Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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There is a buzz in the air in Washington, and it's about honeybees. Concerned about an alarming decline in honeybee colonies, the Obama administration has released a 

National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators

NPR's Dan Charles says the strategy, despite its rather bureaucratic title, is pretty straightforward: "The government will provide money for more bee habitat and more research into ways to protect bees from disease and pesticides. The Environmental Protection Agency also will re-evaluate a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids ... which are commonly used on some of the most widely planted crops in the country."

The White House strategy aims to reduce honeybee colony losses during the winter to no more than 15 percent within 10 years. It's also concerned with the monarch butterfly, another species in decline. The government wants to increase the Eastern population of the monarch to 225 million butterflies occupying an area of approximately 15 acres in the insect's Mexico wintering grounds. And it sets a goal of restoring or enhancing 7 million acres of land for pollinators over the next five years.

The strategy is the work of the White House Pollinator Health Task Force, an Obama administration initiative launched last year.


President Obama has taken a personal interest in the plight of the honeybees. There is a beehive in the White House garden, the honey from which is an ingredient in the 

. (If you're interested in a good buzz.)
Critics, however, say the White House strategy doesn't go far enough. Friends of the Earth 

 to the administration's plan, charging that it "failed to adequately address the impact of pesticides, including neonicotinoid insecticides on bees and other pollinators."


Environmental News

The White House strategy aims to reduce honeybee colony losses during the winter to no more than 15 percent within 10 years. It's also concerned with the monarch butterfly, another species in decline.

Plan bee: White House unveils strategy to protect pollinators

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