01/22/08 Bees the buzz at Senate Ag Committee meeting

Washington Ag January 22, 2008 State lawmakers are considering providing some tax breaks to Washington bee keepers to help them through some challenging times. Bees are necessary for pollinating many of the state's crops including berries and fruits. Sue Olson of Yakima spoke about the challenges facing her pollinating service before the Senate Agriculture and Rural Development Committee Tuesday. Olson: "We have lost 90% of the 45-hundred hives we had over here on the cranberries, the blueberries and the fireweed. That equates to loss of pollination plus having to resupply that 36-hundred colonies to 1.25 million dollars just from last August to January." The mysterious loss of bees around the nation made news last year and was called colony collapse disorder. Olson told the committee she doesn't know what's happening to her pollinator bees. Olson: "We don't know it goes bad. We don't know if it's environmental. If it is sprays. We don't know if it is disease in the hives. We don't know if it is the poor quality of protein." James Bach, a member of the Washington State Bee Keepers executive board told lawmakers the apiarists in Washington lost nearly 41 percent of their colonies this past summer. The Ag Committee held a hearing on bills that would provide some B&O tax exemptions as well as an exemption for on road diesel for moving bee colonies. I'm Bob Hoff.