If there’s one issue that should be of supreme concern to all Americans, Canadians and most of humanity, regardless of one’s political worldview, it’s the need for the world’s pollinators to survive and thrive.
Americans and Canadians already share in the Bee City movement, under which cities, townships, school districts and other entities seek a special designation, under either the Bee City USA or Bee City Canada banner, by planting vegetation friendly to bees, butterflies and other pollinators, while creating awareness of the chemicals and other things that can harm the creatures that enable our fruits, vegetables and nuts to ripen.
But while establishing bee cities is a constructive grassroots approach for helping protect and expand bee colonies and the habitats of other pollinators, the time may be right for creating federal legislation in both countries to protect pollinators.
“In Canada, we could call the legislation the Canadian Migratory Pollinators Act. Passing such an Act would be a welcome, but long-overdue, complimentary follow-up to when Canada passed the 1917 Migratory Bird Convention Act and the United States, on the same basis, passed the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act,” the Canadian-based news site AwakeningNews.ca explained, while stressing that October’s party elections in Canada provide a good opportunity to popularize this issue.
Notably, the US House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife held a hearing June 13, 2019 to consider several new pieces of legislation, including discussion of a draft bill that would override the Trump Administration’s 2017 loose interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. [See wildlife.org for a detailed two-page policy brief from the Maryland-based Wildlife Society about a full North American perspective on the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.]
Awakening News added: “This is no small matter. Slowing and reversing the documented, sometimes severe collapse of bee colonies and the loss of butterfly populations has everything to do with making sure the human food supply does not steeply decline to the point of widespread food shortages, soup lines, and, God forbid, famine. So, the most logical thing would be for the US government, given its obvious proximity to Canada and the fact that migratory birds and pollinators inevitably cross into both countries, to pass a Migratory Pollinators Act just as both countries passed legislation long ago on migratory birds.”
Fortunately, there’s a foundation on which to build, as there are some 31 Canadian Bee Cities (and even more in the US). The municipalities of Orillia, Severn Township, and Barrie in Ontario just recently became Canada’s newest Bee Cities.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act identified wetlands as important areas to which all governments should give consideration. Creating a similar Migratory Pollinators Act would not only protect and enhance migratory pollinator populations, it also would create residual benefits for pollinators that don’t migrate.
The science community says all is not well with Earth’s pollinators. One wonders whether elected officials, who too often are “educated” by lobbyists, are “on the same page” as those in the science community on this issue.
Rhea Suh, former president of the Natural Resources Defense Council in an article published in the National Geographic (March 2019), remarked: “No matter how you voted in the last two elections, you didn’t vote for polluted drinking water.” Accordingly, one might say: “No matter who you voted for, you didn’t vote to allow the demise of our pollinators.”
Mark Anderson is a veteran journalist who divides his time between Texas and Michigan. Email him at truthhound2@yahoo.com.