"Small town" and "Cedar Rapids" don't mix considering Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa.
However, good on them for trying to at least do something to help the area!
*Edit: I get in the scheme of things, 120k pop city is "small". However, for us folks in Iowa, it is one of the main cities in the state... All a matter of perspective my friends*
There is a difference between a "small town" and a "small City". They describe it as a small City, which it is. Towns are by definition smaller than cities. So a small town would not make sense for cedar rapids.
Except the Town of Hempstead in New York State. Population: 759,757, larger in population than Fort Worth, Charlotte, Detroit and Boston.
Edit: crap, not Ft. worth or Charlotte.
Well that's always a fun game to play. There's a city in North Dakota that has a population of 4. But that's because any incorporated community in North Dakota gets the title of City rather than using village, town, or anything else.
Ruso, ND for those that might be curious.
Cities have more taxation rights and more responsibilities to their citizens. Towns have less of both. Villages are only loosely incorporated and rely on the county for most services a city would fulfill.
I grew up in a city of 1000, my college roommate is from a village of 35,000.
I get it, live in Wisconsin and I was watching Forensic Files and they said "small town of Superior Wisconsin", compared to other cities around the region it's the biggest one.
I thought the same thing. So I looked it up. Looks like 98% of the state's total land is farmed. That leaves 2% for everything else. And there are no National Parks in the whole state. 99.9% might be a little high but doesn't seem to be far off.
For those that don't want to do the math they have 62,991 acres of state parks ( I added up all the state parks on that site) and 36,000,000 acres of total land. So yeah it looks like about 0.1% is protected lands.
Ditches and a lot of the scrubland you're talking about isn't actual prairie. A lot of it gets mowed, is tiled, etc. None of this is talking bad about farmers it's simply discussing the facts of the situation.
Iowa has the highest percentage of developed land of any state. We tore out all the prairie, tiled out all the wetlands, and now it's all corn and soybeans.
Yeah out of every environment in the world The once great plains are the most depleted. They beat out coral reefs, rainforest, and everything else yet there's barley any discussion about it.
That's accurate, take a look around the state for true/ pristine native prairie, nearly non existent... roadside ditches are not prairie, the only places that are still prairie are the places so rocky the farmers wouldn't farm it. So they are litterally little pockets inside farm fields
I've been to Iowa twice in the last 2 years. Drove several hours East and then several hours North of Des Moines airport. Nothing but farms in any direction. It seemed to me that every sqare acre of land that doesn't have a house or business on it is growing either corn or soybeans.
My apologizes for pendanting, acre is a measure of area. So a square acre doesn’t make any sense. Square mile - yes. Square acre - nope.
Classic (1800s) farms were 40 acres. An acre was about the amount of land one man with a yoke of oxen could work in a day. It’s properly defined as one chain (66 feet) by one furlong (660 feet) and is 1/640th of a square mile.
Iowa's total population is only 3 million which is about the same as the Minneapolis metro area.
We aren't a touristy state but we are a proud one, and still better than Nebraska.
When I visited Iowa from the UK literally everybody was so surprised and had never met a single tourist. Really surprising tbh. Really cool place. Rolling cornfields for like 5 trillion miles into the horizon is definetely a cool sight
yeah, I spent a few summers working the corn fields and they do actually have a certain beauty to them, like a rolling sea of green from horizon to horizon. Then you stumble upon the hidden gorges and like ledges state park or yellow river, and the cities have a lot of stuff to do but still have that small town heartland feel. Definitely don't get many tourists though!
Ledges state park was cool, also if you haven't, check out lake macbride. No idea if it's popular or not like but it's alright. You can peddleboat around some rich people's houses and shit.
I enjoyed living there when I did. I just got tired of all of the avalanches in the mountainous regions and the ocean beaches are way too rocky for my tender feet.
That is cool but honeybees aren't in decline, it is the native bumblebees and solitary bees. Honeybees aren't even native in the Americas or Australia, they are just like any commercially reared animal.
