[Pollinator] for discussion: should honeybees be allowed into conservation/protected areas?

[Louisa A. Hooven]

I have been backpacking many miles from agriculture, high in the  
mountains, and still I see honeybees. They are already there.

Louisa






Quoting Randell Verhoek <r.verhoek at harvesthoneyinc.com>:

>
> I am a man of observation. And I am saying that wherever I keep bees  
> whether it
> be Texas, California or North Dakota other pollinators are present. In fact,
> other pollinators normally pollinate at cooler temperatures than honey
> bees.Also, I have observed different wasp type insects invading honeybee
> colonies. But here again, this is only observation on my part. The  
> biggest enemy
> to pollinators is pesticides not applied according to label. 
>  Randy Verhoek
> Harvest Honey, Inc.
> American Honey Producers Association - Vice President
> Bismarck, ND
>
> Cell: 713-724-5993
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: John Ascher <ascher at amnh.org>
> To: Randell Verhoek <r.verhoek at harvesthoneyinc.com>; Victoria MacPhail
> <vmacphail at gmail.com>; Pollinator (NAPPC) List <pollinator at lists.sonic.net>
> Sent: Wed, March 21, 2012 12:56:19 PM
> Subject: RE: [Pollinator] for discussion: should honeybees be allowed into
> conservation/protected areas?
>
>
>
> Randy,
>
> Concern about placing honey bees in conservation areas is not  
> limited to their
> potential to interfere with the public. Another concern is that  
> honey bees will
> compete with native bees for floral resources thus reducing or  
> interfering with
> natural pollination. More generally, as a matter of principle many  
> people object
> to using conservation areas to promote exotic organisms, including beneficial
> domesticated species, for commercial or other purposes not relevant to the
> protection of native biota. Regarding educating the public, showcasing honey
> bees in conservation areas tends to reinforce the erroneous belief that honey
> bees are required to pollinate native plants, all of which should have native
> pollinators.
>
> In my experience, native bees are remarkably abundant where honey bees are
> absent, as on Santa Cruz Island of California, and remarkably few in the
> vicinity of large honey bee populations, such as in the vicinity of  
> concentrated
> hives in Turkey. For some mysterious reason, ecologists seem to experience
> persistent difficulty in documenting this very obvious pattern, or  
> at least in
> publishing it in famous journals, even though honey bees and managed  
> "non-Apis"
> bees occur globally and can be easily manipulated on a massive scale using
> exceedingly well known and readily available methods.
>
> John
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: pollinator-bounces+ascher=amnh.org at lists.sonic.net
> [pollinator-bounces+ascher=amnh.org at lists.sonic.net] on behalf of Randell
> Verhoek [r.verhoek at harvesthoneyinc.com]
> Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2012 8:57 AM
> To: Victoria MacPhail; Pollinator (NAPPC) List
> Subject: Re: [Pollinator] for discussion: should honeybees be allowed into
> conservation/protected areas?
>
>
> I believe they should as long as there are accessible roads that  
> won't interfere
> with public walking trails and various areas of use to the public. I  
> currently
> have honey bees on the Armond Bayou Conservation land in Houston, TX. We have
> our own access point away from the public where the bees do not  
> interfere. Also,
> it is a win-win situation as I have a location to keep bees and the  
> care-takers
>  get to enjoy honey that I share with them. The bees and native  
> pollinators will
> and do co-exist just fine. The only threat of disease is the thousands of
> shipments of cargo containers being imported into U.S. on a daily basis where
> less than 2% are inspected. This is where mites, hive beetles, nosema
> ceranae....etc... have invaded and decimated our nations domestic honey bees.
>  
> In my opinion wherever possible if beekeepers could have access to  
> conservation
> areas that have enough flowers to make sense to keep bees there, it  
> would be a
> benefit to our country where only good will be the outcome.
>  
> Sincerely,
>  
> Randy
>
>  Randy Verhoek
> Harvest Honey, Inc.
> American Honey Producers Association - Vice President
> Bismarck, ND
>
> Cell: 713-724-5993
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Victoria MacPhail <vmacphail at gmail.com>
> To: Pollinator (NAPPC) List <pollinator at lists.sonic.net>
> Sent: Fri, March 16, 2012 12:20:46 PM
> Subject: [Pollinator] for discussion: should honeybees be allowed into
> conservation/protected areas?
>
> I am interested in the members of this list's responses to the  
> question, "should
> honeybee colonies be allowed in conservation/protected areas"?  I.e. While
> honeybees can certainly fly from their colonies on private land into a
> conservation area, should beekeepers be allowed to place their  
> colonies directly
> into the conservation area?
>
> A few of my initial thoughts:
> against
> - honeybees are non-native; generally we try to avoid introducing non-native
> species into conservation areas
> - honeybees may out-compete native bees/pollinators, thus they may negatively
> affecting the native/local pollinators and the native/local plants seed-set
> - introduced species (incl. honeybees) may potentially spread diseases
>
> for
> - honeybees may already be present in the conservation area if there are
> beekeepers with hives nearby
> - beekeepers would be able to have a pesticide-free and undisturbed  
> location for
> their bees
> - if near a public trail/info centre, could use them as an opportunity for
> educating the public about all pollinators
>
>
> Any other thoughts/discussion?
>
> Victoria MacPhail
> Guelph, Ontario
> vmacphail at gmail.com
>



Louisa A. Hooven, PhD
Research Associate
Department of Horticulture
Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon
hoovenl at onid.orst.edu
(541) 231-5568