There may actually be a third option.  The question I asked when I first
posted this article, was "who is on this task force?"  We may not need MORE
people on the task force, but rather need to bend the ear of someone who is
already assigned to participate.  If all these big agencies are involved,
then they are probably sending staffers from their agencies who have some
expertise.  Do we know who any of these people are?  Do these people have
professional and/or academic and/or commercial ties to the beekeeping
industry?  One would hope that they do.  If so, they may already be aware of
many of the issues we've been discussing.  If not, then educating them in a
non-alarmist way would probably "count" for more than some outsider trying
to force their way in with what might be perceived as an agenda.  I'll ask
again, does anyone know who exactly is going to be on this task force?  Does
anyone have any connections to any of these agencies, such that we could
find out?  That would seem the logical place to start.  Then we could start
posing the recommendations, requests and guidance that some have
recommended, and actually get somewhere with those requests, while avoiding
the utter waste of funds that we all dread.
Kathryn Kerby
Frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA

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