She wrote, “The honeybees came in, and native pollinators started disappearing.” The die-off was underway before the rise in popularity of urban beekeeping and is probably caused by threats to habitat, chemical stress and maybe even climate change, not honeybees.
The die-off is worldwide, not just in urban areas but in rural areas as well. People old enough to remember insect-spattered windshields know that doesn’t happen anymore. This die-off is terrifying and deserves attention, but it cannot be attributed to urban beekeeping.
Research has demonstrated that there is competition for forage between Apis mellifera and native bees and that the relationship is complex. The actual situation bears no resemblance to the dire description in the opinion piece.
Beekeeping is a positive good for our communities. So is planting a variety of native plants, which supports both native pollinators and neighborhood honeybee colonies.
Marc Hoffman, Silver Spring
The writer, a beekeeper, has been an officer in the Montgomery County Beekeepers Association and the Maryland State Beekeepers Association.
In her op-ed, Tove Danovich said that having too many urban beekeepers could eventually destroy ecosystems. As a colony grows, it begins to travel farther for more food to support the growing population in the hive. When the bees start targeting plants that might have previously fed various other species, eventually those plants can become unavailable for the other species, leaving them bereft of food. Additionally, the various colonies being kept have started having trouble finding sustenance for themselves.
Urban beekeepers might want to start growing goldenrod and ragweed near their hives to keep their bees fed, and to reduce the potential damage the bees have on the environment. Both plants contain a high amount of protein-rich pollen that bees seek before fall and winter. Goldenrod, in particular, attracts many pollinators and provides for more than 115 butterfly and moth species in the Mid-Atlantic. This could help slow some negative effects of urban beekeeping while allowing native species to flourish.
