To bee, or not to bee

Unless you’re a wax figure, you’ve heard about the dire circumstances facing honeybee populations. Colony collapse disorder (CCD) reared its ugly head in 2006. Suddenly, beehives were deserted with no discernible cause.

According to the USDA, losses from the winter of 2006-2011 averaged about 33 percent each year, with a third of these losses attributed to CCD by beekeepers. The winter of 2011-12 was an exception, when total losses dropped to 22 percent, but preliminary statistics from 2013 show a whopping 34 percent loss. This rate of loss is considered unsustainable; “accepted” rates are well below 20 percent.

Although there is no hard evidence of the reason for the decline, everything from pesticides to mites to cellphone towers have been blamed. Regardless the cause, there is no doubt pollinators are in noticeable decline. Even home gardeners across the nation are commenting on the loss.

Honeybees are not the only pollinators in short supply. Bumblebees and butterflies are among declining insects.

While the lack of pollinators may not affect greens, tees and fairways, superintendents see the larger picture. The open green space offered by a golf course is prime territory to lend a hand to local pollinators. Which is exactly what Scott Griffith did.

As superintendent at the University of Georgia’s golf course for the past eight years, Griffith has held the line on pesticides for a variety of reasons. “Pesticide reduction has always been a goal for obvious reasons,” he says. “The golf course industry is not doing that well, and we felt the (financial) pinch on our end so anything we can do to reduce costs helps us tremendously.

“But we also want to be good stewards,” Griffith continues. “We live in a college town; it’s very environmentally conscious. So we want to be sure we’re doing all we can to set the right example about what can be done.”

To that end, when Syngenta’s Jason Whitecliffe approached him about the company’s “Operation Pollinator” program, Griffith was eager to give it a try. He seeded almost half-an-acre on the course in March 2014 with a Georgia-adapted wildflower mix.

The area was tilled and the Bermudagrass treated with herbicide (glyphosate, at the highest labeled rate) before planting. Then, the wildflower mix by Applewood Seed was put down at a rate of about 10 pounds per acre. With ample rain, the mix sprouted and grew with minimal irrigation.

“The wildflower seed mixture was developed by Anthony Williams at Stone Mountain Park, so I knew it would work,” Griffith says. It might have even worked too well for the Plains Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria), which grew so tall it shaded out other species. “Next time, I might ask them to leave it out.”

The plot peaked during a June meeting of the Georgia Golf Course Superintendents Association, and performed right on schedule. “We host the Bulldog Classic every year here to benefit the scholarship fund,” he says. “In conjunction with the tournament, we also have outdoor education. It’s kind of a neat event.”

Griffith plans several more plots around the course starting next spring, until about seven or eight acres of the course are adorned with colorful flowers and plenty of pollinators. “Actually, we are kind of constricted as to where we can place them, because, of course, we don’t want to affect play,” he says. “And we’re a closed course, land-wise, plus you need some sunlight for the flowers so you can’t put them in the tree lines. But we’re fortunate in that we have some places where we can put them.”
 

With the success of the plot, Griffith is inspired to make the UGA course even more environmentally friendly. “We didn’t want to be a copycat, but we’re pretty close to Augusta National, and our course is laid out very similar to them. I must admit that when I first got here, my idea was to select plant material that would emulate them and kind of mirror what they were doing,” he says.

“Since then, times have changed. Now I’ve decided that I’m not going plant anything unless it’s a Georgia native plant,” he adds. “From now on, if we plant anything new, or if we have a non-native plant or tree that dies and we need to replace, we’ll replace it with native material.”

Griffith is excited about the change. “We’re even going to take it a step further and we’re going to start labeling the plant material we put in,” he says. “We’ll also put in signage saying we only use native plants. We’re going to try to push that a little more.”

There are plenty of opportunities to partner with local organizations to advance this goal. “We have a botanic garden right across the street,” Griffith says. In addition, the University of Georgia has an extensive honeybee curriculum, which he plans to approach to help move his program along.

“People are going to be interested in what kind of plants are native to Georgia,” he says. “And obviously, these plants will be well suited to the environment, so they should work well. They may not be as showy, but they will be successful.”

As Griffith learns more about pollinators, he looks forward to trying more techniques to encourage them. “I looked briefly at having bee hives, but that’s too much. The botanic garden has some type of nesting system they use, that looks like a honeycomb with circles to encourage nesting. I’ll be talking to them to see how it works.”

“We are also getting signed up for the Audubon Certification Program,” Griffith says. “That took some convincing, because it’s like a subscription, but I finally got it approved. Once we start that program, we’re going to put in a lot more habitat, not only for bees, but for birds and bats and other wildlife as well.”

Helen M. Stone is a Hayfork, Calif.-based writer and frequent GCI contributor.