President Obama Committed to Saving the Honey Bee
by Sangeeta Haindl
President Obama is intervening on behalf of the bumblebee: the White House has announced the first National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators. This is a plan outlining how to save bees along with other small winged insects, animals and their breeding grounds, as this insect’s habitat dwindles in the US. Scientists say this action is critical to help sustain many American crops, as there is a sharp decline in bee colonies, which has been described by some environmentalists as a potential ecological disaster. Without bees, there would be little food, as everything from corn to tomatoes to apples grow from flowers that need pollinating. Fast-declining populations of pollinators have been identified as a serious risk to global food production.
Overall, this strategy seeks to manage the way forests burned by wildfire are replanted, how offices are landscaped and how roadside habitats where bees feed are preserved. Scientists say bees have been hurt by a combination of declining nutrition, mites, disease and pesticides. This federal plan calls on everyone from federal bureaucrats to citizens to do what they can to save bees, which provide more than $15 billion in value to the U.S. economy, according to the White House.
To continue reading, click here
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
