Pollinator Week runs through Sunday; good time to teach about birds, bees, bats, butterflies, beetles

Pollinators such as bees, birds, bats, butterflies and beetles help produce nearly $20 billion worth of products every year in the U.S. while providing up to 30 percent of pollination. But "farm and ranch lands that support pollinators are disappearing at the alarming rate of 3,000 acres a day," the non-profit Pollinator Partnership. says in promotion of Natinal Pollinator Week, which runs through Sunday.

Bee populations have been declining for several years, with 23.5 percent of honeybees dying this past winter, mostly due to pesticides and disease, and the species averaged a 30 percent loss of population during the past eight winters.

One way to help is through awareness. That's why Pollinator Week was started seven years ago. "Pollinating animals, including bees, birds, butterflies, bats, beetles and others, are vital to our delicate ecosystem, supporting terrestrial wildlife, providing healthy watershed and more," Pollinator Partnership says.

Pollinators impact 35 percent of the world's agriculture, says Crop Life America: "Bees are responsible for more than just honey; they pollinate grapes, strawberries, avocados and cucumbers, among many other food crops." In addition to pesticides and disease, other factors that negatively affect pollinators are availability of forage; beekeeping management practices; weather patterns and changing climate; lack of genetic diversity; and poor health or death of queen bees. (Read more)