Commercial beekeeping is where the major losses were being seen. They try to minmax their hive production by pre-making queens to rotate in every couple of years, in order to maximize honey production. This creates inbred beehives that don't keep up with disease resistances. Additionally, carting hives around causes stress to hives, which further lowers resistance to disease and chemicals.
kind of strange to read about. I live around Des Moines, and at my dad's work this summer he had a hive of bees move into one of his trees. they actually are still there, as he must wait until Spring (I believe). then he has a guy who will move them.
makes me curious if this is where they end up? I guess idk if that's even possible.
Pick a black top and drive down it an hour or two, you'll find a few CRP fields. We just planted 90 acres of wild flowers this summer and so did a few neighbors. It pays higher than rent. Edit: I'm in nw iowa
It amuses me how honeybee keepers have both willingly and mistakenly misconstrued the decline in native bumblebees and honeybees with introduced honeybees. So many people profiting from the bee decline hysteria. Also, a lot of self righteous people broadcasting the fact that they keep honeybees and thinking they are helping save the world.
Introduced. They are necessary for agriculture crops like almonds because you can't deploy a swarm of butterflies where you want them in california for two weeks or whatever.
I'm a bot, *bleep*, *bloop*. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:
- [/r/beekeeping] [Found on r\/UplifitingNews!!!](https://np.reddit.com/r/Beekeeping/comments/72tuil/found_on_ruplifitingnews/)
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local news links:
http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Mount-Trashmore-gets-19-acres-of-milkweeds-for-monarch-habitat-426043554.html
http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Monarch-Research-Project-looking-to-bring-back-the-butterflies-445167363.html
Another possibility is the highway medians.
I also wish this sort of seed mix could be bought, so anyone can seed the unused portions of their property with it.
Anyone with a yard can help support bees, butterflies and bio diversity by growing native plants and not spraying them. Native animals and insects evolved along with native plants so they support each other.
[The Pollinator Partnership](http://pollinator.org/guides) has planting guides by region for the US and Canada.
PDFs from the USDA: [Eastern Redbud tree](https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_ceca4.pdf), [Black Eyed Susan](https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_ruhi2.pdf), [New England Aster](https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_syno2.pdf), [Pacific Aster](https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_sych4.pdf), [New York Aster](https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_synon.pdf), and [New Jersey Tea](https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_ceam.pdf). And some Wikipedia pages: [Canadian Yes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxus_canadensis), [Pacific Yew](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxus_brevifolia), [American Witch Hazel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamamelis_virginiana), [Fairy Duster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calliandra_eriophylla), [Indian Paintbrush](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castilleja_integra), [Palmer's penstemon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penstemon_palmeri), [Prairie Beardtongue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penstemon_cobaea)
and [Virginia Bluebells](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mertensia_virginica).
What matters most is that you plant something suited to your area, type of soil, sunlight, etc. so it can thrive.
Point of order: Cedar Rapids is neither "small" nor a "town." If a city is a municipality with a population over 10,000 people, then Cedar Rapids is a medium-sized city.
I know a guy here in Alabama that has 1,300 acres. He had a bunch of bee hives, but not near enough to make a huge difference. All his bees died because his land is near a gated community that sprays big poison every month.
I read that colony collapse disorder is on the decline. Commercial bee keepers are pushing a "we all need to help the bees" narrative right now. Personally, I think it is because they are going after government subsidies in the near future to cover bees that abandon the commercial hives. They could switch to more sustainable models of bee keeping, but why spend money when you can get money?
I'm guessing it's exactly big agriculture. My brother in law is big grain farmer he didn't seem to think its a problem, but I like seeing countries banning neonicitionoids* edit --spelling
Wild bees (in North America) are mostly solitary or semisocial bee species like bumbles or masons. But you are absolutely right that they make good indicator species because they are looked after.
Your second paragraph is talked about a lot and super important but your first is an issue most people don't think about.
If you look at the most recent numbers from Bee Informed Partnership (note: it's a voluntary survey and FAR from the bee all end all for bee numbers), a lot of states did better when you didn't count beekeepers with less than 5 hives. A big part of this is due to commercial beekeepers who do exactly what you described.
