toxic to invertebrates, highly toxic to vertebrates, very high persistence in soils, high concentration of surface water," Dr. Bonmatin said.
In 2013, the European Academies EA SAC (Science Advisory Council) restricted the use of neonics in Europe and surprise! There has been no reduction of yields in production.

Watch a video about the work that the TFSP is doing here.

Dr. Amro Zayed, Department of Biology,York University came on to talk about the magnitude and consequences of systemic pesticide exposure on honey bee health in Canada's corn-growing regions (a 2 year study based in Ontario and Quebec). They put up 60 colonies in total, allocated to sites 3km from corn. They wanted to test pesticide residues.  The team sampled larva, nurse bees, collected forgers, collected freshly deposited nectar and pollen from the colony as well as dead bees in the hives.  They sampled every one of theses for residue analysis of chemicals. The main finding? Bees faced chronic exposure of neonics, 3-4 months of the growing season. They found neonics mostly in the pollen (main source of exposure). Neonic- positive pollen is mostly from wildflowers. Poisoned oasis? Bee attractive flowers soak up neonics from farmers' fields.
What's more, we have to worry about the interaction of neonics with other chemicals (like boscalid). Neonics ate TWICE as toxic with exposure to neonics.  The highlight is that new interaction with boscalid may lead to acute exposure.
"I would love it if there were a public database whenever a farmer applies a pesticide,"Sr. Zayed said.

Nigel Raine (University of Guelph, School of Environmental Science) talked about his research that asks "to what extent exposure to field-realistic levels of pesticides might have significant impacts on individual behaviour and colony success?" His research looks at the combined effects of pesticides on colony development. Results include retarded growth for all pesticide treated bees. Overall, the research found worker-bee losses, colonies expose to memory loss, their reproduction affected. There was reduced flower visitation and pollen collection by colonies after chronic exposure to thiamethoxan. Effects are exacerbated by combined pest exposure. Differential impacts depending on species life history and ecology.

Dr. Elizabeth Lumawig-Heitzmann, Secretary of TFSP Public Health Working Group talked about the use of systemic pesticides in the Philippines. Dr. Heitzmann offered a case study from the Marindugue, the Butterfly capital of the world. She alerted us to the mixing of pesticides (giving them another product name) that are then sold on the market place to be used on crops like bananas, watermelon, mangoes, rice etc. Happily, the government has decided to ban the entry of these pesticides on the Island.

Dr. Kumiko Taira, Chair of TFSP Public Health Working Group (Tokyo Women’s Medical University), talked about human health impacts of exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides. She said neonic pollution in the human body is ubiquitous in Japan. Symptoms of exposure include memory loss, forgetfulness, chest pains, headaches, blurred vision, and more These are endocrine disruptors.

We heard from Dr. David Kreutzweiser, Research Scientist, Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada about the risks of neonicotinoid insecticides to soil invertebrates. Leaf little falls from neonic-treated trees. Prophylactic (broad) use in agriculture. Very few soil invertebrates have been tested, aside from earthworms. "Dermal exposure could be ten times higher than ingestion," Dr. Kreutzweiser said. "Pervasive and persistent nature of neonics in soils means tests may underestimate actual exposure rates in real world." Interesting aside: worms are actually invasive. Forests evolved without worms).
​
Other speakers included:
Dr. Lorenzo Furlan. Chairman of TFSP Working Group on Alternatives. Veneto Agricultura, Centre for Agricultural Research in co-operations with the University of Padua, Italy. A new strategy for agriculture without the use of neonicotinoids. Protection of growers by a mutual insurance against pitfalls.
Dr. Charles Vincent, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Research and Development Centre. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Alternatives to insecticides: a reality check.
Graeme Murphy. Integrated Pest Management and alternatives to systemic pesticide application in Ontario horticulture. IPM and Biological Control Consultant.

