Colony collapse disorder

Perhaps you’ve heard – the bees are missing… Being among other things a horticulturist, I am acutely aware of the implications. Entomologists, biologists, ecologists, and a host of other disciplines take note: The bees are missing ~ and no one knows why ~

Buzz Off
The Economist

Colony collapse disorder, as the phenomenon has become known as, was first reported in America in mid-November 2006. It spread rapidly, with beekeepers reporting heavy losses of between 30% and 90% of bees. Some 24 American states have now reported cases of colony collapse disorder. It has also been seen in Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

No bees? Not just strange, but scary
by Dave Lindorff
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Die-off of bees an ominous sign – Canada

Researchers ponder where the bees be Minneapolis

Letters from the West: Owyhee coalition still standing

Rocky Barker has written about the Owyhee Initiative in the Idaho Statesman:

Letters from the West: Owyhee coalition still standing

Bold fight for control of rural West countryside

The Salt Lake Tribune has published an interesting story about public land disputes in Utah. Local authorities there are thumbing their noses at federal regulation of federal public land. The result of such localized insistance of authority is sadly predictable:

State Rep. Mike Noel, a Republican from the southern community of Kanab, said: It gets down to “sovereignty and autonomy. It’s Western independence. We own the water, we have the right to graze, the minerals are still available, and the roads belong to us. By dang, we are not going to give them up.”

It kind of makes me wonder whether these folk ever learned past the civil war.

Bold fight for control of rural West countryside
By Julie Cart
Los Angeles Times