"U.S. Details New Efforts to Support Ailing Bees"

"The White House on Tuesday outlined its strategy to restore the nation’s struggling honeybee and monarch butterfly populations to some semblance of health, mostly by expanding the acreage devoted to the wildflowers and milkweed that are crucial to their survival.

The strategy, devised by a group appointed by President Obama appointed last June — which he called the Pollinator Health Task Force — envisions adding or improving wildflower habitat on seven million acres of land, an area slightly larger than Maryland, by 2020.

That effort would focus on the central United States, where about two-thirds of the nation’s managed honeybee colonies spend the summer and where monarchs conduct their annual migrations to and from Mexico. It would include encouraging schools to plant pollinator gardens and turning land around Interstate 35, which runs from Duluth, Minn., to the Mexico border at Laredo, Tex., into a continuous wildflower buffet for migrating monarchs and other pollinating creatures."

Michael Wines reports for the New York Times May 19, 2015.

SEE ALSO:

"White House Makes Bid To Save Honeybees But Ignores Toxic Pesticides" (Guardian)

"White House Announces Federal Plan To Feed the Bees" (AP)

"Pollinator Politics: Environmentalists Criticize Obama Plan To Save Bees" (NPR)

"Survey: More Than 40 Percent of Bee Hives Died in Past Year" (AP)