>Bee experts said that they can't predict how the                               
>   decline in the wild bee population will affect wild plants and the          
>   animals that eat them. But they guessed that in places such as New          
>   York and New Jersey, which may have no wild honeybees left, there           
>   aren't going to be too many wild berries this year.                         
                                                                                
#Is there anyone besides me who finds this (and other pronouncements of doom    
#in this article) to be excessively pessimistic, ignoring the possible          
#ameliorating effects of *native* bee species? There *is* a native bee          
#expert in Shimanuki's lab there in Beltsville, after all - so there is no      
#obvious excuse for them to neglect to mention this anywhere.                   
#Exasperated, as usual,                                                         
                                                                                
                                                                                
  Yes, this does seem too pessimistic to me. I just attended a                  
lecture on the forgotten pollinators and I'm reading a book                     
by the same name. One of the major points that was made                         
is that if *native* bees are given a chance they can                            
do an excellent job of pollinating plants. In many cases                        
the heavy reliance on honeybees has helped reduce                               
native bee populations by depriving them of                                     
the resources to survive. It appears as if honeybees                            
may not be as benign as once thought. In a world of                             
scarce resources they consume a lot of nectar that                              
could support native bees. It was an interesting                                
lecture and one that I am still contemplating.                                  
                                                                                
  Other discussion...?                                                          
                                                                                
                                                                                
  Larry Kellogg