Everyone’s buzzing about it.

The Task Force that was formed in 2014 to study the plight of pollinators has just released the results of its work. (To recap: Just about a year ago, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum that created an interagency task force with the assignment to develop an all-encompassing strategy, designated to get to the bottom of colony collapse and to develop plans to remediate the dramatic decline of pollinators – most notably, honey bees.)

The resulting “National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators” (which can be found at http://bit.ly/whitehouse_pollinatorhealth) proposes three basic goals, including:

• the reduction of honey bee colony losses during winter (overwintering mortality) to no more than 15 percent within 10 years;
• increase the Eastern population of the monarch butterfly to 225 million butterflies on specific acreage in Mexico; and
• restore or enchance 7 million acres of land for pollinators over the next five years.

That’s just the tip of the 64-page iceberg, but if you work with plants, it’s a document well worth reading. The “Strategy” is accompanied by something called the “Pollinator Research Action Plan,” also a must read.

In response to the release of the government’s strategy, horticulture organizations AmericanHort, the Society of American Florists, American Floral Endowment and the Horticultural Research Institute issued a combined statement, which is provided here. (You’ll recall that Joe Bischoff, AmericanHort’s former Regulatory and Legislative Affairs Director, wrote about pollinator health in the October 2014 issue of American Nurseryman: http://www.amerinursery.com/growing/pollinators-pesticides-and-public-perception/).

Statement on National Pollinator Health Strategy

We join together to welcome and embrace key aspects of the federal government’s recently announced National Strategy for the Protection of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators. The long-awaited strategy has three major goals: reducing honey bee colony losses, increasing Monarch butterfly populations, and restoring or enhancing millions of acres of land as pollinator habitat, through public and private action. As is the list of threats to bee and pollinator health, the national strategy itself is long and complex. We are studying the details, but the overall approach appears balanced and mostly sensible.

The national strategy’s overarching goals dovetail well with the focus of the ongoing Horticultural Industry Bee and Pollinator Stewardship Program. Under that initiative, we have directly funded several priority research projects, and collaborated on additional research funded by others, to provide critical scientifically sound guidance for professional horticulturists. We are developing a grower stewardship program based on best practices for protecting pollinators while managing pests. Finally, we are establishing partnerships with other agricultural, conservation, restoration, beekeeper and honey producer groups to advance the goals of improved pollinator habitat and forage.

Improved habitat and forage are properly at the heart of the national strategy. Many components of the strategy target large-scale habitat restoration and federal lands. Horticulture has a major role to play, as well. This is especially true in the context of the managed residential, commercial, and municipal landscapes of urbanized and urbanizing areas of the nation. In these areas, the best way to support honey bees and other pollinators is to plant healthy and site-appropriate pollinator-friendly plants. Professional growers of tree, plants, and flowers provide the very thing pollinators need to thrive: diverse and ample sources of forage.

With respect to activities of the Department of Interior and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, as demand increases for pollinator-friendly seeds and plants we strongly urge close collaboration with the private sector to meet growing demand. Expanded government competition with the private sector is not the answer. Finally, the Strategy itself (not including the appendices) uses the term “native” in the context of plants and vegetation more than 60 times. In many planting situations, like large-scale restorations, native plants may be the logical choice. In others, like managed landscapes or remediations, all site-appropriate, non-invasive pollinator-friendly plants should be embraced.

The strategy calls for major commitments to research. We recognize that public-private partnerships will be needed to address the myriad questions that must be addressed through ongoing research. Toward this end, we recently supported the President’s proposed budget for expanded research conducted or funded by USDA agencies including the Agricultural Research Service and National Institute for Food and Agriculture.

Finally, with respect to the Environmental Protection Agency’s pollinator protection plan, we are pleased to acknowledge the clearly stated commitment to following the science. Emotional campaigns based on anecdotes and a few flawed studies are not a solid foundation for public policy. We also acknowledge and appreciate the stated commitment to ongoing collaboration with groups such as the Horticultural Research Institute and Minor Crop Farmer Alliance. We share that commitment going forward.

We and our members stand ready to work collaboratively to advance the goals of the National Strategy.

For additional information on what horticulture needs to know about pollinator health, view our video at http://bit.ly/ProtectingPollinatorsVideo.

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Friends of the Earth and the Pesticide Research Institute released a new report, Growing Bee-Friendly Garden Plants: Profiles In Innovation, which provides examples of wholesale nurseries, retailers and institutions that are responding to consumer demand to protect bees. Nurseries across the nation, large and small, are taking a proactive, precautionary stance on neonicotinoid use. The people interviewed for the report are successfully phasing out use of pollinator-toxic pesticides from their operations, implementing innovative new pest management approaches to avoid regrettable substitutions, and moving toward practices that are healthy for bees and the environment. The report provides strategies and resources for other businesses to follow the lead of these industry leaders.

“A growing number of wholesale nurseries, retailers and institutions have successfully made the shift away from bee-harming pesticides, which signals that these essential changes are possible,” said Lisa Archer, Food & Technology program director at Friends of the Earth. “We hope that this report will be a resource for other responsible businesses as they get toxic, bee-harming pesticides out of their plants, off their shelves and out of the environment as soon as possible.”

“The report profiles some of the first garden centers, nurseries, and greenhouse growers who have successfully removed neonicotinoids from their plants,” said Rose Radford at Pesticide Research Institute. “Their stories provide valuable insights and strategies to growers who are planning for neonicotinoid-free plant production, and can help provide guidance for retailers who are working on developing store policies on neonicotinoid-treated plants.”

Bees and other pollinators, essential for the two-thirds of the food crops humans eat every day, are in decline in countries around the world. The European Union banned the three most widely used neonicotinoids, based on strong science indicating that neonicotinoids can kill bees outright and make them more vulnerable to pests, pathogens and other stressors.