**The Task Force has adopted a science-based approach and aims to promote better informedevidence-based, decision-making. The method followed is Integrated Assessment (IA) which
aims to provide policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive information on key aspects of the
issue at hand. To this end a highly multidisciplinary team of 30 scientists from all over the
globe jointly made a synthesis of 1,121 published peer-reviewed studies spanning the last five
years, including industry-sponsored ones. All publications of the TFSP have been subject to the
standard scientific peer review procedures of the journal
(http://www.springer.com/environment/journal/11356).
Key findings of the Task Force have been presented in a special issue of the peer-reviewed
Springer journal “Environmental Science and Pollution Research” entitled “Worldwide
Integrated Assessment of the Impacts of Systemic Pesticides on Biodiversity and Ecosystems”
and consists of eight scientific papers reproduced here with permission of Springer.

Quinn explains that there is a natural "spurious correlation" between goldenrod and ragweed. The idea of spurious correlation is taken to mean roughly that when two variables correlate, it is not because one is a direct cause of the other but rather, because they are brought about by a third variable: pollen causes hay fever.
Both blooming in late summer, "ragweed is cryptic. You don't notice it, but when golden rod blossoms it's obvious with it's masses of yellow flowers," says Quinn. And it gets the blame.
But as this professor reminds his first year class, "Think form and function." Goldenrod pollen is pollinated by insects so that is why it is sticky and heavy. Ragweed pollen is airborne.

​The ragweed plants is similar looking to the common plantain weed. Watch for dark green plants with deeply cut leaves.

Ragweed is an exotic, grows well along roadsides and cleared land in urban settings: "It's connected to human habitation," Quinn says. "Golden rod is not much of an opportunist, and favours open habitat, farm land."
Do you want to discourage ragweed? A thriving community of native plants will do the trick: "As soon as they get competition, they tend to go away," Quinn advices.

Read more about the differences in plants here

This piece appeared in thespec.com on May 25th, June 2016 as There's more to Bees than just Honey.
Honey — I could take it or leave it. But many of us love the sweet taste of that sticky mess honeybees make from the nectar they gather from flowers. And now that bees and other pollinators are on the decline, efforts across the world are stepping up to do something about it.
It's not just that we won't have honey anymore if we lose the honeybees; the concern is also that we will lose pollination — a far more serious issue, as it affects food production.
But here's the thing: if we lost our honeybees today, we would still have pollination.
In Ontario alone, there are over 400 species of wild bees — and surprise! They are pollinators too!
"Typically all agricultural pollination that involves bees assumes that it is done by honeybees," laments bee expert, Dr. Laurence Packer (Professor of Biology at York University). "In Britain, that is not the case because there are not enough hives to account for production."
While in North America, the fields are much larger, "We actually don't know how much other pollinators contribute to production." But because the livelihood of beekeepers depends on the honeybee, if colonies die off, it's a problem.
Here's the thing — according to Packer, honeybees are good at pollinating due to their sheer numbers. "Take 10,000 foraging bees. The overall effect is going to be positive even if they are each doing a bad job on a per visit basis. Individually, they are less effective than a lot of other pollinators/bees."

​Packer says that when it comes to backyard veggies, we don't need honeybees. He grows plenty of vegetables in his own garden and there are no beehives in sight.
As well, some vegetables, take squashes are best pollinated by a specialized native bee — the hoary squash bee. Tomatoes are best pollinated by bumblebees (they have strong muscles and shake the flowers).
So what of the campaign to get beehives in the city for "more pollination and better food production," as a Hamilton beekeeping duo are pitching (See The Spectator story from the April 13 edition.)
"I think they have their place but not in everyone's backyard. At that density, the honeybees will starve because there won't be enough flowers for them. Honeybees will also outcompete the native bees and so we need areas where there are no honeybee hives," Packer says.

Packer proposes a survey of native bees be conducted for at least two years — to get baseline data — before putting hives in the city. Then we can study the impact of honeybees on native bees in the city. His advice is to avoid putting out hives near bee biodiversity hotspots (such as in parks on sandy soil).

The fact is, honeybees take the available resources very efficiently and as a result, that impacts the abundance and diversity of wild bees.
"If we have a situation where honeybees outcompete other pollinators and a disease wipes out most of the honeybees, who is going to be left to do the pollination?" Packer asks. "It's dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket."

