originally in conference IN-BEEKEEPING on (WILD BEE'S BBS)
                    ----------------------------------------
Environmental Assessment on control by release of introduced
pest insects of Purple Loosetrife
 
Hello All Beekeepers and Friends!
 
  I received today, 27 June, (5 day's after asking via e-mail) a copy of
the Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service Environmental
Assessment on their plan to destroy, damage, and make a unsightly mess
of the naturalized plant Purple Loosetrife. The total report is only
22 pages. You don't have to be smart to realize that a project that is
going to effect every state and our north and southern neighbors can
not be honestly presented in 22 pages...not to mention that NO notice
was made to the beekeeper's involved when government mailing lists are
available of all beekeepers, or the short comment period of less then
30 days.
 
  Have you ever voted and when your side lost you felt your vote was
wasted? Maybe your wife canceled out your vote.<G> But your
participation in this Comment Period which ends July 12, 1995 is not
just a vote but your chance to have real input in what the Fish and
Wildlife Service does to control Purple Loosetrife. You see they have
already decided that this beautiful, productive naturalized bee
forage plant is all bad and must be dealt with.
 
  The US Fish & Wildlife Service Three Alternatives Plans:
 
 Plans
-------
A> NO ACTION, which transulated from US goverment code means:
Plants will be removed by hand pulling; controlled by flooding or
drying; plants stressed by mechanical treatment; herbicidal treatment
and fire to temporarily control plants in selected areas.
 
B> RELEASE ALREADY APPROVED BEETLES: Service would release the two
beetles when they have been bred without internal parasites.
 
C> BIOLOGICAL CONTROL: Release three additional bettle species that
are host specific to purple loosetrife. Long-term, continuous control,
not eradication.
 
Well I ask you all to join with me in requesting the EA and making
your personal comments to the Fish & Wildlife Service and support
NO ACTION as an alternative to the release of any kind of new pests.
 
PURPLE LOOSETRIFE IS AN VALUABLE NATURALIZED ENVIRONMENTAL
RESOURCE TO BEES AND THEIR KEEPERS THAT SHOULD BE PROTECTED
NOT ERADICATED OR DAMAGED BY THE RELEASE OF FOREIGN PLANT PESTS
 
  Purple Loosetrife has been an important late summer and fall pollen
and nectar plant to honey bee's for the last 50+ years and is found
from coast to coast and boarder to boarder. It is also knows not our
political boundaries, nor do the pests that would be released to damage
it if those in the Fish & Wildlife service are allowed to work their
will on this beautiful naturalized wild flower that has improved the
environment for bees and other insects and added much to the natural
beauty of our swamps, waterways, and gardens.
 
  It is not a major source of honey, but to those beekeepers who do
produce honey crops from Purple Loosetrife, the loss, or damage to the
Purple Loosetrife range would be a major loss. No scientific study has
been done to see how many people will be adversity affected. My own
estimate is that 5000 beekeepers will be negatively affected and 50
to 500 of these will quit keeping bee's all together because of the
loss of this bee pasture plant. (Your guess is as good as my own.)
 
   Purple Loosetrife is a source of bee pasture to all who keep
bee's that can reach it, one hive or 10,000 hive beekeepers. It is a
good to excellent source of pollen and nectar to build up and condition
bee's for the winter and has the advantage of promoting late season
brood rearing which to some extent mediates the loss from both mites.
 
No scientific studies have been made to determine it's value to
beekeepers, my own estimates are this plant provides pollen and nectar
to one million hives of bees for a month each year. I would place the
lost value at five gallons of sugar syrup times one million bee pasture
months plus the value of the pollen. A conservative estimate would be a
twenty five million dollars ($25,000,000.) loss to beekeepers. But it is
well to remember that the loss of bee forage plants native or
naturalized, flowers like Purple Loosetrife can not be replaced in any
person's lifetime, and more then likely will not be replace at all.
There is and has not been any meaningful government sponsored plan to
improve the environment for bee's in the history of the United States.
All plans have been to regulate bee's and or beekeepers. Protect them
from pesticides by moving them away from pesticides, kill them if they
have disease, spend dollars for pennies worth of government
researched and approved chemicals, and so on.
 
   Purple Loosetrife is also a pasture plant for Bumble Bee's of one
stripe or another. No studies or research has been done to place a
value on the loss of pasture for these, many are in short supply
or endangered, and beneficial insects or any other insect, bird, or
animals that may be benefiting from this naturalized plant and will
suffer from it's loss.
 
   The government plan states that these pest's will work only
Purple Loosetrife, but admits that they will also work on native
plants related to Loosetrife. This means two or more native wild
flowers will be the secondary target and will be lost or damaged.
NOT one government job or one dollar will be lost if they are wrong
and these pests take a liking for plants of critical importance to
beekeeper's like the Wild Buckwheat or Sage of California or any other
cultivated or wild flower. Only the public will pay the price if these
kinds of un-necessary risks don't work out. The cost to agriculture
and the environment for additional chemical control of a new pest would
be astronomical if the few who propose such introductions mis spoke the
risks and a new agricultural pest was introduced. A limited test on 50
plants is not an adequate safeguard from disaster.
 
   NO consideration is given to those who have found this plant to be
of value and beauty to plant in their own gardens for over 50 years.
Much is made that some states have outlawed Purple Loosetrife, but
guess who has pushed them into it? Not the public, but the same
agency's who would release these pests to control it.
 
   Here is a group of destructive insect pests, five all together that
have never demonstrated any ability in their native land to eradicate
Purple Loosetrife, only to make it a unhealthy, unsightly mess, that
are going to be released all over the US with full knowledge that they
will not honor political boundaries and move from government owned lands
to private lands and into private gardens and only tested on 50 plants
to determine if they would become pests on them. Talk about the
government coming to help you...!  The Fish and Wildlife Service
admits that the release of these non native pests will have a negative
effect on Honey Bee's, what they don't know is how you and I feel about
it and the effect it will have on ourselves if Purple Loosetrife or any
other bee forage plant is damaged, or destroyed. Join me in trying to
tell them, get the EA and make your comments before July 12, 1995.
 
                                ttul Andy-
 
 
 
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