With Friday’s listing of seven species of Hawaiian honeybees as endangered, some Gainesville apiarists, or beekeepers, have taken the news as a sign that bee-health awareness may soon be at to the forefront of discussion.
Johnalyn Gordon, a member of the Gainesville Area Bee Club, stressed that the adding of bees to the endangered list for the first time is important to the futures of bees across the country, including Gainesville.
“It’s much easier to get funding when people are educated about a topic,” she said. “With education and knowledge comes investment.”
Gordon, who refers to herself as the “Honey Queen,” said the listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will hopefully serve as a wake-up call to people who may not realize the importance of bees to local ecosystems.
“It’s pretty monumental that bees are even being listed,” the 21-year-old wildlife ecology and conservation and entomology senior said. “That’s definitely a gateway to listing other bees.”
Josh Campbell, a post-doctoral researcher at UF, said that the endangered status of the bees — of the Hylaeus genus — are likely to be a result of urbanization and growth in Hawaii and that there are certainly other endangered bees out there.
While disheartening, being sorted into the endangered species list can lead to better conservation efforts, he said.
“If something gets listed, it means that federal funds can be directed towards the conservation of these (animals),” Campbell said.
