PROTECTING
NATIVE BEES
and the Plants They Support on Our National Public Lands
Our activities are primarily focused on ending the permitting of commercial honey bee apiaries on public lands. A secondary focus involves proposing public lands management – for instance, of livestock grazing and recreation - that will ensure the availability of native pollen, nectar, and flowers to support the full complement of native bee species.
Maps of apiaries permitted on Forest Service and BLM lands on the Colorado Plateau
Map by Josh O'Brien; Data Sources XXXX
Sensitive Pollinator and Plant Species
On Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management Lands
Our activities are primarily focused on ending the permitting of commercial honey bee apiaries on national public lands. A secondary focus involves proposing public lands management – for instance, of livestock grazing and recreation - that will ensure the availability of native pollen, nectar, and flowers to support the full complement of native bee species.
Our map of currently-permitted apiaries on Forest Service and BLM lands on the Colorado Plateau will change over time – hopefully as existing apiary permits are retired and new apiaries are not permitted.
Our two maps of Colorado Plateau sensitive plant and pollinator species – one for Forest Service national forests and the other for Bureau of Land Management field offices - inform land managers of plant and pollinator species their agency has listed as sensitive and which could be at risk if apiaries are permitted on the unit they manage.
When existing apiary permits are expiring, we make additional maps, such as this one on the BLM Malheur Field Office in eastern Oregon, which shows the proximity of honey bee apiaries to sightings of Western and Morrison bumble bees – both bees considered sensitive by the BLM. We make such maps in order to help land managers understand the threat permit renewal would pose to native bees.
Maps by Josh O'Brien; Data Sources US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and NatureServe.
Communicate with Land Managers
Work with Other Organizations
We communicate with the Forest Service District Rangers and Forest Supervisors, and BLM Field Office Managers informing them of the environmental damage of honey bee apiaries, encouraging them to choose not to permit honey bee apiaries on the lands they manage, and proposing management approaches that will provide native bees with the native flowers, pollen, and nectar they need.
We also communicate with scientists who have done the painstaking fieldwork needed to understand native bees, their needs, and the needs of the plant communities the bees sustain.
We strive to end the Forest Service and BLM permitting of apiaries via Categorical Exclusion from National Environmental Policy.
We hope to establish public land policies and practices that will support native bees, and their plant communities.
Share Databases
We assemble and post databases on this website for all apiaries currently permitted on all BLM and Forest Service lands on the Colorado Plateau as well as scientific information regarding impacts of honey bees and other public lands management on native bees.
Undertake Field Studies
We make sure we connect directly with native bees and contribute to knowledge about the bees and plants they pollinate with student interns and volunteer field work.
Show your support here!
