To the editor:

Our organization recognizes that bees and other pollinators are essential to one in every three bites of food we eat, including key crops for Massachusetts such as cranberries, apples and blueberries, and essential for preserving Massachusetts agricultural economy and environment. Unfortunately, Massachusetts beekeepers are experiencing unprecedented numbers of bee decline. This past winter, Massachusetts beekeepers lost over 46 percent of their hives, which is too high to be sustainable. These losses have and will continue to result in harmful impacts on the state economy, including Westport’s beekeeping and farming community. We believe the legislature can help to reverse these declines by adopting the recommendations outlined in this letter.

In October, Massachusetts beekeepers, including beekeepers from Westport and other county beekeeping associations, representing over 3,000 beekeepers, submitted a framework to be used as Massachusetts official Pollinator Protection Plan to the Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR). Our organization believes this framework will help protect pollinators from the risks of systemic pesticides and other factors locally contributing to their decline. We urge the committee to request MDAR adopt this framework as Massachusetts official pollinator protection plan by contacting Commissioner Lebeaux and urging the agency to implement this plan.

Additionally, we recommend that H.731 and H. 3417 be rejected. These bills do not recognize the appropriate parties to provide oversight to laws impacting beekeepers in Massachusetts. Further, Colony Collapse Disorder is comprised of a specific set of symptoms, which has yet to be seen in Massachusetts. We believe the state would misallocate valuable time and resources if it studied this syndrome. The state would be most effective if it adopts the beekeepers’ proposed framework and passes H.655 because, based on a preponderance of evidence, we believe the recommendations outlined in this letter are the best appropriate steps the state can take to immediately help bees, beekeepers and farmers in Massachusetts.

Based on a growing body of scientific evidence, neonicotinoid pesticides have been identified as a leading factor contributing to bee decline. While most insecticides are toxic to pollinators, the neonicotinoid family of insecticides stands apart from the rest. Neonicotinoids can kill bees outright and makes them more vulnerable to pests, pathogens and other stressors while impairing their foraging and feeding abilities, reproduction and memory. Research has also shown they are harming beneficial organisms including wild bees, birds, bats, butterflies, dragonflies, lacewings, ladybugs, earthworms, small mammals, amphibians, and aquatic insects, putting food production and the environment in jeopardy. This class of pesticides is persistent, lasting for months to years in the soil. It permeates the entire plant and is later released in pollen, nectar and dew. Because they cannot be washed off food, it is likely we are eating them daily.

Bees are key indicator species, and with roughly 80 percent of all flowering plants on Earth reliant on pollinators to reproduce. If we lose bees we will also likely lose a host of other important species. Bees are “canaries in the coal mine,” and their rapid decline signals that our current agriculture system, based on the use of toxic pesticides, is having disastrous consequences. We must limit the use of these chemicals and shift to more sustainable forms of agriculture. We know bee decline is complex, but scientific evidence clearly shows that neonicotinoid pesticides are a key part of the problem and something we can fix now. Passing restrictions on these chemicals, which H.655 accomplishes, and transitioning to least toxic alternatives will help bees and preserve our agricultural economy and environment for years to come.

The Westport River Watershed Alliance urges Massachusetts legislators to lead our nation in protecting our food supply, agricultural economy and environment by adopting the Eight County President’s Beekeeper’s Pollinator Protection Plan Framework created and supported by more than 3,000 Massachusetts beekeepers and support and pass H.655 - An Act protecting Massachusetts pollinators.

Deborah Weaver

Executive director, Westport River Watershed Alliance