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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>from the November 08, 2007 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1108/p13s01-sten.html<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Progress
on 'collapsing' beehives<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h2><b><font size=5 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:18.0pt'>Some
warned of crop disaster when honeybees started to disappear. Crops didn't fail,
but farmers and beekeepers aren't out of danger yet. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=byline><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>By Moises Velasquez-Manoff</span></font></span><span
class=staffline> | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>New York</span></font></st1:place></st1:State><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Last
fall, honeybee hives began showing up mysteriously vacant. Entire adult bee
populations seemingly vanished without a trace, often leaving the queen,
juveniles, and honey behind. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>By
spring, what beekeepers had called "autumn collapse" or "fall
dwindle dis­­ease" had a new name: Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). CCD hit
nearly one-quarter of commercial beekeeping operations in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
Affected operations lost between 50 and 90 percent of their hives. In an
industry where 10 to 20 percent yearly losses are common, the die-offs were
drastic. In March testimony before the House's Committee on Agriculture, Diana
Cox-Foster, a professor of entomology at <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">State</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>
in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">University Park</st1:place></st1:City>,
called CCD a "serious threat to American agriculture." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Ultimately,
pollination went smoothly this year. Imported bees replenished domestic stocks,
and good weather aided weak hives. Research on CCD has progressed, though its
exact causes remain hidden. But the crisis did highlight what some say is
agriculture's overreliance on honeybees. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Honeybees
pollinate one-third of all <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>
crops – apples, almonds, and blueberries among them – valued at
some $14.6 billion. For years, ecologists had warned that total reliance on
honeybees – and on any monoculture, be it cotton, potato, or bee –
makes a crop vulnerable to failure. Potential alternate pollinators –
some 4,000 kinds of native bees – were having their own problems, from
habitat loss and pesticides to imported diseases. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Alarmed
lawmakers introduced the Pollinator Protection Act into Congress, which was
later rolled into the 2007 Farm Bill. In July, the House authorized $86.5
million over five years for research on CCD and honeybee health. In October,
the Senate raised the amount to $100 million. Meanwhile, scientists from
several institutions and disciplines brought their expertise to bear on CCD.
And in September, they named a prime suspect: the so-called Israeli Acute
Paralysis Virus (IAPV). <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>As for
this year's crop, "I don't want to say it was business as usual, but it
was pretty close," says Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture magazine in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Medina</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Ohio</st1:State></st1:place>.
"There were enough bees to pollinate everything that needed
pollinating." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Warm,
clear weather, especially in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>,
helped weak hives do more pollinating, he says. (Dry conditions also
contributed to a record low honey harvest – 150 million pounds compared
with the usual 200 million to 250 million, he says.) Beekeepers augmented hives
with bees imported from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
Hive rental fees did rise, he says, but that was due more to speculating than
to a honeybee shortage. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Beehives
are worth their weight in gold somewhere," says Mr. Flottum. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>We're not
in the clear, Flottum and others warn. The money that beekeepers spent
replenishing hives likely put them deep into the red, and the hives are still
weak. Neither bees nor beekeepers can absorb these losses on an ongoing basis. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"I'm
anxious about what happens this year," says Dennis vanEngelsdorp, the
acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
"Migratory beekeepers are the last of their kind, the last nomadic farmers
in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</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'>James
Doan, a beekeeper out of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Hamlin</st1:City>,
<st1:State w:st="on">N.Y.</st1:State></st1:place>, lost more than half his
hives last winter. After getting his numbers back up to 2,000, he lost another
quarter over the summer. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"If
I can get enough money to get out of this business, I'll get out," he
says. "I don't see a lot of future."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Honeybee
health problems come at a time when, driven by a growing taste for specialty
crops, demand for pollination services is growing. This year, the almond
harvest increased by 19 percent over last year, topping 1,330 million pounds
for a record crop, according to the Almond Board of California. Of the
estimated 2.5 million hives in <st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region>,
more than half will converge on <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>'s
almond orchards come spring. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>We're
"not really at a crisis situation," says Jeff Pettis, research leader
at the USDA-ARS's Bee Research Laboratory in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Beltsville</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Md.</st1:State></st1:place>
"We just don't have much in the way of a buffer." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A paper
recently published in the journal Virology hints at a possible fix. One of the
scientists who originally identified IAPV, Ilan Sela of Hebrew University in <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:City> details a
honeybee strain that's resistant to the virus. The bee has retained bits of
IAPV genetic material in its own genome – a naturally occurring
phenomenon – and gained some immunity, he says. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
whole problem could be addressed by using these transgenic bees," says Dr.
