BERTHOUD — Colorado’s honeybee die-off reached a near-record 38 percent this year, mirroring the national 42 percent die-off — and spurring a widening push to plant flowers that nourish pollinators.
Destruction of diverse vegetation, parasitic mites, chemicals and changing genetics are driving the die-offs.
“If you had 40 percent of your cattle die this year, what do you think would be transpiring?” said Beth Conrey, president of the 1,800-member Colorado State Beekeepers Association. “We need to increase our bee forage planting.”
But she and fellow beekeepers also blame pesticides. A couple of months ago, Conrey opened her hives, positioned by apple and cherry trees on a local farm, and found trays full of dead bees, victims of a contractor who sprayed a pesticide on adjacent Boulder County Open Space, she said.
“We’ve got to reduce or eliminate pesticide use,” Conrey said.
The annual honeybee die-offs are raising concerns from northern Colorado farm fields to the White House. Pollination performed by managed honeybee colonies — which have decreased nationwide from 6 million after World War II to about 2.7 million — add $15 billion a year to agriculture production, according to federal data. The vegetables, nuts and fruits in U.S. diets depend on pollination by honeybees.
The White House on May 19 issued a first National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honeybees and other Pollinators. It calls for the creation of 7 million acres of corridors of diverse plants that provide the nectar and pollen needed to sustain bees, monarch butterflies and hummingbirds.
The strategy directs the EPA to assess pesticide impact on pollinators and to propose a rule by Dec. 15 to prohibit leaf spraying of highly toxic pesticides while bees are present in farm fields.
The Colorado-based Keystone Policy Group is trying to accelerate action through a national Honey Bee Health Coalition.
Members are tracking increasing bee deaths during summer, adding to the winter losses that traditionally have set back beekeepers.
They’re looking at surveys suggesting feral honeybees and wild bee populations may be at least as hard-hit as the managed colonies kept by commercial beekeepers.
Federal data, though limited, indicates that U.S. populations of feral honeybees have fallen to a fraction of their levels in 1985, U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist David Epstein said.
The main risk is that beekeepers go out of business, Epstein said, because the fate of honeybees that agriculture needs rests increasingly with beekeepers.
“If they go out of business, then we lose the honeybees that pollinate all our crops,” he said. “You like to eat, like a good supply of food, cheap prices. … We simply cannot afford to see our ecosystem collapse. We’re getting wake-up calls. We have to wake up and figure out how to improve it.”
Duane Sinning, assistant director of plant industries for the Colorado Department of Agriculture, acknowledged that die-offs in Colorado are elevated. State officials plan a forum in September to look at the problem. Pesticides play a role, along with mites and other factors, he said.
“Bees are an important part of our agriculture. Our mission is to protect and strengthen all of our agriculture,” Sinning said.
Yet, he added, “we haven’t heard anything from food producers, the orchards, that there’s a lack of pollination services to grow crops.”
Federal agriculture officials began investigating honeybee colonies back in the mid 1980s as mites emerged. Beekeepers fought this by spraying miticides. But gradually mites grew resistant. Now mites also spread diseases.
Pesticides played a role, along with the loss of diverse flowering areas as industrial farming favored monocultures. As single crops such as corn dominate farming, native vegetation is mowed.
And bee genetics may be weakening, leaving bees more vulnerable.
The Keystone Policy Center is running a national Honey Bee Health Coalition that is drawing in seed companies that may be able to boost clover, milkweed and other bee-friendly vegetation.
“We’re losing a lot of potential bee foraging areas at the edges of farm fields,” said Norm Poppe, manager of the Arvada-based Applewood Seed Co.
“We’re trying to develop better mixtures and advocate for more land devoted for forage,” Poppe said. “We’d like to see the government promote the fact that there needs to be a more sustainable ecosystem for pollinators throughout rural counties. There needs to be some encouragement — more than we’ve seen recently.”
For Conrey, stricter enforcement of federal pesticide regulations is essential. She faults state enforcers for a less-than-ag gres- sive approach. Large-scale honeybee operations in Colorado are decreasing in number, she said.
And ultimately, residents may have to face the prospect of eating more imported food.
“Like, we were dependent on Saudi Arabia for oil. What if we become dependent on Mexico for food? Or Canada?” she asked. “Our food is going to have to come from somewhere to feed people. Where is it going to come from?”
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700, bfinley@denverpost.com or twitter.com/finleybruce