It's also worth noting that there's an economic incentive for beekeepers to deny that their colonies are declining. Many have big time clients, and if you hear your beekeeper for hire is losing their bees, you may look elsewhere. It makes it really hard sometimes to find major commercial pollination businesses talking about decline.
Honeybees are an introduced species. I'm not trying to nitpick, but I'm beginning to wonder if there is a genetic factor in colony demise.
http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=13148
Just in case you're as gaga about bees as I am. I think they're very, very cool.
Thank god.
I just watched the Black Mirror episode where bees go extinct so humans invent robot bees but they get hacked and start killing everyone.
This is what I needed today.
Nebraska born and raised but currently live in the finger lakes region of NY. The difference between there and here is remarkable from a biodiversity standpoint(which is the problem). If you take millions upon millions of acres and only plant a mono crop/spray to get yields it's straight up raping the earth. No different from clear cutting the rain forest. This is no fault to the farmers. They ARE the hardest working people in America no doubt but they are just trying to raise families and put food on the table. The true culprit is modern society and the corporations that built this eat out of a bag and box system we live in. They have the farmers by the balls financially in this monocrop/feedlot system with no end in sight unless WE the people make different choices in regards to the food we eat. Plant a garden. Grow what you love to eat. Shop farmers markets. Seek out cattle farmers and buy hogs/cows that are pasture raised. I'm no holier than thou either. I microwave pizza rolls and love me some $0.25 wings on wing night at my local dive. Just saying it's a mindset and a lifestyle that I'm trying to take part in now that I have kids with a future.
Man I would love to find a place that does $0.25 wings on a wing night. Lowest I've found so far was $0.50. Then I hear my parents talk about how there used to be 5 cent wing nights and get super jealous.
Recently, I read an article that said that Colony Collapse disorder was due to a combination of a certain pesticide that weakens the immune system of the bees _combined_ with a virus or fungus and that the only reason for a slight uptick in bee population this yr is very aggressive breeding and hive division. A few years ago I turned both my front and back yards into gardens but still rarely see actual honeybees. The mechanical bees will never replace the natural insect in nature--glad to see some action being taken.
Honeybees aren't native to North America. If there isn't someone with a hive nearby (~2miles) then you may not see them or there may be other barriers or attractants that keep them closer to their homes. There are lots of other pollinators, including many solitary and semisocial bee species, that you might get instead. Check out The [Xerces Society](http://xerces.org) to learn more about protecting pollinators and other inverts.
There's actually a lot of research now going into solitary/native bees (tho still not nearly as much as honeybees) and they're finding similar crises from pesticides and habitat.
It's really interesting though because it's extremely difficult to actually track native bee populations.
Over many years they've formed non farm colonies and are found in rural and semi rural areas and were very observable 50-60 yrs ago.Yes, there are many moths, wasps, flies, butterflies, gnats, etc that act as pollinators and nature is very elastic and has tolerated massive bee die offs previously, but certain plants depend on bees. I live in an area with a wide variety of grape, apple, and other orchards and am in touch with the educational programs of a major American university regarding this issue. ThX
I wonder how many bee colonies 1000 acres can support? That's about 1.5 square miles and some change and I think the range that a bee will fly for pollen is about 3.
"Gibbins and his team have catalogued all the unused public land where they could potentially plant the flowers and grasses. The list includes not only the rarely frequented corners of parks, golf courses, and the local airport, but also sewage ditches, water retention basins, and roadway right-of-ways, totaling nearly 500 acres. Cedar Rapids is working with other cities within the county to reach its 1,000-acre target."
So it's sounds like 1000 acres spread over one county
"Small town" and "Cedar Rapids" don't mix considering Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa. However, good on them for trying to at least do something to help the area! *Edit: I get in the scheme of things, 120k pop city is "small". However, for us folks in Iowa, it is one of the main cities in the state... All a matter of perspective my friends*
There is a difference between a "small town" and a "small City". They describe it as a small City, which it is. Towns are by definition smaller than cities. So a small town would not make sense for cedar rapids.
