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From:
"Dave Green, Eastern Pollinator Newsletter" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 26 Dec 1996 11:46:24 -0500
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A widely distributed press release from about our (USA) pollination situation
contains some important truth, but also contains some distortions and leaves
out some very important factors. Here is the text with my commentary:
 
Source:  The Forgotten Pollinators Campaign, Arizona-
Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Rd., Tucson, AZ 85743;
email [log in to unmask];
http://www.oldwestnet.com/asdm/fp/.
 
November 22, 1996
 
<<Native Species Fill the Gap Left by Drastic Honeybee Declines
 
Following five consecutive years of the worst honeybee
declines in U.S. history, experts predicted that pollinator
scarcity could seriously limit crop yields in the U.S. for
such traditional Thanksgiving foods as pumpkins, apples,
cranberries, almonds and squash. Insects must pollinate these
and many other food crops. Honey bees -- the type kept by
beekeepers -- are America's number-one pollinator. But honey
bees have been largely absent from fields and orchards around
the country in recent years, due to a combination of
pesticide exposure, early cold weather and disease caused by
parasitic mites. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported
last spring that in some parts of the country, up to 90% of
all honey bees had been killed.
 
Fortunately, Mother Nature has come to the rescue -- at least
for now. According to a new report released by The Forgotten
Pollinators Campaign, pollination by wild native bees has
averted shortages of fruits and vegetables that are staples
of the U.S. holiday season.
 
To compile their report, scientists from the Forgotten
Pollinators Campaign sampled field crops in Alabama, Arizona
and Maine, and compiled bee and crop estimates from New York,
California, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Iowa and elsewhere.
Their field census data indicated reduced visits by honey
bees through the spring and summer -- in many cases no visits
at all. However, bumblebees, squash bees, gourd bees, sweat
bees, leaf-cutting bees and other wild native species were
all prevalent.
 
While official U.S. government data on 1996 honey bee
populations will not be available until January, the
Campaign's survey of key agricultural states -- combined with
anecdotal evidence from around the nation -- indicates that
farmers and gardeners continue to feel the effects of
declining honey bee populations. One indicator of these
shortages is the cost to farmers for renting honey bee
colonies to pollinate their crops. In the Pacific Northwest,
for example, the Campaign found rental costs for agricultural
pollination had climbed more than 50% in the past three
years.
 
Wild native bees have lived in our forests and fields since
long before the first importation of the honey bee from
Europe some 400 years ago. Today, threats to the honey bee
mean that their wild cousins are more important than ever.
Unfortunately, these insects are also susceptible to the
pressures of human population growth and pesticides sprayed
on crops.
 
"We must invest more resources in protecting wild
pollinators," concludes Dr. Gary Nabhan, co-director of the
Forgotten Pollinators Campaign and co-author with Dr. Stephen
Buchmann of the book "Forgotten Pollinators". He notes that
farmers can utilize simple strategies to help -- keeping the
edges of their fields in a natural condition to provide
nesting areas and applying pesticides in the evening hours
when bees are not active.
 
"Wild pollinators will be increasingly responsible for
stabilizing the U.S. food supply in an era of honey bee
scarcity. While it is important to do everything we can to
keep honey bee populations healthy, it is clear that a
pollination crisis can be averted only by diversifying our
'pollinator portfolio.'">>
 
 
    I am in complete agreement with the conclusion of the Forgotten
Pollinators Campaign that we must enhance and develop alternative pollinators
to improve our pollination situation.  We cannot depend solely on honeybees
for our pollination needs.
However, to write off honeybees and expect that "Mother Nature" will "come to
the rescue" is an invitation to famine. It makes some premature and sweeping
assumptions that may not be valid.
 
   It is true that wild bees have shown some resurgeance in the absense of
competition from honeybees.  But this has not happened everywhere, and where
it does, is only of significant import to gardeners and very small farmers.
 We are forgetting that the bulk of our food supply today is grown in
monoculture situations.  Without help, wild bees cannot produce large enough
populations to adequately pollinate today's large farms.
 
    In orchards, for example, there is one rush of bloom each year. Then,
from a bee's perspective, barrenness for the rest of the year.  Not only is
the environment barren, but it is acutely hostile, as repeated pesticide
applications are made.  Alternative pollinators cannot be relied upon until
we gain the techology to culture and concentrate them into the orchards at
the time of bloom.  This technology is in its infancy today.
 
