[Pollinator] House subcommittee explores ramifications of honeybee decline

[Ladadams at aol.com]

Bluefield Daily Telegraph - Bluefield West Virginia


House subcommittee explores ramifications of honeybee decline 
By Bill Archer
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEFIELD — Capitol Hill was buzzing earlier this week as a congressional 
subcommittee listened to concerns about the decline in the nation’s honeybee 
population.

The House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans conducted an 
oversight hearing on Tuesday to learn more about the “mysterious threat to our nation’
s honeybees.”

The subcommittee heard testimony from U.S. Reps. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., 
and Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., as well as Mamie Parker, assistant director for 
Fisheries and Habitat Conservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services; Daniel 
Weaver, president of the American Beekeeping Association, Kevin J. Hackett, Ph.D., 
national program leader for bees and pollinators, Agriculture Research 
Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Thomas E. Lovejoy, Ph.D., president, H. 
John Heinz III center for Science, Economics and the Environment; and May R. 
Berenbaum, Ph.D., professor and head of Department of Entomology, University of 
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Witnesses appearing before the oversight committee were scheduled to discuss “
the severity, causes and ramifications of the decline, as well as make some 
recommendations for congressional action,” according to a press release from 
the subcommittee. The subcommittee press release indicated that beekeepers in 
the nation have reported the loss of more than one-quarter of the nation’s 2.4 
million bee colonies, a figure that is “nearly five times the normal annual 
loss,” according to the press release.

“No legislation has been introduced related to the issue,” Allyson Ivins 
Groff, spokesperson for the House of Representatives Committee on Natural 
Resources said. “The House Agriculture Committee held a hearing on the colony 
collapse issue in March. Our hearing was more general in nature. Although there is no 
legislation now, we are monitoring the situation.”

Several Mercer County beekeepers reported dramatic losses this year, but not 
necessarily due to the colony collapse disorder that has had a profound impact 
on the honeybee population in the western states. Several Mercer County 
beekeepers speculated that their losses this year came as a result of a warm spell 
during the winter that prompted their honeybees to eat up all the food they 
had stored for the winter.

“I asked the state bee inspector to come by here and check out my hives,” 
Joe Davidson, 86, of Bluefield said. “He came here on Tuesday. I told him I didn’
t think he would find anything, but five of my hives were almost full. That’s 
five out of the six hives that I have. Not bad.”

Davidson said that Wade Stiltner, the state bee inspector that serves the 14 
counties of southern West Virginia, “only found a few mites in one of my hives,
” he said. “I can treat them pretty easily.” Stiltner could not be reached 
for additional comment.

In her opening statement at the subcommittee hearing, U.S. Rep. Madeleine Z. 
Bordallo, D-Guam, chairwoman of the subcommittee, pointed out: “In a world 
forecast to experience unpredictable climate change, we simply cannot afford to 
squander our pollinator resource if we hope to maintain food security and 
biologically diverse forests, grasslands, wetlands and deserts,” she was quoted as 
stating in prepared remarks. “I am pleased that we will have experts ... to 
explain the status of pollinators and their importance in maintaining 
biodiversity.

“It is also important that federal land managers and private landowners 
consider the needs of pollinators as a normal part of doing business,” Bordallo was 
quoted as stating. “To the extent that we can be better pollinator stewards, 
we can avoid unnecessary harm of pollinators and reduce the impact of threats 
facing pollinator populations, such as invasive species or habitat 
fragmentation.”

The oversight hearing was held in conjunction with National Pollinators Week, 
and was titled, “The birds and the bees: How pollinators help maintain 
healthy ecosystems.” The Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans is part of 
the Committee on Natural Resources chaired by U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher at bdtonline.com













Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Coeovlution Institute
425 Washington Street, 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137 (p)
415 362 3070 (f)
LDA at coevolution.org
www.coevolution.org
www.nappc.org
www.pollinator.org


Bee Ready for Pollinator Week - June 24-30



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