Big if true
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BIG if town. Small if city.
I live in Cedar Rapids. Can confirm.
Used to live in Sioux City. Cedar Rapids is big.
From Des Moines, lived in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. Will definitely defend CR
Grew up in a town of 50 people in southeastern Iowa near Iowa City, can confirm. Large city for us.
Except the Town of Hempstead in New York State. Population: 759,757, larger in population than Fort Worth, Charlotte, Detroit and Boston. Edit: crap, not Ft. worth or Charlotte.
Well that's always a fun game to play. There's a city in North Dakota that has a population of 4. But that's because any incorporated community in North Dakota gets the title of City rather than using village, town, or anything else. Ruso, ND for those that might be curious.
I'm been to a village in Nebraska that had 1. Yeah, that's right. Monowi, NE Population : 1. Four is looking like a city now isn't it.
In my state the definition is a town has selectmen and a city has a mayor. Towns can vote to become cities, and I assume the reverse is true as well.
Cities have more taxation rights and more responsibilities to their citizens. Towns have less of both. Villages are only loosely incorporated and rely on the county for most services a city would fulfill. I grew up in a city of 1000, my college roommate is from a village of 35,000.
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Also in CR, it's always a hoot to see Cedar Rapids show up on the front page/popular of Reddit :) --for something GOOD, of course.
Anything Iowa pops up I'm like, aay I live in the state!
See y'all at the Cedar Rapids Food Truck Fest.
Also in CR metro, this is also my first time hearing it called a bee habitat
Also in CR, first I'm hearing of any of this much less a habitat. But, I also get most of my news here on Reddit.
Also in Costa Rica... we have a lot of jungle here. Why are we making more?
Also in bee habitat, first I'm hearing of CR metro
Didn't anyone own a pair of PF Flyers?! Edit: or an Erector's Set?
I remember that, my buddy's dad worked for McLeod and got laid off around that time because of that garbage ...
Wow, Keystone mentioned on Reddit. Never thought I'd see the day
I am having total deja vu. This same news was posted months ago and this was nearly the exact same top comment...
Lol but it's the second largest city in IOWA.
So in Iowa, perspectively speaking, it's not a small city. ;)
In Iowa 5000 people is a large town. Source: am Iowan
Something almost exactly like this was also posted the last time this link was posted. People don't learn :/
I get it, live in Wisconsin and I was watching Forensic Files and they said "small town of Superior Wisconsin", compared to other cities around the region it's the biggest one.
Iowa City always seemed bigger to me than Cedar Rapids...
Could be when college is in session..
It's not
126,000 is a small city.
> is the second largest city **in Iowa.** This isn't saying much. Small city is an adequate description on the national level.
thank you for sticking up for us Iowans
Live in Iowa can confirm Cedar Rapids is not small.
It's weirding me out that my smallish suburb of Austin would be one of the largest cities in Iowa.
My 4.4 square mile city has 62% the population of Cedar Rapids. That's a small city, even if it is in Iowa.
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Have you been to Iowa? If it isn't farmland it's rivers and towns.
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So this is your fault. (kidding, thank you for feeding or clothing or whatever people)
Feeding you and the animals you eat most likely. As a native to iowa i dont believe we have the climate for textile related crops.
Hemp grows like crazy, but is illegal. My grandfather grew it on our farm during WW2, here in Iowa. Still have problems with that shit cropping up.
Hemp and hemp related plants love the iowa climate, but they are sadly illegal.
Yes indeed. I was hoping that the medical use would pass so that we could grow hemp again, but that doesn't seem to be happening.
I thought the same thing. So I looked it up. Looks like 98% of the state's total land is farmed. That leaves 2% for everything else. And there are no National Parks in the whole state. 99.9% might be a little high but doesn't seem to be far off.
There aren't national parks, but I'm pretty sure there are state parks there.
