Joanne Whalen, Extension IPM Specialist; jwhalen@udel.edu
Information from EPA Pesticide Program Updates – EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs:
(A) White House Announces a National Strategy to Promote Pollinator Health – On Tuesday, May 19, the White House announced the National Strategy to Promote Pollinator Health. The strategy released today and it’s accompanying Pollinator Research Action Plan outline needs and priority actions to better understand pollinator losses, improve pollinator health, and to enhance pollinator habitat.
The strategy’s broad-reaching goals are to:
- Restore colony health to sustainable levels by 2025.
- Increase Eastern monarch butterfly populations to 225 million butterflies by year 2020.
- Restore or enhance seven million acres of land for pollinators over the next five years.
For more information:
White House blog announcing the National Strategy to Promote Pollinator Health
Read the National Strategy to Promote Pollinator Health
Read about EPA’s role in the national strategy and EPA’s actions to protect pollinators
(B) EPA Takes Strong Steps to Better Protect Bees from Pesticides – Proposed restrictions will prohibit use where bees are present for commercial pollination
To further support President Obama’s Federal Pollinator Strategy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing additional restrictions on the use of acutely toxic pesticides during times when bees are most likely to be present.
Applications of acutely toxic pesticides would be prohibited when flowers are in bloom when bees are brought to farms for pollination services. While the proposed restrictions focus on managed bees, EPA believes that these measures will also protect native bees and other pollinators that are in and around treatment areas.
EPA is also encouraging states and tribes to reduce pesticide exposure by developing pollinator protection plans. The purpose of these plans is to support pollinator health by facilitating local communication among beekeepers, growers and others and to put into place tailored measures to protect pollinators.
Growers routinely contract with honey bee keepers to bring in bees to pollinate their crops that require insect pollination. Bees are typically present during the period the crops are in bloom. Application of pesticides during this period can significantly affect the health of bees.
EPA invites comments on the proposal for thirty-day comment period at www.regulations.gov in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2014-0818.
EPA will accept public comments on the proposal starting May 29, 2015.
Read the fact sheet – http://www2.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/proposal-protect-bees-acutely-toxic-pesticides