Almost a third of the food we eat every day relies on pollinators, mostly bees, but also birds, butterflies, bats, beetles, moths, and flies. Bees and other pollinators are vital to stable and plentiful food supplies, a healthy environment, and a strong economy.

But populations of New York State honeybees and other pollinators are crashing at an alarming rate. The causes include the use of harmful pesticides and fungicides, the spread of viral pathogens and parasitic mites in beehives, loss of habitat, and the effects of climate change. If we don’t act right now to address this collapse, it will soon be too late. 

Read on to learn more about the problem and how Mountainkeeper is helping.

Almost a third of the food we eat every day relies on pollinators, mostly bees, but also birds, butterflies, bats, beetles, moths, and flies. Bees and other pollinators are vital to stable and plentiful food supplies, a healthy environment, and a strong economy.

But populations of New York State honeybees and other pollinators are crashing at an alarming rate. The causes include the use of harmful pesticides and fungicides, the spread of viral pathogens and parasitic mites in beehives, loss of habitat, and the effects of climate change. If we don’t act right now to address this collapse, it will soon be too late. 

Support CMK's Pollinator Work Today

Mountainkeeper is rising to the challenge with our pollinator protection work, which seeks to reverse the decline of New York State honeybees and other pollinators, and to drive the changed needed to make sure they not only survive, but thrive. And right now, one of our generous donors has offered a challenge grant that will provide funds for all new, and increased, donations.

The stakes are high. Honeybees and other pollinators are crucial to New York’s food supply. Many of our state’s leading crops—like apples, cabbage, berries, and pumpkins—rely heavily on bee pollination. Bees also pollinate clover and alfalfa—an important feed used by cattle farmers—so this crisis also affects all milk products, yogurt, cheese, butter, ice cream as well as the beef we eat. If honeybees vanish, so will a way of life that has held strong for many generations of farmers here in the Catskills.

Mountainkeeper is taking action by: 

• Advocating in Albany for the Birds and the Bees Protection Act, a proposed NY State law that bans the use of certain neonicotinoids, a variety of pesticide that poses such an acute risk to honeybees that the European Food Safety Agency has banned their use for 2 years; 
• Spreading the word about easy ways for people to make their gardens pollinator friendly; and
• Shining a bright light on the problem facing bees in New York State, and helping people take action—both at the state level, and in their own back yards.

We can’t do any of this important work without the support of Mountainkeeper’s friends, so I hope you’ll consider a generous donation today. No amount is too small and, if you have not supported our work in the past, there could be no better time to think about making your first gift: an anonymous donor has issued a generous challenge grant that will match all new--or increased--donations to Mountainkeeper during the month of March. I hope you’ll help us advantage of this great opportunity to leverage additional support for Mountainkeeper’s urgent work to protect bees and other pollinators.

Thanks for helping Mountainkeeper stay strong, and best wishes,

Ramsay Adams
Executive Director