DU club addresses pollinator decline on campus 和 beyond

对一些人来说，蜜蜂可能意味着恐惧, 但是Dana Lenhoff, 他最近刚从yzcca88游戏登录网址毕业, is fond of their “furry little bodies” 和 keenly aware of how vital they are to a healthy planet.

在澳大利亚留学期间, Lenhoff, 谁主修心理学和传播学, 参观了悉尼皇家植物园, which was hosting an exhibit centered on 传粉者. That’s where Lenhoff first saw the impact of pollinator decline 和 felt moved to action.

“All around the exhibit were little facts about how pollinator health affects humans — the kinds of food production that would be lost if we didn’t have 传粉者, 他们真正的影响,她回忆道。. “To actually see the repercussions of what will happen if we don’t save the 蜜蜂 was really eye opening. I thought if more people knew this, maybe they would do something to help.”

Lenhoff returned to DU ready to make a difference 和 found that, 她不在的时候, a swarm of like-minded students was already organizing. A group of students from one of DU’s Living 和 Learning Communities had created the Pioneers for Pollinators club, dedicated to spreading awareness about the critical role 蜜蜂 play 和 making campus more pollinator-friendly.

那是两年前的事了. 在杜克大学的剩余时间里, Lenhoff served as both vice president 和 president of the club, helping the fledgling organization establish itself. Her tenure saw the cleanup of DU’s community garden, home to its very own hive of 蜜蜂; numerous collaborations with a sister club, the DU Botanical 社会; 和 a presentation at the People 和 Pollinators Action Network’s Colorado Pollinator Summit.

一路走来, 伦霍夫说，她学到了很多yzcca88游戏登录网址传粉媒介的知识, from how to care for a hive to the ins 和 out of pollination to the complexities of different pollinator species, 包括蝙蝠, 鸟, 蝴蝶和成千上万种蜜蜂. (仅科罗拉多州就有900种不同的蜜蜂.)

“Once you learn about them, it’s hard to hate them,” she says. “The more I learn about how smart they are 和 how hard they work, 我就越明白还有很多东西要学, 这对人类的生存至关重要.”

在未来的几年里, 指导教师朱莉·莫里斯, 生物学教学副教授, says the club plans to build that educational piece, 将DU用作传粉者实验室. Already the community garden 和 its “spokes蜜蜂” have made an impact, 但传粉者仍然迫切需要支持.

“We are planning a new Colorado native plant space, which is important for 传粉者,” Morris says. “We have also talked about a more formal pollinator demonstration garden, where we could talk about what kinds of plants are important for 传粉者.”

这两个项目, which the club hopes to kick start during the next academic year, are designed to build awareness for the broader campus community. “Solutions to these problems are not just based in biology,” Morris says. “It’s really got to be social 和 economic as well. 我们需要每个人都明白这个问题.”

That’s because there’s no simple solution to such a complex, far-reaching problem that affects both non-native honey蜜蜂 和 Colorado’s native 传粉者 alike. 传粉昆虫的减少令人担忧, 莫里斯解释说, 可能是由于栖息地的丧失, 农业中有害化学物质的使用, lack of varied plant life 和 disease susceptibility.

人类将和传粉者一起受苦. “One out of three bites of food you eat is dependent upon 传粉者 for its existence. Pollinator decline in a time when we are already facing food insecurity is troubling. There’s an economic impact to that too,” Morris says. 和, 传粉者面临危险, 生物多样性也是如此, a key ingredient for a healthy ecosystem — critical for things like clean air 和 water. 

尽管情况看起来令人不安, the Pioneers for Pollinators deal in solutions 和 are determined to reverse the decline. They underst和, Morris says, that “everything is connected. When you start removing things, it’s like a game of Jenga, 和 our systems are shaky at this point.”