The competitive conflict between honeybees and native pollinators has genuine policy implications today. 

 In California,  bee pasture and apiary locations on Forest Service land are subject to an Environmental Assessment.  The fear of native pollinator effects (because there is very little data, but much theorizing) cannot be adequately addresssed, and consequently the EA process uses the cautionary principle.   The EA requirement  due to cost and complexity is in practical terms a moratorium on new bee pasture locations on USFS land.

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). 

The Diane Thomson papers on her research on Apis vs. Bombus density at a reserve in Big Sur, California points to some competitive effects during "bad" years.  See: http://www.greatoldbroads.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/44/Thomson_2016_Local-bumble-bee-decline-linked-to-recovery-of-honey-bees-drought-effects-on-floral-resources.pdf

A Nature Ecology & Evolution article is also recent and relevant, Honeybee spillover reshuffles pollinator diets and affects plant reproductive success     Ainhoa Magrach  Nature Ecology & Evolution 1, 1299–1307 (2017)doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0249-9

Taken as a whole, the academic tendency has turned decidedly hostile to honeybees in "protected landscapes".   

             ***********************************************
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