Please join our Friends of Healthy Bees Campaign. This is a grassroots, no-spray, neighborhoods project. Please show your support by signing the “Honey Bee Friend” pledge…(see who has already pledged!) We are dedicated to protecting public health and the environment from toxic pesticides. That’s why we’re coordinating work to develop pesticide-free, honey-bee-safe neighborhoods with a grassroots group in Eugene, Healthy Bees = Healthy Gardens* Our goal is to develop large numbers of Eugene-area gardens that are pesticide-free and, to have city policy established to make our homes and parks safe for all living things. | GET INVOLVED!

• NEW: City of Eugene discusses the use of pesticides in city parks
• Consumer Pesticide Products with Neonics Sold in The U.S. (to save honey bees, do not use in your garden!)
• “Neonicotinoid” defined
• Hear Lisa Arkin interviewed on Jefferson Public Radio about the plight of honey bees and National Honey Bee Day – Aug. 15, 2012 (mp3 audio opens and plays within a new web page)

What’s happening to bees? – The Problem In recent years, bees have been dying off in droves. First in France in the mid-1990s, then in the U.S. and elsewhere, colonies have been mysteriously collapsing with adult bees disappearing, seemingly abandoning their hives. In 2006, about two years after this phenomenon hit the U.S., it was named “Colony Collapse Disorder,” or CCD. Each year since, commercial beekeepers have reported annual losses of 29% – 36%. Such losses are unprecedented, and more than double what is considered normal. Two points of consensus have emerged in all the discussion about the mystery of CCD:

Multiple, interacting causes are in play – key suspects include pathogens, habitat loss and pesticides; and immune system damage is a critical factor that may be at the root of the disorder.

• See our Resources page
• See our action page, including our Friends of Healthy Bees Pledge

* Thanks to the wonderful help of Healthy Bees = Healthy Gardens, a neighborhood organization dedicated to the preservation of the honeybee. The goal of Healthy Bees = Healthy Gardens is to educate the community about how we can live together in a healthy and safe environment free of harmful chemicals. If you would like more about how you can host bee hives in the Eugene area in neighborhoods that have pledged to be spray-free zones, please contact us.

Now you can designate your donation to our educational work when you join! After you click on the orange button, below…from the “Program Designation” drop-down option, simply choose “Friends of Healthy Bees.”

Beyond Toxics is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and all contributions are fully tax-deductible. Please consider giving a gift of a Beyond Toxics membership to a friend or family member!