> ...methods to control emerald ash borer in ash trees...
> ... inject the trees with systemic pesticides...

We had a similar lack of candor from the USDA in regard to injected trees to
prevent the spread of the Asian Longhorned Beetle.

An obtuse methodology used to "prove" that this off-label application of
Imidacloprid was "harmless to bees".
Beehives were placed near trees that had been injected, and then bees,
pollen, wax, and nectar were sampled over an entire spring.

But this was certain to underestimate the actual toxicity of both nectar and
pollen from treated trees, as bees are well-known to forage on multiple
sources.

Why not simply collect blooms from the trees, and directly analyze the
pesticide levels in the pollen and nectar?
While a straight answer to this simple question was never forthcoming, it
seems fairly clear that beehives where used precisely because the more
direct approach would yield numbers that would not be supportive of the
program.  

While the excuse of a "field realistic dose" was used, the problem with this
statement is that in early spring, the earliest of the maples are the sole
blooms in this area, and they start as early as Valentine's day, providing
crucial fresh pollen to hives that enthusiastically forage on the few warm
days that appear in very early spring.  So the early impact of the treated
maple trees favored by the Asian Longhorned Beetle would NOT be less than
that of the actual contamination level of the nectar and pollen, as there
would be nothing else to forage upon, and the injection-treatment of trees
tended to be done in "stands" of large numbers of trees.

But, at great trouble and expense, the USDA convinced the NYC health
department (while beekeeping was still not yet permitted under the
Giuliani-modified Health Code) to allow them to place beehives in several
locations, which prompted us (the not-quite-yet-legal) beekeepers of NYC to
scramble to move hives away from those locations, not knowing if the USDA
would be marking bees, and thereby discovering that many of the foragers
were not theirs. 

And, no surprise, as the maples were mostly done blooming by the time the
hives were placed, the levels found in the beehives were low.
The beekeepers in Massachusetts were much more vocal about the program.
They could afford to be, as beekeeping was clearly "legal" up there.

This year, the cold kept the bees off the early maple blooms.  But while
eradication of ALB has been successful on the island of Manhattan and Staten
Island and treatments have ceased, Brooklyn and Queens are still treated.

And to this day, no one will even consider measuring the levels of
contamination found in nectar and pollen after these injection treatments.
	

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