Saving our Honey Bees and Wild Horses

“Much of a Muchness”

Did you know that 7 of the 10 top honey-producing states are in the American West? Topping the list producing over 38.6 million pounds of honey a year valued at 61 million dollars is North Dakota—followed by South Dakota, California, Texas, Montana, Minnesota, and Idaho. 

Honey bees are pollinators; they are the farmer’s friends in helping to pollinate crops. So, along with supplying us with sweet and yummy treats and other medicinal byproducts, supporting a major industry, and keeping the planet alive and green, I would say that our bees play a major role in our survival. 

With all these benefits, common sense would dictate that the use of pesticides and chemicals that are known killers to our pollinators and planet should be outlawed, but they are not! The EPA is working on actions to protect pollinators from pesticide exposure, but not nearly fast enough. The vicious cycle of killing the planet, causing ozone destruction, and the trickle-down effect that this all has on her inhabitants only worsens as climate change and biodiversity breakdown enforce a new way of life due to human intervention. 

Our western plains states are besieged with special interest groups fighting for the land and destroying the natural balance with oil mining, fracking, Uranium and Lithium mining, excessive cattle farming, and other destructive forces with no tolerance for the balance of nature. Their siege on America’s Wild Horses to overtake all the public lands while blaming the horses for the destruction caused by governmental mismanagement has no end. The government is rounding up Wild Horses with reckless abandon. At the rate we are going, damage to the planet due to climate change with its mega-droughts, fluctuating weather patterns, and erratic behavior may soon be irreparable, taking with it our bees, wild horses, and all other things precious and needed for our survival.

But there are things we can do to save our precious bees, horses, and lands if we act now! Rewilding is a giant step for mankind in the right direction.

Grassland ecology is a key contributor to helping mitigate carbon and slow down the effects of climate change; wild horses play a key role in this.  As a keystone species, wild horses fill their niche in the natural system by helping to rebuild grasses and plants, bringing other animals to find homes. Through this, they are helping to build biodiversity, creating environments for other animals, birds, bees, and other pollinators to thrive. Let the natural system—as nature intended—be brought back with our wild horses, bison, bees, and all other inhabitants of our western lands. 

As a friend once explained to me, “It is all much of a muchness.” What this means to me in this context is that each element has a purpose, without which, the muchness cannot be sustained.

Best wishes on our journey,
Manda