Tell the EPA To Protect Our Pollinators

A growing body of science has implicated neonicotinoids as a key factor in the recent disappearance of bees around the world.

This class of pesticides is banned in Europe -- and yet these chemicals continue to show up all over the United States, on crops and on "pretreated" plants sold in stores to unknowing consumers.

Once applied, neonicotinoids work their way through plants' tissues -- making the entire plant toxic, including the pollen and nectar. The harm to pollinators is devastating: If the chemicals don't kill them, they can impair the animals' ability to learn, remember, forage, navigate and fight off disease.

The fact that other countries have successfully banned neonics means we can too.

Take action today -- demand that President Obama and the EPA protect our country's pollinators from toxic neonicotinoids.
I'm writing on behalf of all who depend on our nation's pollinators, which are gravely threatened by the continued use of neonicotinoid pesticides. Once applied these indiscriminate toxics travel throughout plants' tissues -- making the entire plant poisonous, including its pollen and nectar.

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Even if individual bees don't die from the nectar, they can pass the poison on in feeding their young. And sublethal effects to pollinators include decreased foraging activity as well as susceptibility to disease; impaired ability to learn, remember and navigate; and reduced survival and reproduction rates. When these chemicals interact with other toxics, the effects can be even more devastating.

As you may know, neonicotinoids have been strongly implicated in declines in insectivorous birds and earthworms and have been shown to persist in soils and streams, threatening fish and aquatic invertebrates. These products are so dangerous that many of them have been banned in Europe.

Please -- protect our pollinators and the multibillion-dollar economy that depends on them by:

1) Immediately revoking all registrations for neonicotinoid pesticides;

2) Increasing funding for pollinator habitat restoration on federal lands;

3) Mandating critical pollinator habitat designations on all existing and newly acquired federal lands; and

4) Formally appointing private-sector scientists specializing in pollination biology to the new Pollinator Health Task Force.

Sincerely,

[Your name]
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