Week 4 Academic Scholarship
DeVry University
ETHC 445
Why are bees dying? When I look out the window into the garden in the front and back of my
home, I see a crab-apple tree, a peach tree, shrubs, Japanese magnolia, hostas, and lilies. There are a
significant number of songbirds that also make up the surrounding areas and birds of prey. It is rare to
see bees of any type like bumblebees, mason bees, and carpenter bees. With so much of the food crops
and plants that rely on pollinators, it is crucial to have a diverse population of bees to pollinate
appropriately. In other words, the food we consume depends on pollination by bees, but bees are
disappearing. In the article, Why are they dying it covers many of the factors of why bees could be dying
it isn’t a definitive culprit or smoking gun. When cash crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and beans, are
tended by migrant workers, the workers irrigated fields include pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides,
which are critical to the collapse of the bee colonies.
The founder of the Sierra Club John Muir recognized the state of California’s’ natural beauty and bee
pastures through 1860 and 1870 (Ellwood, 2009, p. 3). He noted there were bee gardens all over the
state of California. The land was covered with hundreds of flower species to support the bee population
and the production of honey. Today California has urbanized concrete jungles and suburban sprawl that
has taken over the miles and miles of green and flower pastures. Besides human growth, the demand