    Honeybees have been cultured throughout human history, and the capability
to concentrate them for pollination has been well developed.
 
    Secondly, while it is noted that honeybees are not native pollinators, it
is not mentioned that many of our basic food crops are also imported.
 Honeybees have been the primary pollinators of human food crops throughout
history. The sensationalist tone of the article seems to write off honeybees,
and ignores this important fact. While we may be wistful, there is no way to
return to the "pristine" environmental conditions of precolonial America.  It
has been changed forever, and we might as well make the best of it.
 
   Thirdly the report ignores the contribution of the beekeepers who "busted
their butts" to get honeybees into the orchards and fields in time to
pollinate the crops. Crediting "Mother Nature" with the "rescue" is a
slap-in-the-face to all these men and women, who are among the hardest
working and most productive of all Americans. It would be unfortunate if the
Forgotten Pollinators Campaign pits beekeepers and advocates of alternative
pollinators against each other, when they are natural allies.
 
   Researchers who visited eastern sites must have concentrated on backyard
gardens and very small farms; they could not have gone to commercial orchards
and farms of any size.  Last spring there was a lot of hand-wringing in the
media about the winter losses of honeybees in the north, but little note of
the fact that many of the honeybees had gone south for the winter.  And
replacements for the lost bees were already being prepared in the South to be
rushed north in time to pollinate the orchards.
 
    On the east coast, migratory beekeepers carry many tractor-trailer loads
of bees to Florida, South Carolina and Gulf Coast Locations. Each hive that
overwinters in the south is like a pregnant cow.  The pollen and nectar of
spring bloom stimulates the bees and it is "calving" time. The bees build
rapidly and more hives are started.  Most of these are returned north to
replace losses and make increase. This is a normal situation, this past year
was just more stressful, with the larger losses.
 
    From Florida, thousands of truckloads of bees are used in citrus groves
for honey production and pollination, then they are loaded and transported to
northeastern and Great Lakes orchards.  Hundreds of thousands of hives were
provided to pollinate the crops.  Many growers were not able to get as many
as they wanted, and most had to pay a little more than they preferred, but
few were without honeybees, and those were, were those who waited until the
last minute to order.
 
    Fourth, even as we talk of the need for more protection for wild
pollinators from pesticides, there is intense lobbying going on to remove the
only current protection they have in US law.
 
    Pesticides that are toxic to bees have label directions (placed under
"Environmental Hazards") that prohibit application while bees are foraging.
 The placement of the instructions in the environmental section acknowledges
the value of these pollinators as an important environmental resource, and it
clearly does not distinguish one species of bee from another.  The label
directions definitely make the applicator responsible for bee protection;
application in violation of the label is illegal.
 
    While the law thus protects foraging bees, in practice, this is seldom
implemented. Pesticide enforcement is at the state level, and bee-protection
label enforcement is best in states that have a lot of fruits and veggies
that need bee pollination.  There is rarely any training to pesticide
applicators to help them determine when bees are foraging.
 
    Almost all enforcement is directed only to managed honeybees, and many
states actually "officially" circumvent the label directions.  Rather than
implement the label directions, they have pesticide applicators notify
beekeepers of applications.
 
   South Carolina pesticide regulators have made public statements that
officially refuse to ackowledge that label directions apply to wild bees.
 North Carolina, in a massive aerial spraying program last fall, for mosquito
control after Hurricane Fran, also refused to protect wild pollinators.  They
applied resmethrin and malathion (in clear violation of the labels) during
warm, sunny afternoons when bumblebees, solitary bees, and honeybees were at
peak foraging activity on goldenrod and astor.  (I personally documented this
with videotape.)
 
    The present lobbying by the pesticide industry is in the guise of
"reforming" bee protection directions.  It is aimed at shifting the burden
for bee protection entirely back to beekeepers. And it seeks to evade any
legal protection for wild pollinators by specifying only managed honeybees in
label directions.  South Carolina pesticide regulation head, Dr. Von
McCaskill, proposed replacement current bee directions with the vague
statement, "Avoid applications which would result in adverse effects to
managed honeybees."  This statement would be completely unenforceable, even
for domestic bees, and totally removes protection for all wild bees.
 