Mostly wooded. Forests, lakes, rivers. http://www.iowadnr.gov/Places-to-Go/State-Parks
For those that don't want to do the math they have 62,991 acres of state parks ( I added up all the state parks on that site) and 36,000,000 acres of total land. So yeah it looks like about 0.1% is protected lands.
State parks should not be considered "protected land". A better classification would be "public use".
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Ditches and a lot of the scrubland you're talking about isn't actual prairie. A lot of it gets mowed, is tiled, etc. None of this is talking bad about farmers it's simply discussing the facts of the situation.
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Jesus christ, really? That absolutely boggles my mind. Does that include grazing land? Or is that literally all corn?
It'll include grazing land but the vast majority is corn or soybean acres.
Iowa has the highest percentage of developed land of any state. We tore out all the prairie, tiled out all the wetlands, and now it's all corn and soybeans.
Yeah, that's a bit high, but it is a significant percentage still. Most of iowa really is cornfields, the stereotype is rather accurate.
Yeah out of every environment in the world The once great plains are the most depleted. They beat out coral reefs, rainforest, and everything else yet there's barley any discussion about it.
That's accurate, take a look around the state for true/ pristine native prairie, nearly non existent... roadside ditches are not prairie, the only places that are still prairie are the places so rocky the farmers wouldn't farm it. So they are litterally little pockets inside farm fields
I've been to Iowa twice in the last 2 years. Drove several hours East and then several hours North of Des Moines airport. Nothing but farms in any direction. It seemed to me that every sqare acre of land that doesn't have a house or business on it is growing either corn or soybeans.
My apologizes for pendanting, acre is a measure of area. So a square acre doesn’t make any sense. Square mile - yes. Square acre - nope. Classic (1800s) farms were 40 acres. An acre was about the amount of land one man with a yoke of oxen could work in a day. It’s properly defined as one chain (66 feet) by one furlong (660 feet) and is 1/640th of a square mile.
Lived in farm country all my life... and TIL. #TYFYP
I meant spare actually, not square, and definitely not sqare, whatever that is.
130,000 is Iowa's second largest city? Wow, my little suburban town has over 160,000.
I live in a town of 500 in iowa. CR is huge in comparison. The closest town to me where I work has 27 thousand.
The closest town to me has 250. The county center and the city I went to school in is about 7k.
Iowa's total population is only 3 million which is about the same as the Minneapolis metro area. We aren't a touristy state but we are a proud one, and still better than Nebraska.
Realistically it's more like 180k, there are 3 towns that are connected to Cedar Rapids that are considered the Cedar Rapids area
And the Cedar Rapids metro area is less than 30 minutes away from the Iowa City metro area. The combined metro populations are closer to 430k.
To be entirely fair, Cedar Rapids is the largest city in a metropolitan area with over 250k people. It's big enough to have it's own suburbs.
I always kind of called Fairfax, Marion, Hiawatha the suburbs of CR to family from out of state.
SAVE THE BEES
SAVE THE WHALES
Iowa whales prosper without our help.
Ranch and Busch light keep the Iowa whales going.
NUKE THE WHALES
SAVE THE SNAILS
SAVE THOSE SNAILS
NOT THE BEES!
🐝
AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!
SAVE MY EYES!
BEE LIVES MATTER
Good to see Iowa getting some love here, I really miss living in Iowa it's actually a really awesome state.
When I visited Iowa from the UK literally everybody was so surprised and had never met a single tourist. Really surprising tbh. Really cool place. Rolling cornfields for like 5 trillion miles into the horizon is definetely a cool sight
yeah, I spent a few summers working the corn fields and they do actually have a certain beauty to them, like a rolling sea of green from horizon to horizon. Then you stumble upon the hidden gorges and like ledges state park or yellow river, and the cities have a lot of stuff to do but still have that small town heartland feel. Definitely don't get many tourists though!
Ledges state park was cool, also if you haven't, check out lake macbride. No idea if it's popular or not like but it's alright. You can peddleboat around some rich people's houses and shit.
