Roadside Bees

Well, this is a marvellous little nature story, and y’all know how I love to share good news, too. It looks like America’s roadsides are becoming prime habitats for our native bees. When spruced up with native plants, roadsides attract nearly twice as many bees and 50% more bees than roadsides that haven’t been prettified. This revelation comes from University of Kansas grad Jennifer Hopwood.

Hopwood collected bees from several roadside sites in Kansas that had been restored to native plants, and compared them with nearby, unrestored roadsides. Not only did Hopwood find that native plants hosted more than twice as many bees and almost 30 more types than weedy sites, but she also found that this relationship held regardless of how many flowers were present.

“Even if there were a ton of exotic flowers, the roadsides that had native flowers in them still attracted more bees,” Hopwood said.

…The bees seemed to fare fine despite their proximity to speeding windshields: There were no fewer bees in plots next to heavily trafficked roads than in less-trafficked areas.

With nearly 10 million acres of roadside across the United States, it means we have more than enough opportunities to be good stewards not only of the bees, but make our country more lovely by adding native plants that also prevent erosion.

“The idea of taking what people often refer to as junk land, and, with just a little bit of effort, creating this haven for these grassland species is a way to make a difference,” said Kimberly Russell of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. “We’re going to sprawl, but if you can do these little things to bring in native species, that’s a really good thing.

“It’s not going to cure everything.” Russel added. “You can’t say, ‘OK, we’ve got the roadsides to we don’t need to worry about prairie anywhere else.’ But I think taking this kind of management seriously could go a long way.”

Not only that, imagine how much more wonderful it’ll make roadtrips and even the commute…all for the cost of some seeds? Someone put those guerilla gardeners to work! They’ll probably do the sowing for free. Heck, I’d be willing to do so myself…the drive in and out of Pittsburgh would become a lot more interesting during the warm months.

Image information: The Gathering, Cesar Cabrera, Creative Commons License