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USDA/EPA told to do more to protect bees

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is telling the USDA to do more to protect wild bees. While the USDA has a plan in place to monitor honeybee colonies managed by beekeepers to estimate bee losses, it does not have one to track wild, native bees.

The GAO says senior USDA officials agree that increasing collaboration with other agencies will improve monitoring efforts.

The study also calls on the EPA to collect date from farmers and pesticide makers to identify mixtures of pesticides commonly used on crops so it can better assess the risks to honeybees.
The GAO reviewed the White House Pollinator Task Force strategy, as well as well as the USDA and EPA, beekeepers and pesticide makers.

The GAO report says the two agencies “generally agreed with the recommendations.”