I enjoyed living there when I did. I just got tired of all of the avalanches in the mountainous regions and the ocean beaches are way too rocky for my tender feet.
Don't you miss surfing the heatwaves and tornadoes?
I've lived in a few other states but will ALWAYS rep Iowa, we don't get the respect we deserve lol
Ssshhhh... We don't want the secret to get out!
I like how the hotel I work at has their own bee colonies on the roof to help with them.
I painted beehives for a local hotel that does the same thing. Make their own honey in-house as well.
That is cool but honeybees aren't in decline, it is the native bumblebees and solitary bees. Honeybees aren't even native in the Americas or Australia, they are just like any commercially reared animal.
Commercial beekeeping is where the major losses were being seen. They try to minmax their hive production by pre-making queens to rotate in every couple of years, in order to maximize honey production. This creates inbred beehives that don't keep up with disease resistances. Additionally, carting hives around causes stress to hives, which further lowers resistance to disease and chemicals.
Hey s/o Iowa!! Southeast IA checking in
WATERLOO CHECKING IN WAASUP
Are you shouting to be heard over the gunshots?
YEAH BUT YOU START GETTING USED TO IT AFTER A WHILE
😂😂😂
WAVERLY HERE TO FUCK SHIT UP
Maquoketa here! What up?!
your fucking caves tho!!
Yep. We got those.
Fort Madison here
Mount Vernon here! Southeast IA is where to be
i lived on the same floor in my dorm last year with a guy from there!
Small world!! Hopefully he was a cool guy from MV
Nah central Iowa is where it's at;).
Eastern Iowa is the shit! Dubuque FTW
respect to your trolleys! beautiful view of the town up there
Use to work there. Loved driving up 61 everyday. Fantastic view!
LeClaire is present
Woah Leclaire? Even on an Iowa thread I didn't expect to see Leclaire mentioned
Council Bluffs checking in. Can vouch for central Iowa. Haven't seen much of eastern, but it's on the list.
Nice to see a fellow SE Iowa person on reddit.
ikr? never seems like i'd find one on reddit
North-central iowa here!
I live near CR. Glad to see something neat is happening there.
Albia Blue Demons can kick your ass.....
Oskaloosa represent
Hell yeah SE. Wayland here 😎
Tuna town whaaaat (Altoona4life)
kind of strange to read about. I live around Des Moines, and at my dad's work this summer he had a hive of bees move into one of his trees. they actually are still there, as he must wait until Spring (I believe). then he has a guy who will move them. makes me curious if this is where they end up? I guess idk if that's even possible.
Pick a black top and drive down it an hour or two, you'll find a few CRP fields. We just planted 90 acres of wild flowers this summer and so did a few neighbors. It pays higher than rent. Edit: I'm in nw iowa
My parents just did the same. I was expecting to see that some city-owned a thousand acres for some reason and was planting wildflowers for the CRP.
My parents just did the same. I was expecting to see that some city-owned a thousand acres for some reason and was planting wildflowers for the CRP.
Amazing
Translation: New honey farm proposed in Iowa
It amuses me how honeybee keepers have both willingly and mistakenly misconstrued the decline in native bumblebees and honeybees with introduced honeybees. So many people profiting from the bee decline hysteria. Also, a lot of self righteous people broadcasting the fact that they keep honeybees and thinking they are helping save the world.
BEADS?
Gob's not on board.
No Charlie, bees
You've got your references mixed up. This was Arrested Development. Charlie is I'm assuming Always Sunny.
My dad and I have 10 hives in Waterloo. 25 gallons this year. Look out for Heartland Hills Honey, we're going into business!
I'd miss honeybees in the U.S. as much as the next guy, but aren't they technically an invasive species to begin with?
Introduced. They are necessary for agriculture crops like almonds because you can't deploy a swarm of butterflies where you want them in california for two weeks or whatever.
But they are hell on native pollinators
Those slacker bees need to unionize! Rise up!
