Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutBees Public Comment from Hugh McFaddenFrom:Hugh McFadden To:Agenda Subject:No bees Date:Monday, June 16, 2014 8:40:30 PM City Commissioners: I live within the Bozeman city limits. We have mature shrubs, including lilacs and chokecherries and a blueberry bush. We have many flowering annuals and perennials. I walk the gully just east of the softball fields 3-4 times a week. The gully has dozens of chokecherries and honeysuckles and some wild roses. This year, I have seen a total of two wild honeybees, one domestic honeybee, and five bumblebees. That's it. Less than ten bees, when I should be seeing thousands visiting the flowers. This is the second year running with absent bees. Where are they? We could theorize that it's been cool and they aren't out yet. But it was cool in past years and the bees were out. The ones that I did see didn't find it too cold to go about their business. News articles in the past few months have implicated poisons made by Monsanto and Bayer, both insecticides and herbicides, in colony collapse disease. If you haven't read of colony collapse disease, please google it to learn that we are losing our pollinators to our poisons scary fast. Without the pollinators, we don't survive. An extreme statement? Yep. The truth? Yep again. Can't dance around that one with political footwork. No pollinators, sharply reduced food supply. Fruit and nut growers in the east and California and Arizona pay to have beehives in their orchards. No pollinators, no peaches, no apples, no almonds, no vegetable seed crops. I am wondering how much poison Bozeman and MSU apply to all of those playing fields and parks. I am wondering how much the chemicals you use have anything to do with the loss of pollinators. Sure it's nice to see a perfect greensward. But how bad is it to have a few dandelions on the soccer pitch? As closely as those fields are mowed, shouldn't be enough to deflect the ball or trip anyone. So it's an esthetic problem. Maybe it's more. Those chemicals are persistent. The manufacturers say otherwise, but they want to sell more poison. They're even, cynically, collaborating to do a PR campaign about pollinators. They know what they're doing. Do we? Do we want our children and grandchildren playing on grass that was not long ago poisoned? Do we know the long-term effects of a dose of the popular poisons on children? Are the esthetics worth the chance? I ask that you check out how much poison is going on public ground, our recreation places. I ask that you learn to tolerate a few dandelions on the playing fields. I ask that Bozeman know what it is doing to our pollinators before applying any more poison to public ground. Please. I miss the bees. The chokecherry crop is diminished. The lilacs won't set seed. The strawberries are blooming in vain. My blueberry bush had a hundred blooms but no berries because no insects came by to pollinate the flowers. What is my city doing or allowing that kills the useful insects? Sincerely, H McFadden Bozeman PS: A spritz of vinegar on a sunny day does in dandelions and thistles.