These Bee Conservation Methods Start in the Forest

Blooming meadows and flower-filled gardens instantly bring another image to mind: bees. But beyond the buzzing fields, forests are also a critical habitat for pollinators. Bees use woods for nesting, overwintering and vital resources in springtime. Until the mid-1800s, tree beekeeping was a booming European industry, since forests are western honeybees’ native habitat.  

As forests and other habitats decline globally, bees are in trouble. Records of wild bee species have steadily decreased worldwide since the 1990s. On top of that, disease, pesticides, climate change and invasive species threaten bees.

Buffering forests against loss and degradation protects these busy insects. Plus, what’s good for the bees often benefits the trees — from managing small patches of urban forests to implementing landscape-level solutions. Ultimately, these forest-forward efforts could boost bee populations at a time when they need it the most. 

Recognizing the forest as a place for the bees

While bees live in a variety of habitats, from deserts to grasslands, many are perfectly at home in the shade. 

“This is a topic that tends to get overlooked because if we're thinking about when we can find the most numbers of individual bees, then we tend to think about open habitats in the middle of summer — so meadows, grasslands, things like that,” said John Mola, an assistant professor at Colorado State University who studies solutions for insect and pollinator declines.

Despite our bee-blindness, forests have an abundance of resources. They provide bee food — nectar and pollen — early in the spring when they’re less abundant in other habitats. Certain bee species nest and overwinter in woody debris, hollow and dead trees, and leaf litter and decomposed matter on the forest floor. And woods provide shelter and favorable microclimates, shielding bees from high temperatures and wind speeds. 

While some bees are forest specialists, relying on these areas for much of their life cycle, more flexible species can take advantage of a variety of habitats.

“For other bee species, these forests are really complementary with other foods and habitats that they're using later in the season,” Mola said. “For bumblebees in many parts of the world, queens emerge in the springtime and they're foraging on understory plants within forests or tree species themselves. But then later in the season, they're using those open habitats again, or they might be using forests for nesting or overwintering, even if they're not foraging within the forests themselves.”

Forest-filled solutions

Given forests’ vital role, their conservation also protects pollinators. In one study of forest-associated bees in Eastern North America, researchers found that when forest cover increased by 43 percent, the diversity of bees increased by 16 percent. 

Alongside increasing habitat, forests must also be managed. Take European forests, where adding herbs, shrubs, and trees that native insects will pollinate, along with creating open areas like clearings, was found to benefit western honeybees. In the U.S., properly managing private woodlands by leaving stumps, snags, woody debris and patches of bare ground provides crucial nesting sites. 

Even small patches of trees are useful. For example, planting trees near agricultural fields, such as windbreaks, provides food and shelter for bees. And even urban forests can be significant habitat for bees — emphasizing the importance of preserving green spaces.

Other tactics focus on the animal-side of things. Managing overabundant species causing environmental harm, like sika deer in Japan, can have ripple effects on the rest of the local ecosystem. 

“Deciduous forests in Japan, where really high densities of deer mean that understories have lost a lot of their flowering plant species — or at least their showy flowering plant species — managing deer densities to restore the forest back to a more historical state is going to have positive effects on bees,” Mola said.

That may be easier said than done. Hunting is one option. The number of Japanese hunters is declining, similar to many other countries, but some entrepreneurs have created businesses around it. Setting up fencing is another possibility, but it’s costly and time-consuming. 

For other forest types fire is an effective management method. For instance, researchers found that a Midwestern oak savanna restored through thinning and controlled burning had a greater diversity and abundance of bee species compared to unmanaged sites. While feasible, these solutions are not always straightforward.

“If we're thinking about the Western U.S., for example, the legacy of fire suppression is a major hill to overcome because it's one thing to say that we need to restore fire to these forest types,” Mola said. “To actually reintroduce fire to that landscape may require tons of mechanical thinning and lots of labor — and just getting that over appreciable amounts of landscape is quite difficult.”

Bees are paramount for our society. Wild and honeybees pollinate many of our cultivated crops. And honeybees pack an economic punch — supporting $15 billion worth of crops in the U.S. every year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Fortunately, protecting bee habitat often aligns with broader management objectives.

“All these goals that we have for forest conservation and restoration, generally, if there are bees that are associated with those forest types, they're going to benefit from that restoration as well,” Mola said.