>> They are the stuff of folklore and small-scale 
>> studies by pointy-headed escapees from the 
>> ivory tower who have never even cut an 
>> understory, let alone nurtured a tree to the 
>> age where it made fruit.

> The first part is true.
> The second part is flat out rude.

The second part is also true.
Objective reality cannot be "rude, it just is what it is.

> I know the people working on these studies

But not one person was named who has "cut an understory" or "nurtured a tree
to the age where it made fruit", the specific questions posed, which seems
to concede that the point made was factually correct.

This is a big difference between the "observational sciences", and the
"hands on", or "hard" sciences, and this includes  modern agriculture.
Methodologies matter.  Pollinators can live or die by mere equipment
configurations.

Ask about seed drill air exhaust vents and clothianidin on corn, and how the
exhaust pipe on some drills expel dust-laden air at an average of about 65
liters/sec from a height of 1.8 m pointed up at an angle of 45 degrees.
Point the pipe down rather than up, and you save a significant fraction of
the pollinators.   So, weld on a length of pipe, and save the pollinators.
But caring is not enough - you also need to know how to weld.  Duct tape and
pipe clamps won't do at those air volumes.

So when I read a statement like "with sufficient habitat, they [solitary
bees] can provide all the necessary pollination",  I wonder what sort of
"habitat" for "pollinators" can possibly exist near enough to a modern
orchard, given the 100-meter or so flight range of a typical native species
of pollinator.  Orchard growers reflexively think of their spray rigs no
matter what the problem might be.

So, unless someone can figure out how to transport the eggs laid by native
pollinators out of an orchard without dislodging them before
post-pollination spraying occurs, putting native pollinators into an orchard
will not result in offspring.  And unless the orchardist is willing to lose
3/4ths his crop to pests and fungus and such, he is going to spray
pesticides that will be fatal to the native pollinators.  And this is not a
sustainable business model for a pollination scheme, even if one were to
ignore the issue of money completely.  

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