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Saving America's bees <br />Imo"; <br />GARY KAZANJIAN - AP <br />Towns that participate in the "Bee City USA" prograrn are asked to designate public spaces as pollinator <br />gardens with signs to educate the public. <br />Scientists praise the Obam; <br />By SETH B®IBENSTEIN <br />Associated Press <br />WASHINGTON 'The ®bama administration hopes to <br />save the bees by feeding them better. <br />A new federal plan is intended to reverse America's <br />declining honeybee and monarch butterfly populations <br />by making millions of acres of federal land more bee - <br />friendly, spending millions of dollars more on research <br />and considering the use of fewer pesticides. <br />While putting different type of landscapes along high- <br />ways, federal housing projects and elsewhere may not <br />sound like much in terms of action, several bee scientists <br />said that this a huge move. They say it may help pollina- <br />tors that are starving because so much of the American <br />landscape has been converted to lawns and corn that <br />don't provide foraging areas for bees. <br />"This is the first time I've seen addressed the issue that <br />there's nothing for pollinators to eat," said University of <br />Illinois entomologist May Perenbaum, who buttonholed <br />President Barack ®bama about bees when she received <br />her National Medal of Science award last November. "I <br />think it's brilliant." <br />Environmental activists who wanted a ban on a much - <br />criticized class of pesticide said the ®bama administra- <br />tion's bee strategy falls way short of what's needed to <br />save the hives. <br />Scientists say bees — crucial to pollinate many crops — <br />have been hurt by a combination of declining nutrition, <br />mites, disease and pesticides. The federal plan is an "all <br />hands on deck" strategy that calls on everyone from federal <br />bureaucrats to citizens to do what they can to save bees, <br />which provide more than $15 billion in value to the U.S. <br />Big losses for beekeepers <br />A federal survey finds that beekeepers in the U.S. have lost <br />more than 40 percent of honeybee colonies since April 2014. <br />Percentage of bee colonies lost <br />M BE= now <br />10 20 30 40 50 65% <br />i � <br />