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12 CapitalPress.com June 3, 2016 Bees 3,528,000 CONTINUED from Page 1 In the last year, more than 40 percent of honeybee colo- nies in the U.S. perished, suc- cumbing to several factors, which in combination have more than doubled the normal losses seen in the past. Environmental stressors, sub-lethal levels of pesticides and pests and disease have been taking their toll on ag- riculture’s most important pollinators for the last decade, claiming as much as 45 per- cent and as little as 29 percent of honeybee colonies per year. The losses are a threat to farmers and production agri- culture, considering that hon- eybee pollination is critical to the success of a vast array of crops — including fruits, veg- etables and nuts, as well as the alfalfa fed to cattle to produce milk and beef. All told, honeybees are responsible for pollinating at least 90 commercially grown crops in North America, ac- counting for more than $15 billion in crop revenue in the U.S., according to USDA. This past year, the com- mercial beekeepers who keep U.S. agriculture buzzing — as well as part-time beekeepers and backyard enthusiasts — lost 44.1 percent of their col- onies, according to the Bee Informed Partnership, a na- tional research collaboration supported by USDA and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. “The problem it seems like we’re having is it’s hard to keep them healthy,” McGuire said. There are many stresses, including a lack of forage, lack of a diversifi ed diet, pes- ticide exposure and varroa mites, he said. McGuire’s home base is in dairy country, where alfal- fa is now cut before bloom for high-quality hay for milk cows. Canal banks that used to bloom with nourishing fl owers are now mowed or sprayed barren. And his bees’ “working vacation” in Cali- fornia’s Central Valley offers only thousands of acres of almond trees that limit their diet. With the lack of forage variety, “there are now areas where beekeepers have to feed their bees all year,” he said. McGuire feeds his bees heavily in the spring and fall. This year he bought about 150,000 pounds of corn syr- up. At $32 per hundredweight, that’s a $48,000 expense. Despite his efforts, he’s still experiencing annual loss- es of 30 percent to 40 percent — compared with 10 percent in a bad year in his early days in the family business. McGuire’s 2,800 colonies were down to 1,600, strong enough to take to California in U.S. honeybee colonies, 1989-2015 4 million (Honey producing colonies by market year) 2,660,000: Down 24.6% from 1989 3 Source: USDA NASS 2 1989 ’91 ’93 ’95 ’97 ’99 ’01 ’03 ’05 ’07 ’09 ’11 ’13 2015 Alan Kenaga/Capital Press Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press Commercial beekeeper Jed McGuire inspects a frame in one of his beehives while his nephew, Tyler Magnelli, stands ready in a bee yard near Gooding, Idaho, on May 24. December to get them out of the cold and ready for almond pollination. That left a lot of empty hive boxes at his apiary in Idaho — and more empty boxes would be coming home in April. The number of bees in a colony varies widely by sea- son, with USDA estimating most at 20,000 to 40,000. Hives of 40,000 to 60,000 at the peak are common but at that population bees typically swarm to split the hive. These days, McGuire plans on bringing 20 percent of his hive boxes home emp- ty — double what a bad year used to be on the California trek — but he has had losses as high as 45 percent, he said. Growing threat Beekeepers have always lost bees, but those losses started accelerating in 2004 — two years before colony collapse disorder captured media attention, said Gene Brandi, a Los Banos, Calif., commercial beekeeper and president of the American Beekeeping Federation. Brandi started working in the bee business in the early 1970s and opened his own apiary in 1978. Back then, he considered winter losses of more than 5 percent of his colonies to be a bad year. Even with the arrival of the varroa mite in the U.S. in the late 1980s, beekeepers weren’t experiencing the kind of losses they’ve seen the past 12 years. The mite gradually grabbed a foothold in the U.S. but with proper controls, it wasn’t a big deal, he said. The mite feeds on both adult bees and developing brood and spreads rapid- ly from one hive to anoth- er, transmitting viruses that cause deformities, paralysis and death. Varroa control con- sists of both mechanical and chemical methods, as well as the introduction of mite-toler- ant stock. “You’ll always have them; you just try to keep them man- ageable,” McGuire said. But varroa mites have be- come a major threat that is growing, according to a re- cent study of multi-year hon- eybee disease surveys by the University of Maryland and USDA. Released in April, that study found the varroa mite is far more abundant than previ- ously estimated and is a par- ticularly challenging problem among backyard beekeepers. “Many backyard beekeep- ers don’t have any varroa control strategies in place. We think this results in colo- nies collapsing and spreading mites to neighboring colonies that are otherwise well-man- aged for mites,” reported Na- thalie Steinhauer, a graduate student in UMD’s Department of Entomology who leads data collection for the Nation- al Honey Bee Disease Survey. “We are seeing more evi- dence to suggest beekeepers who take the right steps to control mites are losing col- onies in this way, through no fault of their own,” she said. The varroa mite has be- come one of the main issues in colony loss, along with some pesticides and insuffi cient nu- trition that