USDA Forest Service photo by Joleen Roberts.Īs Ulyshen discusses in the review, forest pollinators play a huge role in pollinating crops and increasing yields. Pollinators are vitally important to both natural systems and the economy.Ī Bumble Bee in Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming. Just as trains, planes, trucks, and cars transport materials that sustain human life, bees, moths, flies, and beetles transport pollen that sustains entire species of trees and plants. And forest pollinators are easy to overlook – they are often highly seasonal, especially in temperate regions, and many are active far above our heads in the forest canopy. "Addressing that misconception is one of the main drivers for this review.”įorests are important to many pollinator species, which require dead wood and other nesting habitats found only in forests. "There’s a common misconception that bees don’t live in forests,” says USDA Forest Service researcher and lead author Michael Ulyshen. However, a new global review discusses why forests are incredibly important to pollinators and how forest pollinators can provide substantial economic benefits to neighboring agricultural areas. After all, flowers are less abundant in shady forests than in more open habitats. Depending on where and when you enter a forest, you may come away with the impression that forests are not very important to pollinators. However, once the flowers start to bloom and pollen fills the air, that same forest will be buzzing with pollinators. If you walk into a forest on a cold winter day, you won’t see bees. USDA Forest Service photo by Donna Price. Red-Spotted Purple Butterflies lined up on a rock in the Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee.
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