This was posted on our blog in September, 2015.
Susan Chan is coming back to town for Disappearing Act: part 2! Pollination biologist and practicing agriculturalist, I caught up with Susan, before her talk on Oct 27th.

What comes first for Susan, pollinators or growing food locally?
“The two are intrinsically intertwined,” she replies. Susan is interested in food for humans, but also food for everyone else—that is, for all creatures and plant reproduction, since plants are the first layer of our food chain.
A self-proclaimed “whole system thinker,” Susan believes that the healthier the whole system is, the more resilient we are as communities. “The way to be more resilient is to have a whole bunch of players in the field,” she says.

About twenty-five years ago, Susan became interested in the honeybee while studying with Peter Kevan (University of Guelph). She describes Peter as being “ahead of his time.” He pointed out that we couldn’t have food production predicated on one pollinator—the honeybee, which is not even native to this country. He pushed the Ministry of Agriculture to do more for native bees.
This opened up a whole new interest for Susan: solitary bees and pollinators. One particular bee caught Susan’s attention—the squash bee (now her area of expertise). The squash (and pumpkin) bee is a specialist bee at particular risk from neonicotinoids.
"Why the draw," I ask Susan?
“I fell in love with it. It’s a very gentle, beautiful bee, with a very interesting life. I feel like I didn’t have any choice; this is what I had to do. It chose me.”
“Bees are a poster child but they are representing a bigger size of the pie, this is an insecticide that kills all insects,” Susan points out.
I ask whether she is working with the Aboriginal/First Nations community in any capacity. Susan tells me that in fact, the squash bee is a “First Nations’ bee,” belonging to Indigenous culture, and originating in Central America thousands of years ago. It followed their activities and cultivation to Canada: “It’s an immigrant, like the rest of us.”
 "Susan reports that she had the opportunity to speak to a group of First Nations people (Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, AIAI) in partnership with Farms at Work for the Kanienkeha:ka (Mohawk) Flint Corn Seed-Saving & Education Project and is keen for their support in seeing the squash bee established at permanent nesting sites. “It could be a First Nations’ symbol,” Susan muses."

Susan explains that we absolutely need to preserve farmland because by its nature, a farm preserves natural spaces. Habitat is a simple thing to take care of and farmers are already creating habitat on farms. Farmers own most of the land in Ontario so instead of seeing it as wasted space, they can preserve it as an asset.

I ask about the Greenbelt and what we can creatively do to help support farmers. She tells me that Quebec created protection for farmlands in the 70s! The effect is that people can afford to buy farmland. By contrast, in Ontario, farmers see their land as a retirement fund (no CPP for farmers). Come on Ontario!

The solution to many of our environmental woes is local food, according to Susan. “We need to make it a priority, that is, have a food policy to affect land policy. Stop buying food from elsewhere and thinking about our food as a commodity.”
Find the open door to change things.
Susan says she looks for opportunities in what can seem impossible situations. For example, there are stipulations that developers have to leave natural lands around their developments. Imagine that similar stipulations to create farms in developments be applied as well, so more people can get involved in food production. “I like to find the open door to change things,” Susan ends.

This article was published in The Point, in the Aug/Sept issue 2016.
Dandelions poking out here and there on the neighbour's property? Wildflowers and milkweed shamelessly facing the street? Keep calm; it's a sign of the times. The reign of the manicured lawn is over; the rise of the nature-friendly front yard is upon us.
What was once considered unattractive scruff is gaining in appreciation for its untamed beauty and for the dinner it provides resident bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects.
​Undoubtedly, banning pesticides for cosmetic use has helped towards more relaxed attitudes, but of greater significance is a growing awareness about the plight of pollinators.
Pollinators supply crucial ecological services but their numbers are in decline; their habitats have mostly disappeared. We have lost meadowlands, grasslands, marshlands suited to nesting sites and feeding and reproduction. Pesticides, climate change all factor in hugely.

Thankfully, urban environments are growing with the potential of supporting large numbers of pollinators.
According to the Urban Pollinators Project (Bristol University), half of Germany’s entire bee fauna have been found in Berlin, 35% of British hoverfly species were sampled in a single Leicester garden and honeybees produce more honey in urban Birmingham than in the surrounding countryside.

