From an early age in our schools, children are taught about, “Environmental absolutes.” They are not titled so, rather that is a term I have just come up with to better conceptualize their necessity. Trees (especially old-growth trees) provide oxygen to all living things. They provide homes to many small creatures and a plethora of bugs, moss, and vines; as well as maintaining erosion with widespread roots, providing shade and ultraviolet-light protection to that which grows and lives on the ground. I would regard trees as an absolute necessity for much of the planet's ecosystems, thus an “Environmental Absolute."

And another:  

CBS News reports that “one of the nation’s top beekeepers, Blake Shook, has found tens of thousands of insects dead at his business,” and that, "he's never seen anything like this… the data is showing us this is the worst bee loss in recorded history.” That is uh… terrifying. Especially considering that honeybees pollinate half of all crops in the United States. The website, honeybeehealthcolalition.org, reports that there have been over 1.1 million honeybee colonies lost over the winter. That’s a 224.8-million-dollar loss in the value of the hives, and an expected 428 million USD loss in income. Together the United States is thus hit with a staggering 634.7 million USD income loss.

Honeybeehealthcoalition.org also brings up that their survey data collected from both beekeeper hobbyists and giant corporations does not include the crop-value loss that will impact farmers across the United States.

There are many factors being considered from possible new or novel viruses to parasitic infestations that are particularly effective against bees with weakened immune systems… that come from the ever-increasing use of pesticides, and chemicals – which are also regarded as plausible and direct causes themselves (not to mention the chemicals and pesticides that make it into what remains of our wildlands). While researching this topic I have learned that better colony immune health is also directly correlated to pollen diversity - which means that the more access to a wider variety of plants that pollinate drives up the health of the bees. Bees in a healthy area will forage out to a mile and a half, while bees in a more “resources sparse” area have been known to travel as far as three miles in search of pollinating plants.

This means that both habitat destruction and different plant strains dying out are like a cyclical, hammering rotation on bee colonies. Habitat destruction means there will be fewer plants, while a smaller area to grab pollen from means there will be on average a lower variety of plants to pollinate. Pollinating plants need bees (and other insects like butterflies to reproduce, but bees are the absolute heavy lifters of the pollinating world). If bees are dying and habitats are shrinking, that means fewer plants will be pollinated and they will die without leaving descendants behind; a less pollen-diverse ecosystem means weaker bee immune systems, leaving them more vulnerable to parasites and viruses.

And this mass bee death happening in the United States has started to happen before the authorized, mass clear-cutting of American forests by President Donald Trump. The Guardian reports that it’s no small number, either: 280 million acres of federal land he has mandated an “increased timber production,” to, “stop being reliant on foreign timber.”

The Sierra Forest Legacy group reports that logging increases the risk of wildfires, (think: sawdust on the ground and a massive increase in small, drying branches that hold no value and are left behind by companies, as well as tree stumps - this is called “slash” in the industry). Those stumps that are left behind then serve as a petri dish for tree diseases to accumulate, and develop in, before a small critter or bug transfers it to the nearest living tree.

Maybe American adults should stop lying to children in school, telling them that “trees are nearly the most important part of our world," when such reckless abandon happens to 280 million acres of American wildlands, and they do not stand up in protest and call on their state representatives to do better.

The vastly increased rate of destruction on American habitats will surely take the proverbial throttle and yank it back, laying more than just hammer blows on the colossal bee death happening right now:

Bees forage on average a mile and a half out from the hive – and if forests are pushed back a mile or three? Or a few-mile-wide lane is clear-cut through forests, thus leaving a gap, or a ‘wall’ that bees cannot reasonably fly over?

Imagine logistics: bees do not get semi-trucks to haul pollen from one end of the forest to the other, they are all individual vehicles with a max load. Each trip that is longer is less pollen for the hive per day, fewer trips mean less pollen diversity and less-pollen diversity means bee death.

On top of it, as per NPR news, President Trump had cut over 6000 employees from the United States Department of Agriculture, so much so that the USDA has reached out to universities to beg for help from college students to aid in the project. Those 6000 employers were very recently reinstated at a Judge's order, but President Trump has signaled that he will continue to push to fire them.

Two environmental absolutes (that are needed for our prosperity, and the prosperity of our children) are being threatened by wanton industry. The first is our coveted and valuable national forests, and already under threat of complete death (reports suggest upper sixty percent of all honeybee’s hives in the United States). The Canadian Honey Council reports that in peak bee season, there are approximately 50-80,000 bees per colony, and during that season (summer) A queen bee can lay 2,000 eggs a day.

 Michigan State University leans on the Honeybee Health Coalition survey data that reveals 1.1 million bee-colony deaths happened which means that (on average) 55 billion bees are dead. Other articles speaking about this issue are playing it safe (or can’t do the math) by saying “Hundreds of millions of bees are dead.” They are all drawing from the same Honeybee Health Coalition survey data. (Though beekeepers everywhere seem to be speaking up to news outlets).

“Hundreds of millions” compared to 55 billion is like the difference between a million people each getting two hundred dollars, or fifty-five thousand dollars.

Even nearing the ballpark of 55 billion dead bees is insane, and clearing more timber will simply ensure like fireflies, our children will only see bees in books and in fiction. 

Austin Petak is an aspiring novelist and freelance journalist who loves seeking stories and the quiet passions of the soul. If you are interested in reaching out to him to cover a story, you may find him at austinpetak@gmail.com.