    Two official versions of the statements are now under consideration by
the EPA, according to Dr. Tom Sanford, Florida bee specialist:
 
Proposed statement #1--
 
<<This product is toxic to bees exposed to direct contact.  During daylight
hours, do not allow this product to come in contact with, either directly
or through drift, blooming crops or blooming weeds that are foraged by
domestic honey bees, unless used in accordance with a program specific
to your state or tribe for the protection of bees.  Do not allow this
product to come in contact with bee hives at any time.>>
 
Proposed statement#2--
 
<<This product is toxic to bees exposed to direct contact.  Do not allow this
product to come in contact with, either directly or through drift,
blooming crops or blooming weeds that are foraged by domestic honey
bees, unless used in accordance with a program specific to your state or
tribe for the protection of bees.  Do not allow this product to come in
contact with bee hives at any time>>
 
    Note that both statements allow states to set up their own program, in
lieu of these directions, and that only kept honeybees are protected.  In
states such as South Carolina, where beekeeping is a weak industry, the state
program will be a farce.  Only in states with a vocal group of growers, that
needs pollination, will there be any protection at all. And it will be
largely based on dumping the protection efforts onto beekeepers.
 
     Beekeepers will continue to be the turkeys at the turkey shoot.  What do
you do, when a half dozen applicators, in as many different locations, call
and say, "We're spraying tomorrow morning; move the bees?"  Run, run, run,
and there is no place to run to!
 
    I believe the current statements for bee protection offer good protection
for bees, by protecting them as they forage, which is sufficient protection
overall.  Implementation must be based on teaching pesticide applicators how
to observe when bees are foraging. This is an excellent opportunity for
extension.
 
    However, because many state regulators are so reluctant to implement and
enforce the label directions, I believe the following clarifications in
interpretation need to be made:
 
    1.  The label directions refer to all bees, not just domestic honeybees.
 This was already clearly recognized by placing the directions under
environmental hazards, but some state regulators refuse to admit this.
 
    2.  Labels currently indicate that some pesticides are toxic only by
direct contact, while others are residual. Direct contact materials can be
used anytime bees are not foraging, but residual pesticides must not
contaminate bloom that will remain open and continue to poison bees during
the residual life of the material.  This needs to be clarified.
 
    Some highly residual materials, such as Penncap M (Trademark), simply
cannot be used on any bloom that is attractive to honeybees.  For example, if
there is clover blooming in the orchard, even though the trees are not in
bloom, use of Penncap M (Trademark) would be in violation, unless means are
taken to remove the clover bloom. This particular example has been the cause
of loss of many hives and a lot of wild bees as well.  Another common
violation is to apply spring "petal fall" sprays, when petal fall is not
complete, which can wipe out bees on the farm, and neighboring farms as well.
One young beekeeper's business was sunk from this kind of violation, on over
300 hives, without any consequences for the grower, other than having to find
a new pollination service the next year.
 
   3.  Pesticide applicators must not be allowed to circumvent label
directions by beekeeper notification.  It is the applicator, who choses to
use a material with environmental impact and he is responsible to protect the
environmental resources, by complying with the label.  This evasion is
officially condoned, and even encouraged in many states, as in the disastrous
violations in North Carolina we mentioned.  Last year NC melon growers were
doing a lot of scrounging to find sufficient bees; wait til they see the
difference from the further losses of wild pollinators due to drenching the
eastern half of the state with poison while bees were out working!
 
 
   If you are concerned about wild pollinators, you'd better speak up.
 
    And if you are a beekeeper who is tired of poverty, because your
neighbors keep poisoning your livestock, you might do so, too!
 
    Fruit and Vegetable Growers?  Gardeners?  Do you need pollination?
 
Dr. Sanford says,  <<Comments on the proposal being published in the Federal
Register for public comment may be addressed to Jim Bach, Washington
Department of Agriculture, Box 42560, Olympia, Washington
98504-2560, phone #306/902-2094.  Also one can correspond with Jim
Downing, Office of Pesticide Programs, USEPA phone #703/308-8641
or fax 703/308-8369.>>
 
[log in to unmask]    Dave Green,  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway,  SC
29554        (Dave & Jan's Pollination Service,  Pot o'Gold Honey Co.)
 
Practical Pollination Home Page            Dave & Janice Green
http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html
 
Jan's Sweetness and Light         Varietal Honeys and Gift Sets
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm

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