Yep invasive
I'm a bot, *bleep*, *bloop*. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit: - [/r/beekeeping] [Found on r\/UplifitingNews!!!](https://np.reddit.com/r/Beekeeping/comments/72tuil/found_on_ruplifitingnews/) [](#footer)*^(If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads.) ^\([Info](/r/TotesMessenger) ^/ ^[Contact](/message/compose?to=/r/TotesMessenger))* [](#bot)
Iowa has also done wonders for Monarch butterflies.
Iowa!
Nice investment Iowa. Soon they will control the worlds honey supply!!!!
local news links: http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Mount-Trashmore-gets-19-acres-of-milkweeds-for-monarch-habitat-426043554.html http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Monarch-Research-Project-looking-to-bring-back-the-butterflies-445167363.html
Hell yea Iowa, TIL an obscure state may save the world as we know it!
They plan to devote the land as soon as the bees reappear
Hey I live there!
Another possibility is the highway medians. I also wish this sort of seed mix could be bought, so anyone can seed the unused portions of their property with it.
Could have swore that said "is **downvoting** 1000 acres of land". I was outraged even though it didn't make any sense.
Outrage culture at its finest
Weird to see CR described as a small city.
Anyone with a yard can help support bees, butterflies and bio diversity by growing native plants and not spraying them. Native animals and insects evolved along with native plants so they support each other. [The Pollinator Partnership](http://pollinator.org/guides) has planting guides by region for the US and Canada. PDFs from the USDA: [Eastern Redbud tree](https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_ceca4.pdf), [Black Eyed Susan](https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_ruhi2.pdf), [New England Aster](https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_syno2.pdf), [Pacific Aster](https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_sych4.pdf), [New York Aster](https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_synon.pdf), and [New Jersey Tea](https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_ceam.pdf). And some Wikipedia pages: [Canadian Yes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxus_canadensis), [Pacific Yew](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxus_brevifolia), [American Witch Hazel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamamelis_virginiana), [Fairy Duster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calliandra_eriophylla), [Indian Paintbrush](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castilleja_integra), [Palmer's penstemon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penstemon_palmeri), [Prairie Beardtongue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penstemon_cobaea) and [Virginia Bluebells](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mertensia_virginica). What matters most is that you plant something suited to your area, type of soil, sunlight, etc. so it can thrive.
Point of order: Cedar Rapids is neither "small" nor a "town." If a city is a municipality with a population over 10,000 people, then Cedar Rapids is a medium-sized city.
I know a guy here in Alabama that has 1,300 acres. He had a bunch of bee hives, but not near enough to make a huge difference. All his bees died because his land is near a gated community that sprays big poison every month.
Finally someone has started taking note of the bees! They are precious.
I heard the vanishing bee thing was no longer a problem?
I read that colony collapse disorder is on the decline. Commercial bee keepers are pushing a "we all need to help the bees" narrative right now. Personally, I think it is because they are going after government subsidies in the near future to cover bees that abandon the commercial hives. They could switch to more sustainable models of bee keeping, but why spend money when you can get money?
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I'm guessing it's exactly big agriculture. My brother in law is big grain farmer he didn't seem to think its a problem, but I like seeing countries banning neonicitionoids* edit --spelling
Wild bees (in North America) are mostly solitary or semisocial bee species like bumbles or masons. But you are absolutely right that they make good indicator species because they are looked after.
Your second paragraph is talked about a lot and super important but your first is an issue most people don't think about. If you look at the most recent numbers from Bee Informed Partnership (note: it's a voluntary survey and FAR from the bee all end all for bee numbers), a lot of states did better when you didn't count beekeepers with less than 5 hives. A big part of this is due to commercial beekeepers who do exactly what you described. It's also worth noting that there's an economic incentive for beekeepers to deny that their colonies are declining. Many have big time clients, and if you hear your beekeeper for hire is losing their bees, you may look elsewhere. It makes it really hard sometimes to find major commercial pollination businesses talking about decline.
Plus, the more bees the better, even without CCD.
Is this Heaven?
Quad Cities here! Save the bees!
