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A new review of insect pollinators of crops and wild plants has concluded they are under threat globally from a cocktail of multiple pressures, and their decline or loss could have profound environmental, human health and economic consequences. Globally, insects provide pollination services to about 75% of crop species and enable reproduction in up to 94% of wild flowering plants. Pollination services provided by insects each year worldwide are valued at over US$200 billion. The review, published on 22nd April 2013 in the scientific journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, was carried out by an international team of 40 scientists from 27 institutions involved in the UK's Insect Pollinators Initiative (IPI), a £10m research programme investigating the causes and consequences of pollinator decline. Dr Adam Vanbergen, from the UK's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) and science coordinator of the IPI, led the review. He said, "There is no single smoking gun behind pollinator declines; instead there is a cocktail of multiple pressures that can combine to threaten these insects. For example, the loss of food resources in intensively farmed landscapes, pesticides and diseases are individually important threats, but are also likely to combine and exacerbate the negative impacts on pollinators."

The legislation suspends certain uses of neonicotinoids, a particular type of pesticide that is suspected to play a role in the bee die-offs happening in Oregon and in bee declines around the world, until the Environmental Protection Agency reviews these chemicals and makes a new determination about their proper application and safe use. Dinotefuran, the neonicotinoid ingredient in Safari insecticide, is blamed for last month’s mass die-off in Wilsonville, OR of an estimated 50,000 bumble bees – the largest such die-off ever recorded. The Oregon Department of Agriculture is investigating the die-off and is temporarily restricting the use of 18 pesticide products containing dinotefuran.

Great Britain is a small island, no more that 600 miles on its longest north/south axis from John O’Groats in Scotland to Lands End in Cornwall. Yet it has the most diverse geology, layer after layer of it laid down over the millennia. In other countries one might travel for 200 miles or even much more before the scenery changes in any way. Here 20 miles will do it, and the most obvious sign is what the old houses are built of. In Dorset where I live the cottages were built in chalk clunch or a mixture of flint and brick. 15 miles to the north and over the border in Somerset, the traditional building material is Hamstone. Travel another 15-20 miles and the houses are built in Blue Lias. It follows that there is a huge variety of soils with their accompanying flora and fauna, an abundant and joyful cornucopia of life. Or there was. Last month the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) published a report, State of Nature. 25 British organisations, dedicated to the study, conservation and preservation of all forms of life found here, pooled their information and expertise to produce this report on how nature is faring in this busy world of men. It makes grim reading. 60% of species, from the smallest insect or humble lichen to the large mammals and birds of prey, are in decline, some seriously so. 60%. And I feel impoverished.

People will put up with many privations, but don’t mess around with our green and pleasant land. Given this passion for the countryside it comes as something of a shock to learn that around 97 per cent of our wildflower meadows have been lost over the last 70 years, making them one of the most scarce and threatened habitats in the country. Shocking as this statistic is, all is not lost. Prince Charles, an indefatigable defender of our precious countryside, is leading a project to restore threatened wildflower meadows with the creation of “Coronation Meadows” up and down the country. Yorkshire is one of the few remaining strongholds for upland wildflower meadows and here, too, the fight is on to save these precious sites and protect the hundreds of wildlife species they support. Don Gamble, the Hay Time project manager, believes there’s a growing public awareness about the significance of meadows like this. “There’s been a lot of publicity recently, it’s captured people’s imagination and tapped into the sense that our rural heritage is actually very important.” But why are these meadows so important? “They support a whole range of wildlife and animals and pollinating insects like bees, but they’re also a fantastic part of the landscape. The meadow buttercups look brilliant at the moment and we’re just starting to see some of the others beginning to come in,” he says.

