UPDATE: Colorado earmarks $240k to study pollinators amid pesticide regulation review

A bumble bee on a milkweed flower.Photo byborn1945 via Flickr

By Matt Whittaker / NewsBreak Denver

(Across Colorado) For Colorado’s food producers, declines in bee populations could really sting.

Insect-pollinated crops including squash, pumpkins and melons bring more than $300 million to the state’s economy, and pollinators like bees, butterflies and beetles contribute to the health of the state’s rangelands that support grazing livestock.

But the number of pollinators in the state is declining, threatening not only Colorado’s agricultural sector but its lure as a tourist destination.

A recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the once-common western bumble bee population in the Southern Rocky Mountains eco region, which runs through central Colorado, declined by 72% from 1998 to 2020 primarily because of rising temperatures, drought and neonicotinoid pesticides. The Colorado Plateau and Wyoming Basin region, which runs through the eastern part of the state, saw a 63% decline.

“Losing even a single common pollinator species can disrupt the entire pollinator networks, with abrupt consequences for the species that directly or indirectly rely on them for food, including humans which benefit from crop pollination services of $1.5 billion annually in the United States alone,” the study said.

Pollinator declines have prompted the state to commission a study from the Department of Natural Resources, which will ultimately come up with recommendations on addressing the declines.

To do that, the state is spending $199,071 during the 2022-2023 fiscal year and $38,370 the following fiscal year, according to a fiscal note on the bill authorizing the study.

At the same time, Colorado lawmakers are reviewing how the state Department of Agriculture regulates pesticide applicators as the law governing the regulations is up for renewal this year.

Conservation group Environment Colorado has called on legislators to amend the Pesticide Applicator Act to stop the consumer sale of neonics, the neonicotinoid insecticides that were developed in the 1990s and according to the Natural Resource Defense Council are the most popular insecticide class in the United States.

After the report about western bumble bee declines, the group reiterated that call in February, saying in a statement that it has collected nearly 24,000 petitions calling for action and support letters from dozens of businesses, beekeepers and farmers.

“I have lived in Colorado for over 30 years and have noticed a definite increase in stressors in our more than 60 hives in the state,” Free Range Beehives CEO and beekeeper Mike Rosol said in the statement. “Average losses across Colorado last year were over 40%. As we lose more pollinators, a keystone species, we jeopardize our food systems and wildlife as a whole.”

The Colorado Farm Bureau supported a pollinator study last year, but the group doesn’t support a neonicotinoid ban, said Austin Vincent, general counsel and state policy director with the bureau.

In addition to depending on pollinators for healthy crops, “we also depend on pesticides to produce crops safely, efficiently and economically,” Vincent said. “Our use of rigorous, evidence-based and scientifically supported practices are key to ensuring the health and safety of pollinators, crops and the people eating our food. Banning neonicotinoids in agriculture would hamper that.”

This story has been updated to add comment from the Colorado Farm Bureau.