The Pollinator Paradise Project recently helped launch the Monarch Awards with Bev Wagar of Crown Point Garden Club and the Royal Botanical Garden. It’s an award that honours this changing landscape.

For it's first year, an impressive 49 applicants applied. They spoke loving about their gardens and how grateful they felt that finally, native plant gardens were being acknowledged for their beauty and functionality.
Sean James (Fern Ridge Landscaping & Eco-consulting) was one of the judges on the panel. A landscaper, designer and garden hobbyist, Sean agrees that perceptions towards gardening for nature have changed “massively.”

“Ten years ago, I would have had to hide eco-initiatives, people would physically shy away from anything like that,” Sean says, “but now the awareness is there, people want to do the right thing.”

In Sean’s opinion, lower income communities and the really wealthy ones who can afford to try out new things, are the most forward thinking.  Sean remarks that another factor that is contributing to this change includes concerns over potential flooding; “so planning rainscapes (landscape enhancements that reduce stormwater runoff) is of interest.” Sean notes that the Monarch Awards contestants were reflective of these changes: from rain gardens, soil stewardship, water management and more.”

Mapping the change
Think of how exhausting it must be for a bee to have to travel long distances in search of food. Doesn't it make sense that the food should be available in foraging range?
The PPP is mapping out existing habitat and garden sites and highlighting priority areas for habitat creation to build on the 300m distances needed between sites. If your property is pollinator friendly, or if you know of a property that is, contact the project to be added to the map. Free certification of sites is available as well as a lovely  “We’re feeding pollinators” sign.

Published September 18, 2017.
​Hamilton Monarch Awards 2017 winner, Amy Taylor has been gardening for more than half of her life. The 48 year old didn’t initially start of gardening for nature, however. What’s more, in the beginning, she gardened in pots because she didn’t have an actual garden space. As a tea leaf reader, tea enthusiast and community herbalist, Amy’s interest was initially in growing medicinal herbs, rather than for habitat or even growing food. That’s when she noticed that growing medicinal herbs correlated with growing for nature. Many Ontario native plants are also medicinal plants, like Echinacea, Bloodroot, Coltsfoot, Wild Ginger, to name just a few.
When Amy and her husband Mick moved to Hamilton from Toronto ten years ago, they counted over 140 plants that they brought over with them. “When we bought our home, we knew it was up to us to be as environmentally sustainable as we could with it and the garden," Amy says. "With Hamilton having the unfortunate reputation of being dirty and polluted, we knew better as we saw the amazing green-spaces and natural habitats for wildlife." It was partly because of the escarpment and the Greenbelt around the city that made them buy in Hamilton, Amy shares, "but it was also that we recognized that we are ultimately responsible for this planet." With that realization, they sought to make their small, 100 x 20 foot lot of it be as environmentally viable as possible: "We joined Bullfrog Power, we installed a composter, we recycle nearly everything and we planted those first 140 plants with a vision of a better planet."

Amy talks with captivating passion about the flowers in her garden, including the likes of bloodroot, coltsfoot, buddleia (butterfly bush, which she diligently deadheads), the red flowering crabapple tree, the milkweed, goldenrod, echinacea, obedient plant which starts of stark white, then goes purple, and yellow jewelweed that grows 8 ft tall, and hides her neighbour's garage.
​
What’s her favourite plant? “Probably my most favourite in the garden is the Cercis canadensis, Eastern Redbud tree,” Amy responds. “My Mum and I bought this tree together. I loved it because it has heart shaped leaves, beautiful purple pink pea shaped flowers in spring and pea shaped seed pods and lovely yellow leaves in fall. We bought it because she and I are like two peas in a pod.”

