>Don't know the square footage Kathy, but I do know it's 
>enough land to enable some butterfly pollinators
>to increase their numbers to outbreak levels

Thanks, Paul  

I'll take a shot at it then. 
Assuming a 4' width for all the yellow lines I came up with very roughly 250,000 square feet. In order to support brood rearing throughout the season it is estimated that each h.b. colony necessitates one acre of forage to provison their nests with the required 50 lbs of pollen utilized over a year. Of course we all know that bees can connect floral resources far beyond the boundaries of any one acre. My point being the square mile pictured would, at best, sustain about 5 colonies and only with the caveat that bee food plants are blooming in succession to sustain brood rearing throughout many months.

The impact of the lack of availabilty of natural forage and resulting poor nutrition
on the health of honey bees is seen by most as a huge concern, however, we have 
yet to begin a meaningful conversation with USDA/NRCS whose charge it is promote land
management practices essential to issues of a national interest. Clearly, predictable pollination services and the viabilty of U.S. agriculture qualifies as such.  

Insuring there will be sufficent h.b. colonies to meet grower needs in the future begins with formally quantifying how much clean forage is available to beekeepers, increasing it in order to support beekeepers to expand their operations, and enhancing it with high quality pollen and nectar producing plants to allow the bees to make a living. Competition for resources in other organisms negatively effects their immunocompetence, why would it be different for bees? So, I may be reaching 
there, but not when I say access to safe large scale forage is diminishing in this
country, and FWIS reversing that trend needs to get to the top of the dog pile of our 'to do's' if a robust beekeeping industry and healthy bees are going to be a reality in the years, decades, centuries, to come.

Good news about the butterflies, though!   

Kathy Kellison

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