A San Francisco, California based pollinator "non-profit" group
(who's CEO makes close to $100,000 a year
http://tfcny.fdncenter.org/990_pdf_archive/
943/943283967/943283967_200912_990.pdf)
is pushing this new legislation: http://pollinator.org/BEEAct.htmhttp://pollinator.org/PDFs/HwysBEEAct_Draft.pdf
From what I can tell this Highways BEE Act doesn't seem to specify
what it will cost the taxpayers to "enhance plantings of native forbs
and grasses" on "17 million acres of roadsides".
17 million acres = 26,562 square miles of land = an area of land
almost as big as the state of South Carolina.
It might end up being massively expensive to replacing existing
"invasive" vegetation with "native forbs and grasses". And what
money and actions will be needed to stop the invasives from taking
over again?
The Act http://pollinator.org/PDFs/HwysBEEAct_Draft.pdf says: "Studies
have shown supporting native forbs and grasses along the roadside
can be beneficial to the pollinator population," but doesn't say how
much it has cost to plant and establish such forbs and grasses to begin
with.
Most suspicious of all is there are no photos or videos of already
established "enhanced plantings of native forbs and grasses"
and stakeholder testimonials about THE DEGREE to which
such plantings actually caused "neighboring agricultural lands
and wildlife ecosystems to benefit from improved pollination
services."
Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.
***********************************************
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
Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm