I have to come back although I fear that I am wasting my breath - virtually 
speaking.

>I would not want to give the impression that I do not
conserve where it makes sense to me
>attempting to minimize adverse (to us) human impact on ecosystems where 
>possible and
practical, and where those efforts have an obvious payoff.

So conservation is fine as long as it benefits humans or makes sense to you?

>My issue was with the claim that an attempt to repurify current bee
populations back to a supposed ideal historical strain and create
exclusion zones is "conservation".  To me, it is not.

This misses the point completely.  In very recent years huge amounts of 
damage have been done by selfish beekeepers who have imported exotic races 
of bees from all over the world into northern Europe.  Their motive is 
simply to make a quick profit with no thought for the consequenses of their 
actions.  This is not 'nature' at work - it is a disaster caused by human 
greed.  Of course I can appreciate that the point may be lost on some from 
the other side of the pond where there are no discrete native races of bee, 
but to some of us over here it is important.

>Nature does not seem to be a conservationist, though, judging by
what we can observe over time.

When humans do not intervene, we see nature as an evolutionary rather than 
revolutionary process.  That, to me, suggests conservation of what is best 
adapted to the local environment.  Let me give an example.  I feed my 
locally adapted mainly dark northern European bees around 10lbs of sugar to 
get them through the winter.  As I get closer to the native bee by 
selectively breeding out the unwanted exotic genes, I feed them less each 
year - and can see the day coming when feeding will not be required at all. 
Compare this with the situation when our National Bee Unit was situated just 
outside Stratford in the early 1990's.  At one time they had dark bees, but 
then Vince Cook - erstwhile National Beekeeping Adviser to New Zealand - 
became its new director.  He immediately re-queened all the colonies with NZ 
Italians - and I am reliably informed that the colonies then needed feeding 
60lbs of sugar to survive to winter.  If left to nature which bees would 
survive - the Italians or mine?  Which are more suited to the local 
environment?  Which should we 'conserve'?

Best wishes

Peter

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