Lots of misrepresentation here about what Jim is saying. From what I 
have read, he is not against the native pollinator crowd, just the way 
they have moved the actual issue into their own camp. He is also looking 
for a quick infusion of money rather than a mixed bag of future possible 
money. He wants to keep it clean, so CCD funds are actually CCD funds 
and are available now, not some future time.

The native pollinators may not have technically hijacked the CCD 
problem, since they included it in their own bills, but, from a 
political point of view, they did. They took their own issue and 
bill(s), which is in the political noise and would get nowhere, and made 
CCD, a well publicized problem, into a native pollinator solution. I do 
not fault them; it is good politics.

The problem is, bees are not the dominant issue in the bills, so what 
happens in the future is still political, and, after what has happened 
to date, bees will be low on the priority list since they are all native 
pollinator bills.

Most people like to think that "people are basically good" and all will 
be rosy in the future and CCD will be fully funded by the NP bills. 
Based on the way CCD has been exploited to date, I see more a means to 
an end exploitation, and bees will not be the benefactor. However, from 
the government's point of view, they will have solved the CCD problem 
with the NP bill, and even if the bees are still in bad shape later and 
CCD never got the necessary funds, the NPs will solve the pollination 
problem. That may be cynical, but I have worked with politicians for a 
long time and cynicism is actually reality.

Environmental groups are expert in playing the system and exploit 
"crisis" as a funding tool. This is a case study. Most here do not 
realize that you are not dealing with just one or two advocacy groups on 
the NP side and one or two on the bees side. The NP side has all the 
environmental, organic and related groups available to lobby. They will 
get what they want and they are not on the side of commercial beekeeping.

Another avenue. There is "emergency" money in the Ag budget, but I 
question if CCD fits under that umbrella.However, that never stopped any 
congresser/senator from demanding that the President release funds for 
solving someone's empty pocket problem.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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