How did the Bee Health community begin?
In response to high death rates of bee colonies in the winters of 2006-2008 and the emergence of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), researchers and extension specialists pooled their resources to engage this new challenge. The phenomenon of CCD coincided with the 2006 release of the National Research Council report, “Status of Pollinators in North America” which outlined declines in all pollinators. These two events created wide awareness of the need for sustainable pollinator management strategies to ensure diverse populations of bees for natural and agricultural plant communities. Academic, private, and Federal scientists pooled their creative energies to address the issue through the formation of a CCD Working Team and Steering Committee. This effort was led by the USDA and the CCD Action Plan was thereby developed. The action plan identifies the formation of a USDA-ARS Areawide Program for Improving Honey Bee Health and the use of eXtension for web-based knowledge transfer with CSREES
