“Huh?  Is it too much to ask that our "nature" not be
polluted with invasive, exotic pests, diseases, and 
pathogens from other ecosystems on the other side of 
the planet?”  James Fischer

   Huh? I wouldn’t think so.  But who would you ask?  And by the way, how 
long have you been asking?  How much control do you really think you are 
going to get? 
   Maybe we should ask nature.  Try it, Jim.  Go out and hug a tree and ask 
nature what too much is.  It could produce an epiphany or a catharsis. 
   Maybe moving bees around the world or from state to state IS bucking 
nature too much.  I don’t know.  I never said what bucking nature too much 
was.  Too much is too much.  I certainly wouldn’t think trying to 
minimize “invasive, exotic pests, diseases, and 
pathogens from other ecosystems on the other side of the planet” would 
necessarily be bucking nature too much.  But at some point it might be 
asking too much in this day and age when “nature just ain’t nature 
anymore.” 
   Maybe we could figure out a way to inspect for every possible bee 
disease and then only let the absolutely pure ones in or out of arbitrarily 
designated geographical subdivisions.  Then moving bees around might not be 
bucking nature too much.  Then once all the diseases in a given area had 
run their course, that area would be free of diseases. Of course you might 
have to import some bees into an area at first until you got a stable, 
clean population going in that area.  Then as all the areas got sanitized, 
you could combine areas and feel safe from diseases within larger and 
larger areas until the whole world became safe and there could be as many 
bees in the world as anybody wants, and you would just have to make sure 
there were enough almond trees for all those bees.  Am I missing anything?  
Oh, AHB.  Oops!     Jeez it gets complicated.
    It is with great hesitation that I submit this post.  I know I’m going 
to get fried.  It’s so easy for Jim to come up with really great acerbic 
remarks, but I have to work really hard it.  It’s probably not worth it. 

Steve Noble

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