Lipkin.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Meanwhile,
honeybees' predicament has brought long-sought attention to the usefulness
– and plight – of natural pollinators. A 2006 National Academy of
Sciences report on the status of pollinators in <st1:place w:st="on">North
America</st1:place> cites "direct evidence for decline in some pollinator
species." And yet, in a forthcoming study in Ecology Letters, Rachael
Winfree, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of California,
Berkeley, finds that, when present, wild pollinators can do much of the
pollinating. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In the <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New Jersey</st1:place></st1:State> watermelon
farms she studied, they did 90 percent. As compared with the vast monocultural
fields of <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State>'s Central Valley or the <st1:place
w:st="on">Great Plains</st1:place>, the eastern agricultural landscape is
dominated by many small farms interspersed with patches of natural habitat. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Native
bees are doing close to complete pollination," she says. "It would be
good to have that kind of backup plan" in other places. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>And that
means different land-use practices. Indeed, recognizing wild pollinators'
importance, some states already offer incentives to restore pollinator habitat.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For three
years, the National Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Montana</st1:place></st1:State> has offered cost-sharing incentives
for farmers and ranchers to grow pollinator-friendly plants. More recently,
NRCS in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New Jersey</st1:place></st1:State>
began offering $750 per acre to landowners who restore "wildflower meadows
for pollinators." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Conservationists
hope for $3 billion to $5 billion more from the new Farm Bill to boost such
cost-sharing measures, says Tom Van Arsdall, the public affairs representative
for the Pollinator Partnership in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Washington</st1:City>,
<st1:State w:st="on">D.C.</st1:State></st1:place> Although the authorized
funds may not make it through appropriations, Van Arsdall already counts one
victory. The Farm Bill now contains the word "pollinator," he says.
It didn't, before. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"You
could call it a watershed moment," he says.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>To learn
more about honeybees and pollinators in general:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>•
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation offers a wealth of fact sheets
and information on natural pollinators: <a
href="http://www.xerces.org/Pollinator_Insect_Conservation/xerces_publications.htm">www.xerces.org/Pollinator_Insect_Conservation/xerces_publications.htm</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>•
Of particular note is Xerces' Pollinator Conservation Handbook, downloadable
at: <a
href="http://www.xerces.org/Pollinator_Insect_Conservation/Farming_for_Bees_2nd_edition.pdf">www.xerces.org/Pollinator_Insect_Conservation/Farming_for_Bees_2nd_edition.pdf</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>•
Bee Culture magazine has bountiful information relating to honeybees.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.beeculture.com/">www.beeculture.com/</a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>•
Tips on natural pollinators from the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation
Service: <a href="http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/feature/pollinators.html">www.nrcs.usda.gov/feature/pollinators.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=divvy><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Pollinator-friendly
land <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Scientists
have long warned that reliance on one species for pollination services –
the honeybee – leaves pollination-dependent crops at greater risk of
failure. "We've been saying that for a while. It's crazy to rely on a
single species," says Claire Kremen, a conservation biologist at the <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">California</st1:PlaceName>,
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Berkeley</st1:place></st1:City>, and a
recently named MacArthur Fellow. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A decline
in wild pollinators has only exacerbated the problem. Farmers can't count on
native pollinators for backup. But certain land-management practices can
"bring back some floral diversity" and entice natural pollinators
back to the farmscape, says Dr. Kremen. Here are a few: <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>•
Learn to tolerate weeds around field edges. They provide food and habitat for
pollinators. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>•
Plant "insectary strips" – strips of flowers for insects. They
should include plants that bloom in succession – spring, summer, and fall
– so pollinators have forage at any given time of the year. In very large
fields, grow not just strips, but islands of habitat. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>•
Grow hedgerows at field boundaries. They provide good habitat. They also block
wind and halt erosion.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>•
Leave some land unplowed. Tilling kills native bee species that nest in the
earth.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1108/p13s01-sten.html">Full HTML
version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links</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>
<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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