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

[Peter Loring Borst]

> Does any one have data on this topic?

I have in my hand a copy of the 326 page tome:
STATUS OF POLLINATORS IN NORTH AMERICA,  
Copyright 2007 by the National Academy of Sciences

In it they state:

Little is known about the status of most wild pollinators in North America
because there is seldom a historical baseline with which modern data can
be compared. The committee notes that systematic, thorough monitoring
programs in Europe have revealed dramatic declines in pollinator abundance
and diversity; there are no comparable North American programs. 

The European experience demonstrates that monitoring is needed
to document changes in populations and diversity, and that monitoring
programs profit from contributions by citizen-scientists. The quality and
validity of the information obtained by citizen-scientists’ monitoring should
be tested and calibrated against professional science monitoring.

Conservation and restoration are crucial to the preservation of pollinator
populations and diversity, but more must be learned about pollinator
biology. Research on the basic biology and ecology of wild pollinators is
inadequate.

Recommendation: Because of the importance of pollination as an ecosystem
service in both agricultural and natural ecosystems, the National Science
Foundation and USDA should recognize pollination as a cross-cutting
theme in their competitive grant programs and work together to integrate
research that ranges from the genomics of honey bees and the systematics
and ecology of wild pollinators to the effects of global climate change on
pollinator-plant interactions.

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Peter Borst