compromise bees’ immune systems, Brandi said. But in his opinion, the in- creasing use of neonicotinoids — a systemic insecticide fi rst registered in the mid-1990s — was a major factor in the accelerated loss of colonies. Other pesticides, including fungicides and insect growth regulators, added to the down- fall, he said. Those other pesticides ar- en’t toxic to adult bees, but they impact the development of brood, he said. “Anything that disrupts the normal development of brood impacts the sustainability of the colony,” he said. Poor nutrition is anoth- er factor, as malnourished bees are more susceptible to disease. The drought in Cali- fornia has certainly impacted nutrition, but the issue is more widespread, he said. The combination of fac- tors has led to winter losses in some years of more than 35 percent and total annual loss- es of well over 40 percent, he said. “We never used to see that,” he said. Working overtime The critical role of honey- bees and their startling losses have drawn more research. But the culprits are varied and their interaction complex. “Beekeepers are struggling to manage all the things af- fecting their colonies. It’s a whole laundry list,” said Jef- fery Pettis, a USDA senior entomologist and co-coordi- nator of the Bee Informed col- ony loss survey. In addition to poor nutri- tion from not getting mixed pollen, a lot more chemicals from pesticides are in the hive than in the past. Pests and par- asites are gaining ground, and queens are failing at a high rate, he said. Historically, queens lived two to three years, but now at least half are failing and must be replaced within six months. It’s an issue he and other re- searchers are exploring. With queens only last- ing a year, “you’ve lost two years of pollination and hon- ey production and the ability to split the hive for a couple of years,” compared with the past, McGuire said. Beekeepers are struggling with both winter and summer losses, with summer rates ri- valing winter losses for the second consecutive year in the Bee Informed annual col- ony loss survey. Both were at 28.1 percent last year. While summer losses are easier to replace, the increase is concerning because that’s when bees should be their healthiest — and those losses still cost beekeepers time and money, USDA’s Pettis said. Summer losses are being replaced at the cost of weak- ening the colony they’re be- ing taken from and limiting beekeepers’ supply of bees for pollination, he said. “The high rate of loss over the entire year means that bee- keepers are working overtime to constantly replace their losses,” he said. A new survey on honeybee colony health by USDA’s Na- tional Agricultural Statistics Service — which uses differ- ent methodology than the Bee Informed survey — shows U.S. beekeepers with fi ve or more colonies lost 1.65 mil- lion colonies from April 1, 2015, through March 2016. It also shows they renovat- ed 1.33 million colonies and added 1.31 million over the same period. “I have to replace colonies every year. If I don’t, I’m out of business,” Brandi said, adding that he splits his strong colonies after almond pollina- tion. He and his son Michael operate 2,000 colonies, buy- ing 1,500 to 1,600 queen bees a year. Queens with desirable traits cost $23 to $25 apiece, he said. McGuire bought 1,250 queens this year and devot- ed a month of 10-hour days rebuilding 300 dead boxes a week. Raising bees today takes a lot more time and money than it used to, but most beekeep- ers have adapted, he said. “It’s defi nitely harder to keep bees alive, but we’ve gotten pretty good at replac- ing and rebuilding,” he said. Growing demand Honeybee demand for al- mond pollination has grown signifi cantly over the past 10 years, but the managed bee population hasn’t, Brandi said. Pollinated in February, more than 900,000 acres of bearing almond trees in Cali- fornia — at two colonies per acre — demand 90 percent of the nation’s available, viable colonies, he said. The high losses to bee- keepers are certainly concern- ing but more importantly, the industry needs commercial bees to meet the growing de- mand for pollination services, Pettis said. “We urgently need solu- tions to slow the rate of both winter and summer losses,” he said. Researchers are focused Dogs Water CONTINUED from Page 1 CONTINUED from Page 1 three of them. He said they had large amounts of green dyed grain in their stomachs, which is consistent with go- pher bait that contains strych- nine. The gopher bait was mixed with a signifi cant amount of raw ground meat and the amount of bait found in each dog would have required mix- ing it with food to encourage the dogs to eat as much of it as they did, he said. Varriale said he examines dogs that have consumed go- pher bait and suffered strych- nine poisoning about once ev- ery few years and they never have that much of the bait in their stomachs. The large number of Eche- varria’s dogs that have suf- fered strychnine poisoning this spring, coupled with the large amount of bait found in their stomaches, “tells me it was done intentionally,” Varriale said. Varriale saved and froze stomach content samples from each dog and contacted the Canyon County Sheriff’s De- partment, which investigated the incidents but has not iden- tifi ed any suspects. Varriale said strychnine poisoning is a bad way to die because it causes paralysis so the dogs can’t breathe and they suffocate to death. “They may not catch the wetland allegedly had a “sig- nifi cant nexus” with a river 120 miles away. William Funk, a profes- sor at Lewis & Clark Law School, said he’s an en- vironmentalist but