The news media is full of speculation about the state of honey bees and native bees in our quickly changing climate and environment. Bees (and other pollinators) are an essential part of the food and reproductive chains of all terrestrial creatures on earth, including humans. Agriculture requires pollinators for human and animal food. Wild nature requires bees also. Humans, wild and domestic animals, birds, reptiles and insects all require plants to survive.

The gravity of this situation was made even more apparent to us the first weekend in May this year when we participated in an art festival in a large, beautiful, blooming botanical garden. The air was so perfumed from flowering trees that someone suggested bottling it. Another artist joked that he bet Linda could not capture the scent as she was photographing one of the profusely blooming trees. She commented that there were no honey bees or other bees when the garden should be full of them, drawn by the perfumes. He speculated about possible causes for the large decline in bees and wondered about the recently reported interference of radio waves from cell phone towers.

Read the rest of the Scarths' column in our June issue...