> The facts are that some beekeepers have had trouble with CCD.
And still are. Hives in Colorado, in the midst of a
very nice clover bloom are weak with classic CCD
symptoms, not even worth supering.
This is happening right now.
> This timing happens to coincide with National Pollinator Week...
I see more than mere coincidence.
Here are a few statements made in the hearing by
Congressman Blumenauer, a co-sponsor of HR1709
(caps added):
http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/hearings/
("The Birds and the Bees:
How Pollinators Help Maintain Healthy Ecosystems")
"Many do not realize that agricultural production
is heavily dependent on pollinators. In the US,
for example, it is ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY DEPENDENT
ON WILD NATIVE BEES."
"Native bees are also crucial to the health of our
ecosystems, as THEY ARE MORE VERSATILE THAN HONEY BEES."
"It is apparent that we put our agricultural production -
and food supply - at risk when WE RELY ON A SINGLE SPECIES
SUCH AS THE HONEY BEE, for pollination."
Who briefed this Congressman?
Where did these statements come from?
Oh wait, he mentioned a few groups:
"I would like to recognize... the Coevolution Institute...
Additionally, I would like to highlight the Xerces Society,
located in my hometown of Portland, Oregon..."
So I don't think I'm out of line at all. I'm just
connecting the dots. Senate testimony is never
ad-hoc. It is carefully prepared in advance.
The testimony tends to give the clear impression
that a "solution" to CCD is to simply start using
other bees, native bees. Somehow, it undercuts
the simple message that some short-term funds are
needed for addressing CCD.
If nothing else, it is certainly a distraction.
> Could we all just drop the nonsense that any native
> pollinator advocate thinks that native species will
> replace honeybees for general agricultural pollination,
Re-read the quotes above.
When Senate testimony clearly expresses EXACTLY the
"nonsense" claimed to not exist, I think that it is
appropriate to call attention to it.
> Remember, we're still trying to recover from our
> negative image generated by Senator Proxmire's
> Golden Fleece criticisms of our honey price support
> program some years ago.
That's a very good point. So is it prudent to
propose a sweeping $20 million-dollar, multi-year
program? Might this will earn us yet another
"Golden Fleece Award", if it even survives
appropriations? We merely need modest funds quickly.
> the writer accused them of hopping on "our" bill.
HR1709, the "Pollinator Protection Act" was introduced
in the house on March 27, 2007 "To authorize resources
for sustained research and analysis to address
Colony Collapse Disorder, and for other purposes."
That was the basis for getting some funding.
One might even call it "our" bill.
The Senate bill bearing the same name (S1694),
introduced on June 26, 2007 has similar text,
but inserts "native bees", "native
pollinators" and "pollinators" in multiple
places.
Why the changes?
Well, if it looks like a coattail, and drags
across the floor like a coattail, and has
several people we've never heard of before
hanging onto it, what else can we call it?
> publicly insulted
Public? You think non-beekeepers read Bee-L?
No, sorry, only about 700 people subscribe,
so this list is not merely "private", it could
be called absolutely obscure!
> There have been heated words in D.C. these last few days,
Perhaps someone will mention the need for
some short-term funding. If so, good.
> He explained that one needs to have an "authorization"
> BEFORE one can ask for an "appropriation"--that's why
> he introduced the Pollinator Protection Act.
Yes, there are two kinds of bills - "Authorizations"
and "Appropriations". "Authorizing" (or "Enabling")
legislation is pure philosophy and has grand goals.
It is where everyone supports hot issues. Yes, dollar
values are included, but often these dollar values
are far beyond what can be justified. Sometimes,
the dollar amounts are breathtaking.
"Appropriations" are where the rubber meets the road.
Money is parceled out to fund very specific efforts.
Appropriations are never very glamorous - they are
about as exciting as balancing a checkbook. To put
the situation in terms to which we can relate, let's
assume we want to go to the beach this summer.
We can "Authorize" ourselves to buy yachts in the
event that we win the lottery and dream of how much
fun that would be, but when it comes time to do
"Appropriations", we look at our bank balance,
and we find that we need to cut back on eating
out and movies to have the money to spend a few
days at the beach this summer.
What happened this spring is that lobbying
resulted in a stated goal of not going to the
beach, not buying a yacht, but nothing less than
the restoration of environmentally-friendly sailing
ships to the high seas. Yes, that would be nice,
but the plan is very very grand, far beyond even
the dreams of a lottery winner, and a long-term project.
Meanwhile, we still don't even any actual money to
even go to the beach! All we really wanted to do
was to go to the beach for a long weekend! Remember?
But to recognize National Pollinator Week, let's
think about really protecting native pollinators,
as this certainly is an issue that should concern
beekeepers.
Everyone's heard about bumblebees being used in
greenhouse tomato operations, so this would seem
a success story of native species used in agriculture.
But what does the Xerces Society itself say about
the unintended consequences of this effort?
"The bumble bee subgenus Bombus is represented
by five species in North America. Of these, one,
B. franklini, may be extinct, and two others, the
western B. occidentalis and the eastern B. affinis,
appear to be in steep decline... circumstantial
evidence indicates that the principal cause for
these population declines is the introduction of
exotic disease organisms and pathogens via
trafficking in commercial bumble bee queens and
colonies for greenhouse pollination of tomatoes."
http://www.xerces.org/Pollinator_Red_List/Bees/Bombus_Bombus.pdf
So, bumblebees native to the USA were bred overseas,
and sold to greenhouse operators. Some of them
escaped the greenhouses, and spread a very nasty
European form of bumblebee nosema. It killed off
the native bumblebees. In this case, advocates of
the use of native species in agriculture appear to
have been the cause of the extinction of at least
one entire species of native bumblebee. Keep your
fingers crossed for the other bumblebees, but the
National Academy of Sciences 2007 report "Status
of Pollinators in North America"5 concludes that
both Bombus occidentalis and Bombus Franklini
have a status of "apparent local extinction".
Whoops.
Perhaps the best thing we can do for native species
is to realize that they are precious and fragile
creatures that should not be exposed to the
rough-and-tumble of modern agriculture. Crop
plants are a mixed bag of introduced species and
high-tech hybrids that bear little similarity to
any plants native to the USA, so why should we
expect a native species to work these very
recent creations of man?
Perhaps we should DISCOURAGE the use of native
species in large-scale agriculture so as to avoid
additional extinctions. After all, we never used
deer to pull wagons and plows for good reason - we
imported horses carefully bred in Europe over the
centuries, each breed suited to a specific type
of task. Different lines of honey bees were also
carefully bred in Europe over the centuries.
Somehow, I see a connection.
A future in which bumblebees don't exist to entertain
us with their antics would be a bleak one indeed.
Preservation is a laudable goal, but the attempt to
justify preservation efforts by making claims about
the advantages of "alternative pollinators" in
practical agriculture are disingenuous, and tend to
dispel the sense of urgency that CCD requires.
How many innocent species of pollinators have to go
extinct before we stop trying to force them into the
gaping maw of 21st Century agriculture in misguided
and misinformed attempts to make them "work" for humans?
Can't we leave these bees alone, and just let them bee?
Please, do it for the poor bumblebees!
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