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Thursday, January 14, 2010<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
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</a><a moz-do-not-send="true"
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010787441_bumblebee14m.html<br>
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<br>
ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES<br>
<br>
Native bumblebees, such as this western bumblebee, are in trouble,
victims of diseases some scientists say are spread by commercial
bumblebees. <br>
<br>
<br>
<h1><b>Disease dooming native bumblebees</b></h1>
By Lynda V.
Mapes<br>
<br>
Seattle Times staff reporter<br>
<br>
They work in the cold when honeybees are still snug in their hives, and
cloudy days don't stop them either.<br>
<br>
Bumblebees are workhorse pollinators, depended on to pollinate
everything
from cranberries and blueberries to hothouse tomatoes.<br>
<br>
But native bumblebees are in trouble, victims of diseases some
scientists
say are spread by commercial bumblebees shipped around North America to
pollinate crops.<br>
<br>
While much attention has been given to the plight of European
honeybees,
dying in droves in so-called colony collapse disorder, the sharp
decline
of some species of native bumblebees has been largely
overlooked.<br>
<br>
The Xerces Society, based in Portland, several other environment groups
and prominent entomologists joined together this week in supporting a
citizen petition asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to regulate
the commercial bumblebee industry.<br>
<br>
The petition asks the department to ban shipments of bumblebees outside
their native range, and to require that bumblebees shipped within their
native habitat be certified as disease free.<br>
<br>
Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of the Xerces Society, said the
rules are needed to prevent further decline of native bumblebees
already
in deep trouble, including the western bumblebee, the fuzzy bee of
every
Northwest kid's summer.<br>
<br>
"The western bumblebee was one of the most common. If you lived in
Seattle, Olympia, Vancouver, this is a bumblebee you would see in
forest
edges, clearings, yards," Black said. "Today it is gone from
pretty much the entire Puget Sound area, as well as east of the
Cascades."<br>
<br>
He partly blames the escape of East Coast bumblebees, buzzing out of
the
vents of commercial greenhouses around the country where the bees have
been shipped to pollinate crops.<br>
<br>
They can carry diseases to which native bees ­ there are about 30
species
on the Pacific Coast ­ have no resistance.<br>
<br>
The Department of Agriculture had no immediate comment on the proposal,
said Larry Hawkins, a spokesman for the agency.<br>
<br>
States take a varied approach to bumblebee regulation. Oregon bans all
importation of commercial bumblebees to protect native stocks, said Dan
Hilburn, administrator of the plant division for the Oregon Department
of
Agriculture. Washington doesn't regulate bumblebee shipments at
all.<br>
<br>
Rene Ruiter, general manager for Koppert Biological Systems in Romulus,
Mich., one of two companies commercially growing and shipping
bumblebees
in North America, said his company already has to certify its bees as
disease free for its exports to Canada and Mexico.<br>
<br>
Doing so for domestic shipments might not be a burden, depending on how
a
rule was written, he said.<br>
<br>
In business since 1994, his company serves growers using bumblebees to
pollinate greenhouse tomatoes, including about 800 acres in the United
States. Only bumblebees can execute the deft maneuver required to
pollinate a hothouse tomato, vibrating their entire fuzzy body to shake
pollen loose.<br>
<br>
But under regulations requested in the petition, the company's
shipments
of <i>Bombus impatiens</i>, a bumblebee native of the Eastern United
States, would be shut down to the West.<br>
<br>
"That's life," Ruiter said, "but we disagree with it. Our
bees are already certified disease free for export and it's not as if
we
have one bee for export and another for shipping in the
U.S."<br>
<br>
He bristled at a study published in 2008 documenting much higher
disease
rates among wild bees collected close to greenhouses in Canada.
"Those weren't our bees," he said.<br>
<br>
Michael Otterstatter, a research biologist who did the work for the
paper
while at the University of Toronto, said the results of the study
alarmed
him.<br>
<br>
The levels of disease around the greenhouses was much greater than he
found in wild populations.<br>
<br>
"It was a nasty shock," Otterstatter said. "I was holding
on to the idea that even if the commercial bees are sick, they were
isolated enough that they would not be having an effect on the native
pollinators. But that turned out not to be the case."<br>
<br>
<i>Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:lmapes@seattletimes.com">lmapes@seattletimes.com</a><br>
<br>
</i>Copyright © The Seattle Times Company<br>
<br>
<br>
<x-sigsep></x-sigsep>
<p>*************************<br>
Scott Hoffman Black<br>
Ecologist/Entomologist<br>
Executive Director<br>
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation<br>
4828 SE Hawthorne <br>
Portland, OR 97215 <br>
Direct line (503) 449-3792<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:sblack@xerces.org">sblack@xerces.org</a><br>
<br>
<i>The Xerces Society is an international, nonprofit organization that
protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their
habitat. <br>
</i> <br>
To join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work, <br>
please visit
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.xerces.org/">www.xerces.org</a>.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
___________________________________________
<br>
<b>The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation</b>
<br>
<br>
The Xerces Society is an international, nonprofit
<br>
organization that protects wildlife through the
<br>
conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.
<br>
To join the Society, make a contribution, or read
<br>
about our work, please visit <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.xerces.org">www.xerces.org</a>
<br>
<br>
Sarina Jepsen
<br>
Endangered Species Program Director
<br>
4828 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Portland, OR 97215
<br>
tel: 503-232-6639 fax: 503-233-6794
<br>
email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:sarina@xerces.org">sarina@xerces.org</a>
<br>
___________________________________________</div>
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