Review of Bee Health

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the recommendations of the New York State Pollinator Task Force. To address the decline in pollinators that has occurred in recent years, last year the Governor directed the Commissioners of the Department of Agriculture and Markets and the Department of Environmental Conservation to meet with farmers, research institutions and key industry leaders to develop a roadmap to conserve and grow pollinator populations across the state. Pollinators – which include various types of bees and butterflies – contribute significantly to the state’s agricultural economy by adding roughly $350 million in pollination services on an annual basis.

“Pollinators are critical to our ecosystem, as well as New York’s agricultural industry, and the work of this Task Force will help in our efforts to reverse the troubling decline of the bee population in New York and help to preserve and further improve this state’s environmental and economic health,” Governor Cuomo said. “I thank the members of the Task Force for their efforts and look forward to reviewing their recommendations.”

The New York State Pollinator Protection Plan was created in coordination with the Task Force advisory group, which included a wide variety of stakeholders—including farmers, apiarists, pesticide applicators and environmentalists. The Task Force held four roundtable meetings with the advisory group, and solicited public comments, on important issues critical to the development of the plan. As a result of listening sessions and stakeholder input, the Task Force focused its recommendations on four priority areas:

• Development of Voluntary Best Management Practices for all pollinator stakeholders, including beekeepers, growers, land owners, state agencies and the general public;
• Habitat enhancement efforts to protect and revive populations of native and managed pollinators;
• Research and monitoring of pollinators to better understand, prevent and recover from pollinator losses; and
• Development of an outreach and public education program on the importance of pollinators, engaging the public to be active participants to seek solutions to pollinator declines.