Environmentalists praise the phaseout of neonicotinoids linked to bee deaths but press for a nationwide ban. TAKE ACTION

July 16, 2014 By Todd Woody
Todd Woody is TakePart's senior editor for environment and wildlife. Full Bio
In another sign that the United States government is starting to take the plight of the bees seriously, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is banning the use in some wildlife refuges of a pesticide linked to the mass die-off of pollinators.

By January 2016, the agency’s Pacific Region—Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands—will eliminate neonicotinoids (neonics), a nerve poison widely used to kill crop pests in the U.S. and Europe. It also kills bees that pollinate a third of the world’s food supply, and several scientific studies have identified neonics as one of several interrelated factors that have led to the demise of more than 10 million beehives in the U.S. alone since 2006.

“The Pacific Region will begin a phased approach to eliminate the use of neonicotinoid insecticides (by any method) to grow agricultural crops for wildlife on National Wildlife Refuge System lands, effectively immediately,” Kevin Forester, the regional chief for the National Wildlife Refuge System, wrote in a July 9 memo, citing studies implicating neonics in bee deaths.

It’s a small step—the ban affects just 8,710 acres—but a significant one, as the federal government has been widely criticized for continuing to approve the use of neonics even as scientific evidence mounts of their widespread impact on bees and other wildlife. Several environmental organizations have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for green-lighting new neonics, and last week some of those groups asked a judge to halt the use of the pesticide in California.


So why isn’t the Fish and Wildlife Service banning neonics nationwide?

Miel Corbett, a FWS deputy assistant regional director, said that it’s up to the discretion of the agency’s regional refuge chiefs to approve the use of pesticides in wildlife areas they supervise.

“Pollinators are a vital part of our ecosystem, and the (Fish and Wildlife) Service is actively involved in their conservation,” Corbett said in an email. “In this case, our chief has decided that the Pacific Region is going to explore and use other alternatives to neonicotinoids to the best of our abilities.”


Scientists Warn That a Widely Used Pesticide Could Be Worse for Bees Than DDTNeonics are a so-called systemic pesticide that is absorbed into a plant’s roots, stems, leaves, flowers, pollen, and nectar. Honeybees feed on pollen and nectar, which they bring back to the hive. Neonics can be sprayed on crops, but it’s more common for seeds to be treated with the pesticide, meaning it spreads throughout the plant as it grows.

The wildlife agency’s move follows the Obama administration announcement in June that it would form a task force to address the apian apocalypse.

“FWS has taken a responsible and necessary first step in the Pacific Region, but the agency must permanently institute this policy on all refuge lands across the country,” Paige Tomaselli, senior attorney for the Center for Food Safety, said in a statement.



See original article here: http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/07/16/good-news-bees-government-bans-pesticide-use-wildlife-refuges?cmpid=tpseries-eml-2014-07-23-bees

PHOTO GALLERY: A World Without Bees

Pretty tasteless, actually. Bees pollinate a third of the world’s crops and play a key role in three-quarters of the foods that provide us with not just nutrition but the simple joys of life. The massive die-off of honeybees in recent years due to pesticide exposure, disease, parasites, and poor nutrition—yes, bees face their own food crisis—threatens the viability of some of our favorite chow as well as a crop we depend on for clothing. Here’s what you might miss if we don’t take action to save the bees.

Source: University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment

Bees are dying at an alarming rate, and a key culprit is a highly toxic class of pesticides. Tell the EPA to take these bee-killing chemicals off the market right away.

TAKE ACTIONDear Jennifer,

Two months ago we mobilized to stop the expanded use of two bee-killing pesticides produced by Dow and Syngenta.

But the threat to bees goes far beyond those two products. Bees are dying at an alarming rate, awash in a veritable deluge of highly toxic pesticides unleashed by Dow, Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta.

If we don’t act now, it’s only a matter of time before this crisis turns into a full-blown catastrophe. That’s why NRDC has just filed an emergency petition with the Environmental Protection Agency. We must get that agency to stop coddling big chemical companies and to start protecting imperiled bees. But we need your help to ratchet up the public pressure.

Tell EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to take these bee-killing pesticides off the market and impose an immediate moratorium on their use!

Of 100 major crops, more than 70 are pollinated by bees -- along with countless flowers and vegetables in millions of backyard gardens across America.

How can it be that these vital, once-thriving insects are dying in such massive numbers?

One word: agrochemicals.

The agri-tech giants have been pushing a class of deadly pesticides known as neonicotinoids -- or “neonics.” Millions of acres of crops have been doused with these potent chemicals. These pesticides are also sold on store shelves for our lawns, gardens and landscaping.

The EPA concedes that these chemicals are “highly toxic to bees,” yet it’s done virtually nothing to rein in the pesticide-free-for-all. Instead, the agency has said that it wants to wait five years to “review” the impacts of neonics on bee colonies!

I’m sure you agree: We cannot stand by while the EPA drags its feet for another half decade.

Tell EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to come to the aid of bees by imposing an immediate moratorium on the rampant use of neonics.
Tell her to put the future of bees -- and our food supply -- ahead of corporate profits.

Please make your voice heard right away. And thank you for standing alongside NRDC in defense of America’s bees.

Sincerely,
Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council