As part of a landmark agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed Endangered Species Act protections for the Southwest’s narrow-headed garter snake (Thamnophis rufipunctatus) and northern Mexican garter snake (Thamnophis eques). In New Mexico and Arizona, the agency also proposed to protect more than 420,000 acres of critical habitat for the Mexican garter snake and more than 210,000 acres for the narrow-headed garter snake. Threatened by nonnative species and the loss and degradation of riparian habitats, these non-venomous, aquatic snakes have undergone massive declines in recent decades. “These two southwestern snakes have been in trouble for years, so I’m glad they’re finally getting the protection they desperately need to survive,” said Collette Adkins Giese, an attorney at the Center who focuses on the protection of imperiled amphibians and reptiles. “Protecting these snakes and their beleaguered habitat in the Southwest will benefit every other animal that depends on these river systems.”

Many of the wild flowers that brighten the Scottish countryside are disappearing because politicians and farmers are failing to protect them, a new report warns. Colourful plants such as corn marigolds, field gentians and wild pansies are in serious decline, as are the insects and birds that such plants support, including marsh fritillary butterflies, great yellow bumblebees, lapwings and curlews. The pesticides and monoculture crops favoured by large-scale industrial farmers are destroying the natural diversity of the countryside, the report said. It is demanding the reform of rural support funding to encourage farmers to help wildlife. The report on Scotland's farmland is being published this week by conservation group Plantlife, to coincide with the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston near Edinburgh, one of the highlights of the agricultural year. The report argued that plants are being wiped out by the "simplification" of the landscape caused by intensive, specialised farming. The number of wild cornflowers has dropped by 99% over the last 40 years, it points out, and arable flowers are declining faster than any other group of plants.

Amphibians are rapidly declining across the globe. Frogs are disappearing from forests, salamanders from brush and newts from streams. About 40 percent of all amphibian species are declining or already extinct. In fact, a recent study revealed that Red-Listed amphibians were disappearing from habitat at a phenomenal rate of 11.6 percent per year, which means they'll be gone from half of their habitats in about six years. This has major implications for ecosystems since amphibians act as efficient predators of insects while providing valuable nutrients to creatures further up the food chain. While there are several reasons behind this decline, the one that stands out is a fungal disease that's spread by bullfrogs. The pathogen itself is called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, also known as Bd or chytrid fungus. It can kill amphibians and spread quickly through habitats. "At least so far as the chytrid fungus is involved, bullfrogs may not be the villains they are currently made out to be," said Stephanie Gervasi, a zoology researcher in the OSU College of Science, in a news release. "The conventional wisdom is that bullfrogs, as a tolerant host, are what helped spread this fungus all over the world. But we've now shown they can die from it just like other amphibians."

Love is in the air at the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC's) Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve in Duncan. Mating pairs of western bluebirds (Sialia mexicana) are making a new home in the Cowichan Valley for the first time since the species disappeared from Southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands in the 1990s. The beautiful blue songbirds were a once common sight on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. Known as harbingers of spring, their song would be heard as the weather turned warm and the vibrant wildflowers began to bloom in Garry oak meadows and woodlands. No nesting pairs of western bluebirds have been documented on Vancouver Island or the Gulf Islands since 1995. The bluebirds’ decline was probably due to a combination of loss of Garry oak habitat, removal of standing dead trees that provide cavities for nesting, competition for nest holes with introduced species such as European starlings and English house sparrows as well as the reduction of insect prey due to pesticides.

A new study finds a dramatic decline in the already endangered Hawaiian Creeper (Oreomystis mana). Scientists at the University of Hawaii say the bird's population plunged 63 percent from 2001 to 2007. Part of the problem is that only about a quarter of the Creepers are female, and scientists say there are not enough females to keep the species thriving. The Creepers are found in the southern portion of the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge on the island of Hawaii.The Hawaii Creeper is an important insect predator, helping to control the bug population. There may be fewer than 1,000 left on the Big Island.

A well-known Yukon bird biologist says kestrels, the smallest member of the falcon family in North America, are rapidly disappearing from the territory. Dave Mossop says the American kestrel (Falco sparverius) population in Yukon has dropped by about 90 per cent over the past decade. He says the decline is about 65 percent in North America overall. “This is a little bird that sits at the top of the food web in which it lives,” he said. “And so, depending as it does on the whole system below it, it becomes a wonderful indicator species of things that are changing.”