Email Title: REJECT H.731 as detrimental to the protection of pollinators and others.
Dear XXXXX
As your constituent and a Massachusetts beekeeper, I am writing to request that you REJECT bill, H731 entitled, "An Act to ensure proper stewardship of honeybees by the Commonwealth" as detrimental to the protection of pollinators and others.
House Bill 731 creates a committee comprised largely of persons other than beekeepers for the purpose of evaluating the law and regulations and policies in protecting the health of honey bee populations in the Commonwealth and recommending changes to the legislature and Department of Agriculture. Since many members of the committee are either not appropriate for the purpose of evaluating honeybee health or, in some cases, may have a direct conflict of interest, I do not support this bill.
As a beekeeper I am deeply concerned about any attempt to change our beekeeping laws and regulations as this will directly affect beekeeping in the Commonwealth. I am very surprised this bill was not brought to the attention of all county beekeeping organizations for input from their combined memberships of over 4000 beekeepers. Instead the majority of members proposed by this bill to craft beekeeping laws represent their own commercial interests. These interests are often in conflict with the wellbeing of bees and beekeepers. I urge a NO vote on bill H731 for all the following reasons:
1) A committee comprised mostly of farmers and not beekeepers should not be in charge of determining what laws should be made to govern the keeping of honey bees. Beekeepers would not expect to tell farmers how to grow their produce and we respectfully ask that you do not support a bill that empowers them to regulate beekeepers and tell us how to keep our bees.
2) Farmers, who frequently apply pesticides that harm honeybees, should not be tasked with making laws that govern beekeeping and the apiary inspection process. When a bee pesticide kill occurs the apiary inspector often reports the incident for the beekeeper. Pesticide applicators (such as farmers) are often the responsible parties. This is a conflict of interest.
3) Current beekeeping laws are sufficient; we do not need additional laws to regulate beekeeping. What we need instead is proper protections in place to prevent others from harming our bees through illegal and improper applications of pesticides. This is especially important as the president's pollinator plan states on page 49-50 that the EPA rewrite insecticide labels to only protect commercial bees under pollination contracts, leaving protections for all other beekeepers up to the states. Extremely few beekeepers in the Commonwealth will be protected by the President's plan.
4) Massachusetts has among the lowest incidences of American Foul Brood and other communicable bees diseases in the country due to the success of our current laws and efforts of our inspectors. We do not need new laws to regulate bees. We simply need a vigorous and consistent apiary inspection program, instead of the on again - off again management practice of recent history. Certain counties have long- standing and excellent inspection histories. Other counties have had no consistent inspectors. The apiary inspection program should span the entire bee activity season in a predictable manner and it's full funding should be continued.
5) Any committee formed to discuss apiary laws should include input from apiary inspectors who are uniquely suited to contribute to a discussion concerning how these laws are working, the state of local bee health and the unique needs and problems our honey bees are facing.
Please let members of the Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture know that you DO NOT SUPPORT H731 An Act to Ensure Proper Stewardship of Honeybees by the Commonwealth and urge them to reject this bill.
Sincerely,
Name XXXXXXX
Address XXXXXX