Mass bee kills prompt package of bills in Oregon

Several high-profile incidents have prompted the Oregon Legislature to take an unprecedented look at restricting pesticides and protecting pollinators.

Seven bills have been introduced. Six are scheduled for action over the next week.

Legislators created the Task Force on Pollinator Health last year, following a number of highly publicized bee die-offs caused by pesticides.

One, at a Wilsonville shopping center, resulted in 50,000 bumblebee deaths. Several were associated with proper or improper use of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids.

The task force held seven meetings from June through October last year. It issued recommendations last September that even some members called weak, but that its widely disparate members could agree on.

Four bills have come from those proposals.

They would increase funding for Oregon State University’s bee health diagnostic facility and for education and outreach to pesticide workers and homeowners.

Rep. Jeff Reardon, D-Happy Valley, launched the task force and is sponsoring four of the bills.

While the legislation doesn’t go as far as some had hoped, Reardon said he thinks they’re a good compromise.

“My assumption going into this was, we live in a society that’s going to be using chemicals. We need to do a better job of making sure people know how to use them properly,” Reardon said.

“My main goal was raising awareness and improving our ability to educate people about the proper use of pesticides,” he said.

Reardon said he’s not expecting opposition.

“I have support from Oregonians for Food and Shelter and the Xerces Society,” Reardon said. “That’s about as opposing views on the world as you can get.”

Oregonians for Food and Shelter supports the use of herbicides and pesticides in farming, while the Xerces Society is focused on invertebrate health. Both were represented on the task force.

Another bill, meanwhile, would set rules for beekeepers who have hives in residential areas.

And one more would ban some neonicotinoids altogether.

That one, House Bill 2589, already is drawing opposition from out-of-state lobbyists.

“While we appreciate concerns about protecting pollinators and other animals and insect species, we do not think there is adequate science to support prohibitions of applications of neonicotinoids,” Kristin Power, a vice-president at the Washington, DC-based Consumer Specialty Products Association, said in written testimony.

tloew@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/SJWatchdog

Pollinator bills

The House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources will consider five pollinator protection bills on March 19:

HCR 9: Recognize the importance of insect pollinators and urges support of programs to ensure their safety.

HB 3362: Establish a pollinator health outreach and education plan.

HB 3361 : Appropriate money from the general fund for Oregon State University Extension Service pollinator health outreach.

HB 3360: Appropriate money from the general fund for Oregon State University’s bee health diagnostic facility.

HB 2653: Require the state to establish rules for owning bee hives in residential areas.

The committee will consider an additional bill March 26:

HB 2589: Ban the use of some neonicotinoids, the class of pesticides blamed for most of the mass bee kills.

The committee meets at 8 a.m. in Hearing Room D at the State Capitol.

Read the pollinator protection task force report here.