This is a response to a letter placed onto this list by Andy Nachbaur regarding the biological control of purple loosestrife Dear Beefriend, I have read your tirade against the proposed release of biological control agents against the wetland weed purple loosestrife. I have been working on biological control of purple loosestrife for almost a decade but such a conglomerate of ignorance and special interest concerns has never crossed my path. I would recommend you become familiar with the published literature (just because you don't know about scientific studies demonstrating the negative effects of purple loosestrife does not mean there aren't any!!). I also recommend you become familiar with biological control as a safe and environmentally sound method to control exotic plants (used in the United States for over a century with great success), where success is measured in overall costs and benefits, not only considering a special interest group. And your hate speech against the government (here represented as the Fish and Wildlife Service) acting against the interests of the public is not only dangerous it is simply wrong. The alliance across the entire North American continent fighting against exotic weeds (including purple loosestrife) involves concerned environmentalists (individuals and groups) as well as hunters, fishermen and local, state and federal agencies. I agree that often beekeepers are on the other side of the fence since these introduced exotics are an abundant forage source for bees. However, we have to weigh the overall health of our ecosystems against special interests, and sorry for you, bees and beekeepers are a special interest group (that at least in part were creating the purple loosestrife problem by spreading plants and seeds). Plants, bees and beekeepers will not be eradicated but some beneficial effects that an exotic plant may have for bees does not outweigh the overall negative environmental effects. All this has been determined for purple loosestrife and very clearly, control of purple loosestrife is desirable. You might not like this result but considerable effort was spent to consider all affected parties. Your tirade against government and the proposed action is based on your gut feeling instead of considering the facts. Putting it into hate speech does make a rational discussion rather difficult. Fortunately, I have experienced a deeper understanding of this issue among your fellow beekeepers in the past. Sincerely Dr. Bernd Blossey