Aaron said:
>> My advice to West Virginia is to get organized NOW
>> to retain your inspection program!
In reply to Russ, who reported:
> This resulted in beekeepers losing hive treatments for
> mites, part-time inspectors and reduction in travel by
> George Clutter and Paul Poling our state inspectors.
A word of caution. You are not going to be able to
"retain" everything. Further cuts will have to be
acknowledge as "prudent, under the circumstances".
To not admit this would undercut your credibility,
and leave you dismissed as a "special-interest group",
unable to compromise.
A state bee program that was even providing free mite
treatments is clearly one that was spending more money than
would be prudent under the triple whammy of reduced tax income
due to the ongoing economic downturn, reduced federal money
available to the states, and increased numbers of "unfunded
mandates" (Federal regulations that force action by states,
but do not provide Federal funding to cover the expenses).
Beekeepers are clearly a "special interest group", and without
a thriving set of pollination customers to complain that bee
inspection and extension services are mission-critical to THEIR
crops, they are the sole voice to explain their plight.
Here in Virginia, we have no one dedicated to bees, but do have
excellent inspectors who are jacks of all trades, dealing with
all sorts of agricultural issues "in the field". Even our State
Apiarist has a multi-purpose title - he is the "State Apiarist"
and the "Endangered Species Coordinator", a juxtaposition of roles
that I find eerily amusing, if not highly appropriate.
States have to cut costs, and without a forceful presentation of
the downside to not spending money on "bee inspection" and "bee
extension programs", states can and will decide to eliminate such
programs rather than further cut funding to programs that are
viewed as helping more citizens.
Encouraging beekeepers to join their local associations (or at least
inform them that they are still keeping bees) helps. I have never
spoken with any elected official or government employee without being
asked "how many beekeepers are there in my voting district?", or
how many beekeepers are there in the state?" Clearly, numbers matter,
as votes tend to be the lingua franca of government.
So, ask yourself:
How many beekeepers are there, by county, and in the state?
Consider it a "survey". Maybe the supply companies that mail out
catalogs can contribute counts of how many catalogs they send to
each zip code.
How many growers are pollination customers? The state agricultural
people may even have already mapped farms by crops grown, allowing
you to go down the list, and count growers of crops that are frequently
pollinated. This makes your number of "affected people" larger.
How many people have home GARDENS? Now the numbers are getting huge,
and while there is no way to map each and every home veggie garden,
one can certainly estimate by looking at the number of people getting
seed catalogs, the sales tax revenues from "garden centers", etc.
By the time you are done, your state beekeeper association can end
up "representing the interests of" a significant fraction of the
voting public. This really, really matters to those who make such
decisions, as they never know which issue might blow up in their faces
when they mess with funding.
So stop being "just a beekeeper", and start thinking like a "steward of
the land". You are one, even if you never thought about it. Bees and
other pollinating insects are the canaries in the coal mine (a metaphor
that cannot be stressed enough in a state like West Virginia!), and some
level of state involvement is a very good idea if they want to keep their
agricultural system intact.
You might end up with nothing more than the part-time efforts of the
pesticide enforcement department "also inspecting bees", and you might
end up with a situation that is much less beekeeper-responsive than
your current program, but you need to preserve SOMETHING, while being
willing to allow some reduction in services.
The economy certainly will recover at some point. The only trick is
to keep a foot in the door for the duration, even if it is nothing more
than someone having a "State Apiarist" title, no field staff, and nothing
but referrals on sending samples to other places for post-mortem inspections.
jim (Most people have a nine to five workday.
Beekeepers have a ninety hive workday.)
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