ALBANY – Ag leaders in New York State are striving to address the declining number of bees and other pollinators across the state in hopes of recovering the pollinator population that’s so crucial to both the state’s food supply and its economy.
On Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced recommendations of New York State Pollinator Task Force to address the decline in pollinators – including bees and butterflies – that’s occurred in recent years.
According to a joint report from the state Department of Ag, and the Department of Environmental Conservation, the loss of managed pollinator colonies in New York has been in excess of 50 percent. These pollinators add nearly $350 million to the state's agriculture economy each year. Moreover, since more than 90 crops in the U.S., including almonds, tree fruits, cotton, berries, and many vegetables depend on insect pollinators, efforts to reverse the trend are imperative, the governor said.
“Pollinators are critical to our ecosystem, as well as New York's agricultural industry, and the work of this Task Force will help in our efforts to reverse the troubling decline of the bee population in New York and help to preserve and further improve this state's environmental and economic health,” stated Cuomo.
The state's “Pollinator Protection Plan” was created in coordination with the Task Force advisory group, which included farmers, apiarists, pesticide applicators and environmentalists. Together, members focused their recommendations on four key areas:
• Development of voluntary management practices for pollinator stakeholders
• Habitat enhancement efforts to protect and revive populations of pollinators
• Research and monitoring of pollinators to understand, prevent and recover from pollinator losses
• Development of an outreach and education on the importance of pollinators in order to keep the public active in seeking solutions to pollinator losses
According to the honey bee colony inventory released by National Agriculture Statistics Service, bee colonies at the beginning of the year totaled 31,000 in New York, an increase of 15 percent from the 27,000 from 2015. New York beekeepers, however, lost 4,000 colonies during the first quarter of 2016 (less than the 6,500 lost in 2015). Most of the loss is attributed to varroa mites while other losses are blamed on weather, starvation, insufficient forage sources and damaged hives.
Central to the state's new Pollinator Protection Plan is the development of management practices to guide landowners and growers, contract beekeepers, hobbyist beekeepers, pesticide users and state agencies to safeguard existing managed and native pollinator populations.
Despite a 9 percent increase in honey production last year, New York’s beekeepers continue to experience unsustainable population declines, according to the State Department of Environmental Conservation. Over the last four years, recent research indicates managed pollinator colonies have declined by 50-plus percent while some migratory pollinators have declines in excess of 70 percent.
In its report, the Task Force emphasized the need for comprehensive, state-focused research to better understand the status of native pollinators in the state and the factors that impact both managed and wild pollinator health and performance.
The 2016-2017 state budge provides $500,000 to implement projects central to the success of the Pollinator Protection Plan. As new research and data becomes available, the Task Force will evaluate findings and update the plan.