More than a million Americans have signed petitions demanding that Lowe’s and Home Depot stop selling neonicotinoids. In the face of mounting evidence and growing consumer demand, in the past year more than twenty wholesale nurseries, landscaping companies and garden retailers, including the two largest home improvement retailers in the world, Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW), along with Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFM) and BJ’s Wholesale Club, have taken steps to eliminate neonicotinoid insecticides from their stores. The UK’s top garden retailers including Homebase, B&Q, and Wickes have also stopped selling neonicotinoids. This month, Ace Hardware, the largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative in the world, announced it is willing to move away from products containing neonicotinoids.

“BJ’s Wholesale Club is proud to be considered one of the retailers taking the lead in keeping bees safe in the environment,” said Scott Williams, assistant vice president of quality assurance and environmental stewardship for BJ’s Wholesale Club. “To honor our commitment of delivering high quality products that reduce impact on the environment, we created a comprehensive strategy for eliminating neonicotinoids from our plant supply chain. With bees serving as such an essential part of a healthy ecosystem, it’s simply the better choice for the environment and for agriculture to move away from these chemicals. We hope by doing this others will see that it is an achievable and worthwhile goal.”

A study released by Friends of the Earth and Pesticide Research Institute, Gardeners Beware 2014, showed that 51 percent of garden plants purchased at Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Walmart (NYSE: WMT) in 18 cities in the United States and Canada contained neonicotinoid pesticides at levels that could harm or even kill bees.

“A growing number of responsible retailers have decided to be part of the solution to the bee crisis and are taking bee-harming pesticides off their shelves,” said Archer. “We urge Ace, True Value and other major retailers and institutions to join these leaders in making commitments to phase out neonics and ensure our backyards and communities are safe havens for bees.”

In addition to retailers, more than twenty states, cities, counties, universities and federal agencies have passed measures that minimize or eliminate the use of neonicotinoids including Seattle, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Boulder, Colo.; Warren County, N.C.; and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“The City of Boulder recently adopted a resolution to ban neonicotinoids on public land in response to community concerns about pollinator decline. The city determined that the growing body of scientific evidence underscores the urgency to take action to protect bees and other animals from pesticide exposure. Boulder is also developing a plan to purchase bee-safe landscaping materials and as several local retailers, greenhouses, and landscaping companies are offering pesticide-free plants and seeds, it’s possible for the city and the rest of the community to provide safe forage for pollinators,” said Rella Abernathy, Integrated Pest Management Coordinator for the City of Boulder, Colorado.

The White House established the Pollinator Health Task Force in June 2014 to assess pollinator health and the impacts of pesticides, including neonicotinoids, on pollinators. In May, the Task Force released their National Pollinator Health Strategy. This plan did not require any restrictions on the current uses of neonicotinoid pesticides, even though there are is a large and growing body of evidence demonstrating harm from their use.

On April 2, the EPA announced that it would be unlikely to approve new or expanded uses of neonicotinoids while it evaluates the risks posed to pollinators. In March, more than four million Americans signed petitions calling on the Obama administration to put forth strong protections for bees and other pollinators. In October, 2014, the Council on Environmental Quality issued guidance for federal facilities and federal lands which included acquiring seeds and plants from nurseries that do not treat these items with systemic insecticides.

Many growers are stepping up and making neonicotinoid-free plants available to retailers, institutions, and government agencies that have made commitments to stop buying neonicotinoid-treated plants. New approaches to neonicotinoid-free plant production and pest management take time to develop and implement effectively, but the stories included in this report provide some first steps for nursery and greenhouse growers and retailers in transitioning away from neonicotinoids.

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According to the February 9 Congressional Research Service report “Bee Health: The Role of Pesticides,” “The precise reasons for honey bee loss are unknown.” In fact, science suggests multiple factors for the decline in bee health, including parasites, diet and nutrition, lack of genetic diversity, habitat loss, beekeeping practices, weather and disease.

The White House is attempting to address the issue with its Pollinator Strategy that has three overarching goals:

1. Honey Bees:Reduce honey bee colony losses during winter (overwintering mortality) to no more than 15% within 10 years. This goal is informed by the previously released Bee Informed Partnership surveys and the newly established quarterly and annual surveys by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. Based on the robust data anticipated from the national, statistically-based NASS surveys of beekeepers, the Task Force will develop baseline data and additional goal metrics for winter, summer and total annual colony loss.
2. Monarch Butterflies: Increase the eastern population of the monarch butterfly to 225 million butterflies occupying an area of approximately 15 acres (6 hectares) in the overwintering grounds in Mexico, through domestic/international actions and public-private partnerships, by 2020.
3. Pollinator Habitat Acreage: Restore or enhance 7 million acres of land for pollinators over the next 5 years through federal actions and public/private partnerships.

Talking Points

• The landscape industry supports pollinators through the care of plants in the landscape that are their habitat.
• Landscape professionals practice responsible and vital pest control services that remove pest that are detrimental to the landscape.
• Landscape Professionals use EPA and State registered pesticides, in accordance with application guidelines, to control harmful pests, like ticks, and weeds that cause allergies.
• Many bee colonies are now stable. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates of overwinter bee colony losses have averaged more than 30% annually in recent years, but many beekeepers have been able to replace lost hives.
• Even though the cause of colony collapse is unknown, there are pests that are attacking honeybees, one of which is the varroa mite. A 2013 joint USDA and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report found the varroa mite as the “most detrimental pest of honeybees.”

Some people have singled out pesticides like neonicotinoids as the primary cause for the decline in bee health, when in fact the exact cause is unknown.

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