Maryland lawmakers are looking at adopting a bill that protects honey bees from certain pesticides. The Pollinator Protection Act will require that plants, seeds, or nurseries that stock plants treated with certain pesticides carry a warning label.

“This place is a hive of activity,” one man quipped as beekeepers entered the Maryland Environmental Legislative Summit dressed in their white canvas suits in Annapolis, Maryland, recently. They had come, mesh hoods hanging down their backs, to show support for the proposed Pollinator Protection Act of 2015. Some wore political buttons emblazoned with a cartoon bee and #beesafe, according to the blog WhereYouArePlanted.

The pesticides are known as neonics, a controversial class of pesticides linked to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). It’s a phenomenon that beekeepers first started to report in 2006 when 30 to 90 percent of their hives died off. CCD occurs when honey bees abandon the hive for unknown reasons. Chensheng Lu and his team of researchers found that even tiny levels of neonicotinoid pesticides may impair honey bees’ neurological function, memory, and cognition, causing them to abandon the hive. Overuse of pesticides may also weaken the bees so they’re more susceptible to other diseases caused by the parasitic Varroa mites. Many environmentalists say the pesticides do more harm than good.

“The critical issues are neonic pesticides are a major contributor to honeybee decline, resulting in Maryland beekeepers losing nearly 50 percent of their hives in 2012,” said Sen. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam, who is sponsoring the bill, reported on WRAL.com.

The bill would make the pesticide available to certified applicators and farmers but it would prohibit the use of neonics by retail consumers.

“This bill should be a no-brainer,” said Roger Williams, President of the Central Maryland Beekeepers Association, as he addressed the standing-room only crowd at the Miller Senate Building, reported on WhereYouArePlanted. Many of those present were beekeepers and environmentalists, but it was a full house.

Beekeepers in Maryland have reported losing some 30 percent of their hives to CCD and in 2012 they lost an astounding 50 percent. Human health and the state’s blue crabs have also been impacted by the pesticides. Pollinators, like honey bees, are extremely important to the economy because they pollenate a whopping 75 percent of flowering plants and nearly 75 percent of crops. Without pollinators we’d have fewer fruits, vegetables including almonds, blueberries, squash, coffee, and chocolate. We wouldn’t have the variety of foods that we so enjoy today, and what we would have would be considerably more expensive without the pollinating done for free by honey bees.

In June, the Obama Administration announced $8 million in funding for farmers and ranchers to establish safe habitats for honey bees who have also been hit hard by the onslaught of pesticide use. Maryland is taking a step in the right direction protecting bees from an unnecessary and hazardous pesticide. I just hope that the number of certified applicators of neonics pesticides are severely limited.

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Image of a closeup honey bee on a flower from Shuttershock

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Bees are under attack as a result of pesticides and disease, and they have been for the past decade. Apiculturists have been raising captive honey bees for commercial purposes to make up for a nearly one-third decline in honey bees. But what if pollination efforts could be causing issues?

New research has found that commercial bees may be causing unwanted side effects for wild bees and other wild insects.

A team of researchers publishing in the Journal of Applied Ecology, found diseases that start in commercial species may jump to more vulnerable wild species. Scientists at the University of Exeter, found that wild insects like bumble bees, wasps, ants, and butterflies may become ill as a result of diseases that non-native captive bees bring in from other places, reported TreeHugger. And when a new place doesn’t have experience with a disease, it has less or no resistance to it. It’s an unwanted result of trying to do a good thing.

Honey bees have been especially hit hard since bee keepers first reported a problem in 2006. One-third of bees have been hit with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The disease causes seemingly healthy honey bees to abandon their hives.

According to USDA Agricultural Research Service:

The main symptom of CCD is very low or no adult honey bees present in the hive but with a live queen and no dead honey bee bodies present. Often there is still honey in the hive, and immature bees (brood) are present. Varroa mites, a virus-transmitting parasite of honey bees, have frequently been found in hives hit by CCD.

Scientists think that a variety of issues could be at play here, causing the bees to get sick. A combination of pesticide exposure, parasitic mites, and an inadequate food supply may be causing the bees to disappear.

I wrote last month that President Obama has convened a group of experts to figure out how to save pollinators, namely honey bees. In June, the Obama Administration announced $8 million in funding for farmers and ranchers to establish safe habitats for honey bees who have been victimized by the onslaught of pesticide use.

The health of the honey bee population is a huge deal. Not only is the species at risk, bees also support a lucrative industry. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion in crop value annually. Crops like tree nuts, berries, fruits, and vegetables depend on honey bee pollination. In California for example, 1.4 million colonies of honey bees are required in the almond industry.

There’s a lot we still have to learn about whether captive bees could really damage wild species, but one thing we know for sure is that the overuse of pesticides nationwide is one of the main reasons why this important pollinator started declining in the first place.

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Close up of a honey bee from Shuttershock

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The once-common monarch butterfly is MIA, and it doesn’t bode well for the health of our species.

Unable to survive the cold temperatures that blanket the U.S. during winter months, the monarch butterfly population heads to Mexico and Southern California every year to bask in the warmth. Following instructions built into their DNA, subsequent generations of monarch butterfly seek out the very same trees and bushes in which their parents were born, even though they’ve never been there before. And the happy cycle begins all over again. That is, until this year.