​There’s a lot more to a garden than the plants in it. Delight abounds in Amy’s piece of paradise: “Every year it surprises me with something new. I never know what to expect.”
For Amy, who has a background in graphic arts, “colours working together is important to me.” She describes a very old lavender plant that has a very woody base that is a bee magnet and a beautiful grey-blue colour against all the layers of green in the garden. Not to mention the scent! Or the bark of the Redbud tree that shreds as it ages and the colour of the new bark underneath is like a blood red when it is wet from the rain.”
“What I like about my garden is the movement. I’m very interested in adding motion,” Amy says, talking about the curly willow tree (that she also uses parts of to make hand brooms). “It’s amazing how to see the plants move through the garden.” She’s referring to the valerian she’s discovered six feet away from the old one that is still growing. “I watch the wild ginger creep along every year.” Some plants come early, like bloodroot. Some grow very low like the creeping veronica, and some like the mayflower, trilliums, jack in the pulpit, disappear under the foliage of other plants, like mugwort, as they grow.
All around the garden are bird and bug baths, nesting houses, bug houses, ceramic toad stools and art. Amy is careful to conserve water and uses 3 rain barrels: this August was the first time she used city water since last year. Also her husband rebuilt the garden shed using about 60% recycled materials from the old shed and some old windows and a door.
Amy says she mostly gives the garden free reign. “When I try to control it too much, it doesn’t do what I want it to do, when I leave it, it does.”

In 2016, the first year of the Monarch Awards, Amy was a finalist in the competition. She hadn’t planned on entering this year due to having some work done on the home, but on winning, she says, “ I was over the moon. It’s lovely what people are trying to do with this award, showing that gardening for nature can also be beautiful even if it is a bit unruly looking compared to highly cultivated, manicured gardens and properties. It’s really nice to be recognized for all the love, sweat and passion that gets put into a green space like this.”

​Hear it for the Pollinator Paradise Project
We were excited to learn from Amy that a new neighbour of her says one of the reasons she bought the house was because of the “We are feeding pollinators sign” in the front yard. This is given to anyone who applies to the Monarch Awards, as they automatically get included in the uninterrupted corridor of habitat that is being built across the city of Hamilton, as a part of the Pollinator Paradise Project. Amy reports that her new neighbour was impressed with the sense of community in the neighbourhood and that the residents there were conscious of what is going on environmentally (example, the Pipeline trail gardens).

Published Nov 12, 2017
​Biodiversity starts with insects.
Doug Tallamy delivered an absolutely riveting presentation last week at the RBG. A Chickadee's Guide to Gardening took the perspective of a (Carolina) chickadee's experience in a regular garden as a place to breed: would there be enough food and shelter for it to live its life, including rear its young?

Doug told us how he had surveyed over 1176 trees in Portland, Oregon. He noted that of this number, only 100 were indigenous. He observed that there were not that many birds: “Woodpeckers, kinglets, junco etc aren’t breeding in our greenest city, because there are no trees to breed in.The city is a biological desert!”
Most of our cities lack biodiversity, but, as Doug says, we can fix this. He demonstrated how to do so from the perspective of birds, and more specifically, through a year of the life of our little Carolina Chickadee friend.

Compare native species to non natives: Oaks host 557 caterpillars Ginkgo (Not invasive but does not support life) hosts 4 species of caterpillars. Native primus hosts 456 caterpillars, Zelkova supports no caterpillars. You get the picture.
What we are seeing now, is a biological invasion or non native species like the calary pear, which is on the move, and spreading. This is “ecological castration,” a “biological pollution,” says Doug.
Doug gave an example of the Sunset Beach, establishment and said, “They may have the right to pollute on their lands, but not on others.”
Basically, it is awful to think that "we are starving birds by the way we landscape."
Sterilized neighbourhoods (which are ecological traps) hurt migrating birds, so an important part of conservation is to pick that trees wisely. Doug suggests that we think of plants in our yards as if they were bird feeders.
When choosing plants that have berries, remember that birds and berries have a co-evolved relationship. While Myrica and Viburnum  have 50.3% fat content, Rosa multiflora has 0.9% fat, (has high sugar, not fat). Buckthorn berries make birds throw up.
Find out what sorts of habitats are needed for the Hamilton area and the best natives and diversity on Paul O'Hara's great list. O'Hara is a field botanist, landscape designer and native plant gardening expert with Blue Oak Native Landscapes. Find more resources here: Native Plant Finder and Conservation Halton.