Bee lawns generate a national buzz

WASHINGTON

— Bees are excellent dancers. When a forager bee alights upon an Eden of pollen and nectar, it goes home to tell its hive mates. The greater the intensity of the dance, the richer the source of food being indicated.

In Minnesota, more bees are going to be dancing intensely this spring.

Researchers have found that homeowners who seed their lawns with a special grass mix can feed dozens of species of bees that would otherwise go hungry.

So, beginning this spring, Minnesota will pay thousands of residents to plant “bee lawns” under a new state program that has attracted attention from other states. Each homeowner will get as much as $350 to do the work.

“A lot of people are watching this,” said Marla Spivak, the University of Minnesota entomologist who came up with the idea for bee lawns, a mix of traditional lawn grass and low-growing flowers.

The stakes are high: More than 1 in 3 bites of food taken in the United States depends on bees and other pollinators. But bee populations have been declining at unusually high rates in recent years.

According to the most recent data from the Bee Informed Partnership, a nonprofit based in College Park, Md., nearly 38% of managed honey bee colonies in the United States were lost in the winter of 2018-19. This represents an increase of 7 percentage points above the previous year, and the highest loss recorded since the survey began in 2006.

Wisconsin state Rep. Melissa Sargent was inspired by her son, Bailey, who planted bee lawns for his Eagle Scout project.

Minnesota lawmakers last year put $900,000 toward the grant program and this year are weighing a bill to double that amount. Already 10 states have expressed interest in the program, including two states — Wisconsin and Washington — with legislative and agency proposals underway.

But critics say there isn’t enough evidence to justify spending so much.

“Minnesota is already the third- or fourth-highest-taxed state in the nation,” Republican state Sen. Mark Johnson told Stateline. Johnson has co-sponsored legislation that would cut funding for the program by close to $100,000. “What is the return on investment here? We’ve not seen evidence to say this is making an impact on bees.”

Nevertheless, Minnesota policymakers say they have heard from officials in Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Virginia who are interested in bee lawn grants.

At least 28 states have enacted pollinator health laws in recent years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Legislation generally addresses habitat protection, research, pesticides, beekeeping and public awareness.

Nationwide, honey bees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Minnesota alone sold nearly $14 million of honey in 2018, according to the USDA.

“Pollinators sound like they’re cute, but they’re really fundamental — unless you don’t want to eat,” said state Sen. Jim Abeler, a Republican who co-sponsored the bee lawn bill in the

A landscaping crew installs a bee lawn in Minneapolis last year.

Minnesota Senate last year.

Some states took aim at pesticides after bees vanished in droves because of colony collapse disorder — the disappearance of the majority of worker bees in a colony with a few dead bees left behind.

But chemical companies and the farming industry have fought chemical regulations. They say pesticides are safe and reject findings that pesticides are responsible for bee population loss.

In Minnesota, for example, then-Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton’s task force to protect pollinators, which met from 2016 to 2018, got logjammed every time it brought up pesticides, Spivak said. “But everyone could agree on increasing habitat for bees,” she said.

And habitat loss — not pesticides — is the No. 1 cause of bee deaths, according to the National Academy of Sciences. Other factors, such as climate change, also play a role.

In Wisconsin, Democratic state Rep. Melissa Sargent was inspired by her teenage son to propose a bee lawn measure. Bailey Sargent, 19, brought his mother’s attention to the issue two years ago, as he planted bee lawns across Dane County, Wisconsin, for his Eagle Scout project.

“Pollinators are one of the biggest things we can be working on,” the lawmaker said.

Her bill would set aside $500,000 in grants to homeowners and local governments to plant bee lawns.

The Wisconsin Legislative Council, which provides legislative analysis for state lawmakers, is expected to study the bill this summer, and Sargent plans to introduce it during the next legislative session.