On Tue, 11 Jun 1996, <Larry Connor> wrote:
 
> To: All interested parties
> From: Larry Connor, Wicwas Press
> Re: Industry response to plan to close Tucson Bee Lab
>
> The following letter was sent to all members of the U.S. House and Senate
> Agriculture appropriations Subcommittees on 28 May 1996. The final letter was
> prepared by Mary Kay Thatcher of the American Farm Bureau. 202 484-3604 fax.
>
> Since most of these people involved in the preparation of this letter are not
> internet users, I feel it is important to post this letter on the B-List.
>
> Letter to House and Senate Ag Appropriations Subcommunities
>
> The undersigned organizations, representing the entire honey bee industry as
> well as a vast majority of farmers who need bees for pollination, wish to
> bring to your attention the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Agricultural
> Research Service proposal to close the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in
> Tucson, Arizona. There are several reasons why we believe this is not in the
> best interests of beekeepers or of factors dependent on bees for pollination.
>  The research needs facing the bee industry have never been greater. Mite
> problems continue to plague beekeepers. Heavy loss of colonies continues at
> an alarming rate, despite treatment. The continued migration of the
> Africanized Honey Bee will cause more beekeepers to experience problems while
> posing significant public health problems as Africanized bees and humans
> interact. Their impact on pollination is still not clear. Other serious
> problems include chalkbrood and foulbrood, wax moth and viral bee diseases,
>  The Carl Hayden Center is important because its strategic location in the
> desert allows researchers to conduct year-round activities on bee and
> pollination problems. The Center recently developed a public education
> program to assist pest control officials remove the growing number of
> unwanted and potentially dangerous Africanized honey bee swarms, The Center
> was the first ARS facility to have a home page on the World Wide Web, which
> currently serves 13,000 customer requests per week for information on bees.
> Earlier this month, the Center's home page won the Secretary's Award. for
> public service. The Tucson Center is ranked by the ARS as its second most
> productive bee lab and among the most productive of all ARS laboratories.
>  We understand the budgetary realities that you must address. We want to
> assist you in meeting those goals and believe this can be accomplished while
> maintaining a strong research program to address honey bee and pollination
> problems. Included in this, is transferring wild bee research programs from
> the ARS facility in Logan, Utah to other ARS laboratories. Additional budget
> savings, if necessary, should be accomplished by seeking the input from ARS
> customers-beekeepers and pollination users. While we understand the financial
> constraints imposed upon ARS, we believe alternatives are available that
> minimize the impact to ARS' total bee research program. Closing the Tucson
> lab will have a significant, negative impact on bee research in the U.S.
>  Thank you for considering our views.
>
> American Beekeeping Federation
> American Farm Bureau Federation
> American Honey Producers Association
> International Apple Institute
> United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association
> Western Growers Association
 
Hi Larry and those in the US,
  Thank you Larry for posting the letter.This list knows our problem with
the mites.We need more work done to get the mites  under control without
more cost to the beekeeper and chemicals that will work as a short term fix.
  I was asked to help a local news paper on a story about the mites and
what effect it has on all of us in the US. I told them that we still
don't know , because we can not count on what we have to slow the mite
down to a controlled level.The public needs the truth and it dosen't need
to be blown up. the facts and figures speak for themselves. They need to
be shown what impact the loss of honeybees will have on there food. It
only cost me about two hour of time and I did get a free lunch. I told
the reporter to go in the computer and read some on this list about
Varroa. He did and he will do an indepth article in the near future. The
paper only gets into 35,000 + homes a day , but if I could get 200 people
to write Washington it would be a plus.The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
  The letter was great and a follow up by individuals really hits
home.Now days you need a cannon to get any money out of DC. But if they
can see that it will cost them more not to act and help the bee and
beekeeper we have a chance.The tax loss do to lower crop production is
real and they have to look at that part of the whole.
 Thanks Everyone for your time.
   Best Regards
   Roy