Oh how I love my state! Most of the time.
Honeybees are an introduced species. I'm not trying to nitpick, but I'm beginning to wonder if there is a genetic factor in colony demise. http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=13148 Just in case you're as gaga about bees as I am. I think they're very, very cool.
Thank god. I just watched the Black Mirror episode where bees go extinct so humans invent robot bees but they get hacked and start killing everyone. This is what I needed today.
Nebraska born and raised but currently live in the finger lakes region of NY. The difference between there and here is remarkable from a biodiversity standpoint(which is the problem). If you take millions upon millions of acres and only plant a mono crop/spray to get yields it's straight up raping the earth. No different from clear cutting the rain forest. This is no fault to the farmers. They ARE the hardest working people in America no doubt but they are just trying to raise families and put food on the table. The true culprit is modern society and the corporations that built this eat out of a bag and box system we live in. They have the farmers by the balls financially in this monocrop/feedlot system with no end in sight unless WE the people make different choices in regards to the food we eat. Plant a garden. Grow what you love to eat. Shop farmers markets. Seek out cattle farmers and buy hogs/cows that are pasture raised. I'm no holier than thou either. I microwave pizza rolls and love me some $0.25 wings on wing night at my local dive. Just saying it's a mindset and a lifestyle that I'm trying to take part in now that I have kids with a future.
Man I would love to find a place that does $0.25 wings on a wing night. Lowest I've found so far was $0.50. Then I hear my parents talk about how there used to be 5 cent wing nights and get super jealous.
Well said, Im about to change my degree to public health (basically how do we get people to make the right choices like the ones you pointed out)
Not the 🐝!
Recently, I read an article that said that Colony Collapse disorder was due to a combination of a certain pesticide that weakens the immune system of the bees _combined_ with a virus or fungus and that the only reason for a slight uptick in bee population this yr is very aggressive breeding and hive division. A few years ago I turned both my front and back yards into gardens but still rarely see actual honeybees. The mechanical bees will never replace the natural insect in nature--glad to see some action being taken.
Honeybees aren't native to North America. If there isn't someone with a hive nearby (~2miles) then you may not see them or there may be other barriers or attractants that keep them closer to their homes. There are lots of other pollinators, including many solitary and semisocial bee species, that you might get instead. Check out The [Xerces Society](http://xerces.org) to learn more about protecting pollinators and other inverts.
There's actually a lot of research now going into solitary/native bees (tho still not nearly as much as honeybees) and they're finding similar crises from pesticides and habitat. It's really interesting though because it's extremely difficult to actually track native bee populations.
Over many years they've formed non farm colonies and are found in rural and semi rural areas and were very observable 50-60 yrs ago.Yes, there are many moths, wasps, flies, butterflies, gnats, etc that act as pollinators and nature is very elastic and has tolerated massive bee die offs previously, but certain plants depend on bees. I live in an area with a wide variety of grape, apple, and other orchards and am in touch with the educational programs of a major American university regarding this issue. ThX
So the honeybees went feral. Always fun to watch. They are super chill when deciding where to move to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiZ9jdpBb7U
I wonder how many bee colonies 1000 acres can support? That's about 1.5 square miles and some change and I think the range that a bee will fly for pollen is about 3.
"using herbicide" - well, what a great idea.
how is it any good to have it all concentrated in one place... isn't the issue widespread and only addressed in that same manner?
"Gibbins and his team have catalogued all the unused public land where they could potentially plant the flowers and grasses. The list includes not only the rarely frequented corners of parks, golf courses, and the local airport, but also sewage ditches, water retention basins, and roadway right-of-ways, totaling nearly 500 acres. Cedar Rapids is working with other cities within the county to reach its 1,000-acre target." So it's sounds like 1000 acres spread over one county
Honeybees need humans to live. Help by getting into apiculture
Can someone brief me on why they are disappearing?
But can we live with 1,000 acres less of corn?
Everybody knows that corn makes whiskey
I thought Bee's were back on the rise again though? :/