Over the past decade, the United States has seen a huge decline in the country’s honeybee populations. Between 2014 and 2015 a reported 42 percent of honeybee colonies died. USA Today is reporting that this past year’s numbers are better than previous ones, but they still don’t look that great.
The annual survey of roughly 5,000 beekeepers showed the 33% dip from April 2016 to April 2017. The decrease is small compared to the survey's previous 10 years, when the decrease hovered at roughly 40%. From 2012 to 2013, nearly half of the nation's colonies died.
"I would stop short of calling this 'good' news," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland. "Colony loss of more than 30% over the entire year is high. It's hard to imagine any other agricultural sector being able to stay in business with such consistently high losses."
Our previous administration had begun to implement protections for the honeybee populations that suffer from a variety of issues, both man-made like pollution and pesticides, and natural ones like parasites. Before President Obama left office, realizing the man with the Midas Touch was coming into office, he added the first American bumblebee to the Registry of Endangered Species.
The incoming Trump administration, however, would need to undertake a lengthy process to declare the rusty-patched bumblebee population recovered if it wished to reverse this week’s decision, and it would be required by law to justify its action on scientific grounds.
The role of these bees and other pollen-carrying insects is important, Tom Melius, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Midwest regional director, said in a statement. “Pollinators are small but mighty parts of the natural mechanism that sustains us and our world,” he said. “Without them, our forests, parks, meadows and shrub lands, and the abundant, vibrant life they support, cannot survive, and our crops require laborious, costly pollination by hand.”
Whether it’s all our fault or a mixture of our demands coupled with our bad environmental practices, bees are canaries in the coal mine so to speak, and healthier bee populations means healthier environments for humans as well.