“This year, for the first time in memory, the monarch butterflies didn’t come, at least not on the Day of the Dead,” reported Jim Robbins for the New York Times. “They began to straggle in a week later than usual, in record-low numbers. Last year’s low of 60 million now seems great compared with the fewer than three million that have shown up so far this year. Some experts fear that the spectacular migration could be near collapse.”

A world without the monarch butterfly. Think about that. Our children could grow up without ever knowing what it’s like to feel this orange-and-black fairy land on their arm, or seeing one hatch from their cocoon (my favorite science project as a child).

So what’s causing the monarch butterfly to break from thousands of years of tradition? Some say pesticides, specifically the neonicotinoids often blamed for the decline of the honey bee. But even if all pesticides had never been used on a single U.S. crop, experts say the monarch butterfly would still be in peril.

“There’s no question that the loss of habitat is huge,” Douglas Tallamy, a professor of entomology at the University of Delaware, told the New York Times. “We notice the monarch and bees because they are iconic insects,” he said. “But what do you think is happening to everything else?”

Every time we tear raze a meadow, cluster of trees, or wetland to put up a parking lot, we’re destroying a monarch butterfly’s home. Every time we uproot native plants like the milkweed to install a sterile lawn and genetically-engineered flowers, we take food out of a monarch butterfly’s mouth. Which eventually means less food for our own families.

Like the bee, the monarch butterfly is a pollinator. Many forms of life are sustained by the seeds, fruits, nuts, berries, and foliage that result from pollination–including humans. This is what the produce section of your grocery store would look like if pollinators like the butterfly go the way of the Dodo. Scary.

So what can we do to save the monarch butterfly? Well for one thing, eat organic when you can, and never use chemical pesticides on your property. Encourage the growth of native plants, especially the milkweed, as well as nectar-producing flowers that attract butterflies. Purchase only FSC-Certified wood products, since illegal logging in Mexico is devastating monarch butterfly habitats there. Lastly, support programs working to protect the monarch butterfly. Visit MonarchWatch.org to learn more.

Related on Ecosalon:

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Image: usfwsnortheast

The post The Monarch Butterfly is Disappearing and that’s Bad News for Humans appeared first on EcoSalon.

A new non-profit called The Bee Cause Project is teaching school children about the importance of honeybees and beekeeping.

Honeybees are dying in alarming numbers, and unless we find a way to replenish local hives, a lack of suitable pollinators will devastate our food system. For years, beekeepers and scientists have watched Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) wipe-out entire hives, and despite proof that commercial pesticides are a huge part of the problem, the EPA has refused to take definitive action.

While politicians and chemical companies hash it out at the legislative level, concerned citizens around the country have taken action. Keeping backyard honeybees has now become a staple of urban homesteading, and across the nation, people are pressuring their representatives to make protecting the bees a top priority.

Long before CCD hit national news, however, Ted Dennard made it his personal mission to protect and care for our most precious pollinators. As owner of Savannah Bee Company, Dennard has spent a lifetime supporting local beekeepers through the sale of real honey body care products. Now, the lifelong beekeeper is taking his message to an even more important crowd: our kids.

In late July, Dennard (pictured below) launched The Bee Cause Project: a not-for-profit that teaches children the ABCs of honeybees, beekeeping, and the importance of both. The goal? To put observation hives in 1,000 schools, so that kids can watch bees at work, participate in their care, and fully understand what an integral role this tiny insect plays in our every day lives.

“I want to raise a generation of kids that know how important the honeybee is,” Dennard said in a press release. “A generation that when someone says ‘bee,’ they don’t think ‘sting’ but they think of the wonderful little pollinator and its role in the ecosystem and our lives.”

The Bee Cause Project will place glass-sided observation hives in schools for absolutely no charge: 100 percent of the costs required to install the observation hive case and managing the initial hive case and honeybees is covered by the organization. This generous gift is made with the understanding that each school will pay it forward so that other students can enjoy the same experience.

“Schools that receive a honeybee observation hive agree to run an annual fundraiser selling Bee Cause Honey to help pay for the ongoing care of the bee family they have adopted and for the installation of honeybee observation hives at other schools,” explains the project website.

“The honey that is sold as part of the annual fundraiser is provided “at-cost” by The Savannah Bee Company and 100% of the profits are used to support The Bee Cause’s mission to install honeybee observation hives in 1,000 schools and “to save the honeybees one school at a time.”

Find out how your child’s school can become part of this amazing project by visiting www.thebeecause.org.

Related on EcoSalon:

Solving The Mystery Of Our Vanishing Bees

EPA Ignores Its Own Science And Approves Bee-Killing Pesticide

Image: Public Domain & Bee Cause Project

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How much do you actually know about bees?

Who do we have to thank for smoothie week, fruit-picking, and apple-related folklore? The European honeybee, of course. These fierce pollinators who came to this continent via the Columbian Exchange make it possible for us to enjoy a lot of our favorite foods. As colony collapse disorder continues to threaten our tiny winged friends, we should celebrate and preserve them and promote awareness however we can. Not just for the sake of agriculture, but also because these are some fascinating insects. National Honey Bee Appreciation Day was August 18th. Did you brush up on your bee facts?

Bee Quiz

This post originally appeared in Sierra magazine.

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