> A good article on Native Pollinators
> http://www.wired.com/2015/04/youre-worrying-wrong-bees/

I thought the article was overly alarmist and sensationalized because it 
didn't provide a scientifically legitimate basis for "worry" about the fact
that 50 percent of Midwestern native bee species disappeared from their 
historic ranges in the last 100 years. e.g. did not list any examples of 
specific crops or wild native plants in the Midwest that have suffered fruit 
or nut yield declines or seed set shortfalls due to the extinction of specific 
species of native pollinators or because of reductions in the overall abundance
of native bees.

The article mentions canola, apple, blueberry, squash, watermelon, etc.
crops, but does not cite National Agricultural Statistics Service statistics 
that show the yields of any of them have been in decline. I thought the
article was ideological in nature; i.e. it seemed to promote a "guilty until 
proven innocent" ideology about neonicotinoids; i.e. that we should be
deeply worried about the potential impact of crops grown from
neonicotinoid coated seed on wild native bees before anyone has even 
noticed and reported impacts.

I also thought the article was unbalanced; e.g. on the one hand it cited
Maj Rundlöf, et al. 2015. Seed coating with a neonicotinoid insecticide 
negatively affects wild bees. Nature: doi:10.1038/nature14420 as evidence
that wild bee density was 50% lower in a canola field grown from clothianidin
coated seed, but did not mention that Dr. David Fischer of Bayer CropScience 
faulted the Rundlof study for using unrealistically large amounts of the 
pesticide — 2.5 times what is applied in the United States. He called it "an 
overdose." 
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/popular-pesticide-hurts-wild-bees-major-field-study-30505109?page=2

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

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