agrees with the Supreme Court that it’s wrong to use jurisdic- tional determinations for the “power of extortion.” While obtaining a Clean Water Act permit is expen- sive, “litigation isn’t cheap, either,” he said. Landowners aren’t like- ly to file lawsuits over ju- risdictional determinations “willy-nilly,” but the pros- pect of litigation will force the government to be more careful than it otherwise would be, Funk said. The Supreme Court’s rul- ing was “pretty predictable” in light of its 2012 decision that EPA “compliance or- ders” — which forced land- owners to remediate alleged Clean Water Act violations — are reviewable in federal court, he said. In the most recent case, the Supreme Court told the government that its theories of Clean Water Act jurisdic- tion are subject to checks and balances, said Danielle Quist, senior counsel for public policy at the Amer- ican Farm Bureau Federa- tion. Sean Ellis/Capital Press Coyote, an Anatolian shepherding dog, guard goats in southwestern Idaho May 16. Someone has poisoned 14 stock and guard dogs with strychnine in this area since early April. person that did it but I hope it at least ... prevents it from con- tinuing,” he said of the reason he contacted law enforcement. “It’s a terrible way to die.” Echevarria said the dogs cost him between $1,500 to $2,500 each and although the poisonings have cost his op- eration a lot of money, he’s more concerned about the dogs’ suffering. “This does piss me off,” he said. “The way they’ve done it is more cruel than shooting them with a gun. I don’t want publicity for me. It’s more about getting the word out there so it doesn’t happen to (any more) dogs.” The poisonings have drawn the attention of Idaho’s Hu- mane Society of the United States branch. “This should be publicized,” said HSUS Idaho Director Lisa Kauffman. “Strychnine poi- soning is a really horrible way to go. That is an excruciating death for those dogs.” Idaho’s animal abuse felony law, which was strengthened this year, does not apply to these incidents, Kauffman said, because production agriculture animals, which include stock and working dogs, are specifi - cally exempt. However, she said, another state law that has been on the books for years makes it a felo- ny to intentionally poison a pro- duction ag animal, including stock dogs, that is worth more than $1,000. News of the poisonings an- gered Tim Linquist, who uses shepherding dogs to guard the goats he rents out for weed control. “It’s a shame anybody would do that to an animal,” he said. “Fourteen dogs. That’s crazy.” on every aspect of failing col- onies, he said. McGuire said he’s glad for third-party research, but it’s a slow process and likely needs more funding. The pesticide factor of the equation is the hardest to handle, and it seems research in that area is mostly coming from the big chemical compa- nies that have a vested interest — and he’s not particularly comfortable with that, he said. Beekeepers tell farmers that bees are bringing pollen with fungicides back to the hive, which is killing larvae. But the chemical companies’ fi eld men tell them that’s not the case, citing their research on the amount that is lethal to adult bees, he said. Some farmers are starting to listen to beekeepers — but just like research, education and changing farming practic- es is a slow process, he said. Profi t margins have also become tight in the beekeep- ing business, although pol- lination fees have increased as a function of supply and demand, Pollination fees for almonds range from $150 to $200 per colony, depending on the size of the colony. Those fees carry Mc- Guire’s operation, which gets about half the honey produc- tion it did several years ago. “If we can get a honey crop, it defi nitely relaxes it (production margins) a bit … but I count it as a bonus; I don’t plan on it to begin with,” he said. While beekeepers have be- come adept at replacing and rebuilding colonies, it’s not without consequences. “It’s stressful, just not knowing what’s going to happen long term,” McGuire said. If you get a high die-off, you lose money, he said. “Like anything in agricul- ture, you just don’t know what natural disaster might hit — but natural disaster is becom- ing a little more common in the bee world,” he said. It’s important to fi nd solu- tions to all the factors killing bees, he said. “It’s important to every- body, not just beekeepers but also the farmers who grow the crops that take pollination and the people that eat the crops,” he said. “There hasn’t been a lot of sunshine on how the Corps determines its juris- diction,” she said. Enforcement of the Clean Water Act is prob- lematic because it’s often unclear what’s a viola- tion of the statute, Quist said. “There are due process concerns if you don’t know what’s expected of you or what is lawful or unlawful, and when there’s criminal penalties involved,” she said. It is possible that fed- eral agencies will simply stop offering “jurisdictional determinations” when they’re requested by land- owners, since no statute re- quires such decisions, Funk said. However, that isn’t like- ly because the government benefits from the process, since landowners volun- tarily turn over information instead of forcing federal agencies to compile data themselves, he said. The government issues tens of thousands of juris- dictional determinations a year, but only a handful are disputed administratively, said Hopper. Since most landowners accept the government’s conclusions, it’s unlikely to stop responding to such re- quests, he said. “The agency has no incentive to change its current practice.”