>Vandenberg AFB removed apiary locations after discovery of the federal endangered El Segundo Blue Butterfly on that base.  The El Segundo Blue has a host plant relationship with coastal buckwheat and nectar feeding during its brief flight period.

>I am familiar with several National Park Service properties where a quiet policy of extermination of feral honeybee nests is conducted (with the "protecting native pollinators" rationale). 

As was touched on earlier, the issue is the assumption that when we use a term we have a unified understanding of its use and that’s probably never the case.  I assume that most reading John's post would not consider EHBs as invasive.  But in this case, EHBs have been deemed harmful which would fit the broadly accepted definition- not native and cause harm. The harm part, or more importantly the degree of harm, is where categorizing an animal as invasive goes off the rails and gives rise to a continuum that allows for almost any definition and therefore any kind of action including, as with this case, misguided eradication.  


Bill Hesbach
Cheshire CT

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html