{"id":15545,"date":"2019-07-13T17:41:28","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T17:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.honeybeehaven.org\/?p=15545"},"modified":"2019-08-08T17:44:33","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T17:44:33","slug":"usda-if-you-ignore-the-bees-they-will-go-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honeybeehaven.org\/usda-if-you-ignore-the-bees-they-will-go-away\/","title":{"rendered":"USDA, if you ignore the bees they WILL go away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, it was reported that this past winter saw the highest honey bee colony losses<\/a> on record. A few days later, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it will be suspending its annual tracking<\/a> of the honey bee population due to a budget shortfall.<\/p>

Not a good look, USDA.<\/p>

From bad to worse<\/h3>

It\u2019s no secret that bees and other pollinators have been in trouble for years, due to a combination of factors including habitat loss, poor nutrition, pathogens, and of course pesticide exposure \u2014 a key factor that exacerbates other stressors. The number of managed honey bee hives plummeted from 6 million in 1947 to 2.4 million<\/a> in 2008, and the worst hive loss on record occurred last winter<\/a> as beekeepers reported a 40% loss of their colonies over the year.\u00a0<\/p>

The USDA\u2019s annual Honey Bee Colonies report has been an important source of data on the insects, providing critical information to scientists and farmers. So this move by USDA to completely stop tracking honey bee numbers is a blatant disregard of science \u2014 a key tenet of this administration as we\u2019ve seen information on serious environmental harms suppressed over and over.<\/p>

Recently, Trump\u2019s EPA made the decision to lift restrictions on a toxic insecticide known to be lethal to bees, sulfoxaflor, and the administration also reversed the ban<\/a> on using highly harmful neonicotinoid insecticides in wildlife refuges.\u00a0<\/p>

Beekeeper woes<\/h3>

One small reassurance \u2014 USDA wasn\u2019t the only group counting colony losses. The Bee Informed Partnership<\/a>, a nonprofit group associated with the University of Maryland, has been collecting loss data from beekeepers since 2010. Although the group has relied on some USDA funding, and USDA\u2019s survey is considered more accurate as it has access to data from all registered beekeepers, it\u2019s reassuring that this important work will not completely stop.\u00a0<\/p>

Bee Informed Partnership\u2019s counts found that this winter\u2019s losses were 8.9% points higher than the survey average and the highest winter loss since the survey began 13 years ago. Climate impacts are thought to be contributing to these higher losses, with smoke from California wildfires impacting bees, as well as leaving few plants for the insects to forage. Drought, hurricanes, and severe storms are also factors.<\/p>

Some longtime beekeepers say the bee lifespan has fallen to just 25 to 30 days, when it used to be more than twice that. These losses are devastating to beekeepers, who spend the year transporting their hives across the country, renting their bees out to different farmers to pollinate their crops. The situation is so dire that farmers are sometimes receiving empty boxes because the honey bee colony supply has plummeted so severely.\u00a0<\/p>

Protect our pollinators<\/h3>

USDA\u2019s statement on suspending honey bee colony data collection was simply: \u201cThe decision to suspend data collection was not made lightly but was necessary given available fiscal and program resources.\u201d The agency referred to fiscal restraints but did not detail budget shortfalls nor reveal the cost of the program.<\/p>

So when this administration mentions how much they are helping farmers, or Second Lady Karen Pence gushes about National Pollinator Week<\/a>, we know where they really stand. And that\u2019s firmly in the camp of suppressing science, and putting the interests of pesticide companies over environmental health and agricultural vitality.<\/p>

Alongside managed honey bees, other pollinators like wild and native bees, butterflies, moths and birds are facing the same stressors \u2014 neonicotinoid pesticide use and habitat loss ranking high on the list of threats. Two things you can do today to help all pollinators are: urging your representative to cosponsor a bill<\/a> that would reinstate the ban on neonic pesticides use in wildlife refuges, and creating a pesticide-free Honey Bee Haven<\/a> in your yard or garden full of pollinator-friendly plants.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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