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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/06/MNG1VQRN6B1.DTL">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/06/MNG1VQRN6B1.DTL</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Boxer's
push to protect honeybees<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h2><b><font size=5 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:18.0pt'>They're
essential to state crops but are disappearing<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<p class=byline><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a href="mailto:eepstein@sfchronicle.com">Edward Epstein, Chronicle
Washington Bureau</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=date><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Friday,
July 6, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><strong><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><span
id=articlebody>(07-06) 04:00 PDT Washington</span></font></b></strong> -- In
addition to representing her 36 million human California constituents, Sen.
Barbara Boxer wants to serve the nation's billions and billions of hardworking
honeybees. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>U.S.</span></font></st1:place></st1:country-region>
populations of pollinating honeybees are mysteriously collapsing, and that
could cause irreparable damage to crops worth billions of dollars a year across
the nation. That in turn could mean higher food prices, and because all kinds
of wildlife depend on pollinated plants for food, the decline of pollinators
could spell trouble for other animals. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The cause
of the decline -- estimated to be as much as 25 percent of the honeybee
population -- is a matter of scientific debate. But it is mirrored by rapid
population loss among such native pollinators as butterflies, bats, birds and
bumblebees. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
condition has a fancy name, Colony Collapse Disorder, and has already drawn the
attention of numerous state and federal agencies, scientific studies and
farming and environmental groups. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Boxer,
who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and her
bipartisan House and Senate allies want to authorize $89 million over five
years for more research and grants to help reverse the decline, which is
estimated to have cut the nation's honeybee population by 25 percent in recent
years. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"<st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>'s almond crop
alone is worth $2 billion per year and requires nearly one-half of all the
honeybees in the country," Boxer said in introducing her bill recently.
"The future of that crop and other important crops such as avocados,
apples, berries and soybeans is in jeopardy if there aren't enough bees to
pollinate them for harvest." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Beekeepers,
whose busy little pollinators are essential to crops across the nation worth at
least $15 billion, are increasingly alarmed about the deaths of their insects.
Such collapses have happened before, but researchers say the current situation
is the most serious they have ever faced. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
fragmentary information already available is alarming and suggests we must move
quickly and act now to avoid serious and possibly irreversible damage to
pollinator populations and ecosystems," Daniel Weaver, president of the
American Beekeeping Federation, said in recent testimony before the House
Natural Resources Committee. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Weaver, a
fourth-generation <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:State>
beekeeper, operates businesses that truck honey-producing bee colonies around
the country to do their vital work for farmers. His colonies are active in <st1:State
w:st="on">California</st1:State>, where Eric Mussen, a UC Davis bee expert, has
come up with a list of more than 130 native <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> plants pollinated by honeybees.
Other nonnative plants and big agricultural crops such as almonds, apples and
other tree fruits also depend on the bees. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Peter
Sinton, a longtime backyard beekeeper in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San
Francisco</st1:place></st1:City>'s Richmond District, said that for some
reason the city's honeybees have been spared the worst. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Most
beekeepers in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:place></st1:City>
and the Bay Area are doing reasonably well," said Sinton, president of the
San Francisco Beekeepers Association. Some colonies have been hit by disease,
he said, and other hives have died off "for no apparent reason at all. But
most hobbyists are doing all right. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Maybe
we on the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Peninsula</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> (with water on
three sides) are somehow protected from some calamities." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Honeybees
themselves aren't native to <st1:place w:st="on">North America</st1:place>.
They were brought over from <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> by settlers
in the 17th century, originally for their honey, the main sweetener available
to the settlers, and for their wax, which was used in candles. But it soon
became apparent the bees were invaluable for agriculture and could work
together with man because bee colonies -- intricate insect societies centered
on a single queen -- could be managed by putting them in movable boxes. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Scientists
say the first sign of Colony Collapse Disorder is dramatic and final. A beekeeper
will put out boxes containing colonies, leave the bees alone to do their work,
and upon returning discover that almost all the worker bees have vanished. They
leave behind their queen and brood, the young bees. The missing bees never
return. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Penn State
University researchers say the list of possible causes, on which Boxer and her
supporters want to intensify research, includes a return of periodic
infestation by mites and associated diseases that have hit bee colonies before,
an unknown fungus, contamination from pesticides, poor nutrition brought on by
swings in weather or a combination of all or some of these factors. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The U.S.
Interior Department says the population loss among all pollinators could be
tied to such other factors as continued loss of habitat to the spread of human
sprawl and competition from such non-native species as Africanized killer bees
that are spreading north from the southeastern <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In
addition to more research money, federal authorities are considering other ideas
for fostering recovery of pollinator populations. These include setting aside
pesticide-free land on the government's vast holdings of hundreds of millions
of acres, especially in the West, for colonies of bees and butterfly gardens. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
government has also started working with <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Mexico</st1:place></st1:country-region>
on a North American effort at preserving habitat and combatting invasive
species. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The Fish
and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the
Defense Department and the Bureau of Land Management have signed agreements
with <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:place></st1:City>'s
Coevolution Institute to educate the public about the problem. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
institute, which was a driving force behind the recent first National
Pollinator Week, has endorsed Boxer's bill, said spokesman Thomas Van Arsdall.
"It's a challenging budget situation,'' he conceded, saying money for the
pollinators will have to compete with lots of other interests when Congress
passes its agricultural spending bill. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But he
said the honeybees' plight has drawn attention to the overall issue of
pollinators' decline. "We too often take pollinators' services for
granted. They're just there. But now we're starting to recognize that the value
of these honeybees far exceeds the value of their honey." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center>
</span></font></div>
<p><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-style:italic'>E-mail Edward Epstein at <a
href="mailto:eepstein@sfchronicle.com">eepstein@sfchronicle.com</a>.</span></font></i>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</span>
<p id=url><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/06/MNG1VQRN6B1.DTL<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p id=pageno><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>This
article appeared on page <strong><b><font face="Times New Roman">A - 4</font></b></strong>
of the San Francisco Chronicle<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'>Jennifer Tsang<br>
<a href="http://coevolution.org">Coevolution Institute</a><br>
<st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">423 Washington St.</st1:address></st1:Street>
5th Fl.<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:City>, <st1:State
w:st="on">CA</st1:State> <st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94111-2339</st1:PostalCode></st1:place><br>
T: 415.362.1137</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'>F: 415.362.3070</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'><a
href="http://www.nappc.org">www.nappc.org</a></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'><a
href="http://www.pollinator.org">www.pollinator.org</a></span></font><font
color="#004000"><span style='color:#004000'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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