NATIVE BEES: The buzz about important Texans 07 
[" ... and a place to nest."] ... details ahead on Passport to 
Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Although we're concerned about the loss of 
honeybees from colony collapse disorder, this 
might ease your mind:

12 -- You have to think of honeybees as a farm animal. We can 
grow more of those. And we can produce more honeybee 
queens, which can in turn, grow more honeybee colonies.

That's TPW invertebrate biologist Michael Warriner. 
While we focus on replaceable non-native European 
honeybees, we're neglecting our irreplaceable 
native bee populations, also in decline.

17 -- If we lose native bees, we can't necessarily breed more of 
those because we don't know how. We don't necessarily know 
what kinds of things they prefer - because we're not managing 
them. They're existing in natural habitat that we're losing. 
Honeybees are pretty much a domesticated animal we can breed 
more of.

Native bees play a valuable role in the ecosystem.

18 -- They play the biggest role in maintaining native plant 
communities. And a lot of those plants have to be pollinated by 
bees. As we lose bees, those plants will be less able to produce 
viable seed, which means that they just slowly disappear off the 
landscape.

How to help native bees ... .that's tomorrow.

That's our show ... the WSFR program supports our 
series, and funds diverse conservation projects in 
Texas. 

For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti. 




Total sound bite time:		0:38.0
Maximum Script time:		0:47.0 Suggested show time: 85.0 = 1:25