To fight bee decline, Obama proposes more land to feed bees

[admin]

news.yahoo.com/feds-propose-multi-pronged-plan-bolster-decline-bees-100257811--politics.html

[mantisboy]

Restoring 7 million acres worth of "bee habitat" will be great considering all the other insects that will be given more habitat. However, can we please NOT dedicate it to an invasive, introduced, overloved species like honey bees? CCD can wipe out all North American honey bees as far as I am concerned, and maybe then we can finally succeed in helping the less common, native bumble bees that have been largely been replaced. Adding bee habitat is good, but filling it with honey bees would be like clearing a town to create a forest and then filling it with nonnative trees that choke out any native ones trying to grow there. I'd say take that 82.5 million for honey bee research and save stuff where its supposed to be, such as buying swaths of rainforest in the Oro Province of PNG or the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, and stop waiting for CITES to actually work (since it clearly isn't). Sorry for the rant, but I am done with hearing about how much help honey bees need. I am ashamed that it is my state's state insect. Sorry to any beekeepers on this website.

-Alex

[compsulyx]

Thanks for sharing this interesting article Clark.
Most of people don't understand this battle to save the bees.
I have the opportunity from time to time to perform initiations in the world of Entomology with our local association, and I never forget to remind the importance of bees and insects in general, for the pollination of our forests and our cultures also, because it is thanks to them that we can eat!...
The industrialization of agriculture in USA like in Europe, resulted the destruction of small niches such as hedges, groves, lawns flowering along the paths... all this has disappeared and have been replaced by thousands of hectares of crops intensive, monospecific...
We do not need to be great scientists to understand that if the bees and other insects have no choice, no variety in their diet, the result is a weakening of the populations... when they have a choice, the insects feed on some flowers, not all, because they have their specificity, particularly on the quality of the nectar, but also the nutritional quality of the pollen etc...
Imagine if you eat only salad, every day... after a while, you'll have serious health problems and food deficiencies. The same goes for the bees/insects!...a varied diet is synonymous with good health.
Therefore this initiative is excellent!...
We should not forget that the use of pesticides, and especially of nicotinoid products, is very harmful to bees... need to ban these products, especially since alternatives exist.
It's fun because slowly, we return to basics... what our grandparents did... produce while respecting the surrounding nature!...:-)

[mantisboy]

Just to clarify, I am all for saving bees, I just am not fond of Apis mellifera in America (and yes, I do enjoy honey, but I don't view that as a legitimate reason to spend 82.5 million researching them). I'd prefer that money to go where it is most needed to protect vanishing habitats for all creatures. Any time conservation focuses on one species too much (introduced or not), that's when it looses my support. Without protecting the whole habitat, there is no point.

[Deleted]

How about spending the 82.5 million on aids or cancer research.

[Borja Gómez]

Hello

Without protecting the whole habitat, there is no point.

I agree with that. Studying Apis bees it's not a bad idea since they hold a big portion of the pollinization work, but it's pretty useless if you don't spend the money too on the key factors wich affect loss of biodiversity in USA in particular as in many other parts in the world in general, like habitat loss, use of pesticides, pollution, etc... Because, even if Apis mellifera it's an important pollinizator, it's only a small part of the total because many other Hymenoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera also are important pollinizators (even hummingbirds, bats and monkeys in some places do this unvoluntary task) and in many cases exist specific relations between some flowers and some of the pollinizators, and this affect in the end in the whole ecosistem, because all the species depends on the balance between others, and one single species of pollinizator can't hold the entire pressure of the pollinization task, so just rely on Apis mellifera or Bombus species for this it's a very risky option if we want to be sure that there will be food for the whole world in the future .

Regards

[wollastoni]

Let's not see the empty part of the glass.

All measures to protect Apis mellifera in the US will also benefit to most insects, especially when I read about "food" diversity for insects, it looks like a good measure.
Apis mellifera is a "symbol", it must be the most loved insect among the opinion, and we entomologists should exploit this symbol to obtain a better respect for all insects.
It would be much more difficult to convince politics and opinion to finance a big project to protect cockroaches...

Then I agree with you that it's not tackling the 2 major issues for Apis mellifera and other insects : pesticides (neonicotid pesticides are banned in Europe, and are still legal in the States...) and habitat destruction.