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February 4, 2015
Steering Committee
David Epstein
USDA Office of
Pest Management Policy
(ex officio)
George Hansen
American Beekeeping Federation
Gerald Hayes, Jr.
Monsanto Company
Bill Kuckuck
CropLife America
Robert Sears
Eastern Missouri
Beekeepers Association
Ed Spevak
Saint Louis Zoo
WildCare Institute Center for
Native Pollinator Conservation
Thomas Steeger
Environmental Protection Agency
(ex officio)
Dale Thorenson
US Canola Association
Maria Trainer
CropLife Canada
Dennis vanEngelsdorp
University of Maryland
Department of Entomology
Richard Waycott
Almond Board of California
Steering Committee members in the
Dakota Pollinator Partnership:
Pete Berthelsen
Pheasants Forever
Zac Browning
Browning Honey Co. Inc.
Christi Heintz
Project Apis m.
A full list of Coalition members is
available at:
www.honeybeehealthcoalition.org
Dakota Pollinator Partnership
Pete Berthelsen, Pheasants Forever
Christi Heintz, Project Apis m.
Zac Browning, Browning Honey Company
The Honey Bee Health Coalition provides this letter of endorsement for the Dakota Pollinator
Partnership (Partnership), a public-private partnership increasing and improving pollinator
habitat in North Dakota and South Dakota (see partnership description, attached, and
http://projectapism.org/?page_id=1410).
The Dakota Pollinator Partnership provides a significant opportunity to substantially increase
both the acreage and forage value of pollinator habitat in the Dakotas, a key foraging region
for managed honey bees as well as native pollinators. In addition to producing most of the
nation’s honey, the states of Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin
are the summer home of nearly 40% – one million – of the total number of colonies in the
United States, and expert estimates have suggested that honey bees that summer in this
region provide 60-85% of the pollination needs for the U.S. (Gallant et al 2014).i
The Partnership’s goals, its collaborative, public-private approach, and its emphasis on finding
win-win solutions for pollinator forage in agricultural landscapes are in strong alignment with
the goals and priorities of the Honey Bee Health Coalition. In particular, the Partnership’s
efforts help to advance the Coalition’s goals regarding honey bee forage and nutrition, e.g., to
“ensure honey bees – especially in and around production agriculture – have access to a
varied and nutritious diet throughout their lives.” To this end, the Coalition’s Bee Healthy
Roadmap calls for collaborative actions “to promote improved nutrition for honey bees and
other pollinators by developing bee-friendly, high-quality, spatially- and temporally-relevant
landscapes…,” and by identifying, communicating, and promoting “strategies for meeting
honey bee forage needs on agricultural lands in the Upper Midwest of the United States…”
The Partnership is an excellent example of the kind of public-private partnership called for by
President Obama’s June 2014 Presidential Memorandum on pollinator health and by the
national Pollinator Health Task Force. The Partnership provides a parallel effort that
complements the US Department of Agriculture’s conservation programs, including the
Conservation Reserve Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and Conservation
Stewardship Program. These parallel efforts provide key opportunities for partners to raise
awareness of and engage landowners in pollinator forage programs, provide monitoring
support, and share lessons learned across different programs. These results can also help to
inform improvements to future public-private programs and USDA conservation programs.
Public-private partnership efforts such as the Dakota Pollinator Partnership and others being
advanced by members of the Honey Bee Health Coalition are needed to address a variety of
factors influencing honey bee health and overall pollinator health. The Coalition is pleased to
lend its endorsement to the Dakota Pollinator Partnership and looks forward to supporting its
implementation and learning from its results.
Sincerely,
The Honey Bee Health Coalition Steering Committee
p.p.
Julie Shapiro
Facilitator, Honey Bee Health Coalition & Senior Associate, The Keystone Center
1628 Saints John Road, Keystone, CO 80435
[email protected]
(970) 513-5830
The Honey Bee Health Coalition is a diverse public-private partnership focused on implementing solutions
to achieve a vision of Healthy Bees, Healthy People, Healthy Planet. The Coalition’s efforts focus on
collaborative solutions to improve the health of honey bees and other pollinators in the context of
productive agricultural systems and thriving ecosystems. The Coalition is focused on four strategic
priorities: hive management, forage and nutrition, crop pest control, and cross-industry outreach,
education, and communication.
i Gallant
AL, Euliss NH Jr, Browning Z (2014) Mapping Large-Area Landscape Suitability for Honey Bees to Assess the
Influence of Land-Use Change on Sustainability of National Pollination Services. PLoS ONE 9(6): e99268.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0099268