ontario government bee health workgroup actions taken to support the health of bees and other...

7/7/2014 Actions Taken to Support the Health of Bees and Other Pollinators

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/about/beehealthworkinggrouptable.htm 1/4

Actions Taken to Support the Health of Bees and Other Pollinators

Actions were developed based on input from the Ontario Bee Health Working Group.

Options for Action Status

A - Update Best Management Practices(BMPs)

Completed

The revised BMPs have been extensively promotedat grower meetings and are available on line.

Underway

The revised BMPs have been extensively promotedby the Ministry at grower meetings, through handouts and publications and are available on line.They have been distributed by the Grain Farmersof Ontario to over 30,000 corn and soybeanproducers and agri-business representative. Allmajor seed companies are distributing bestmanagement practices information through theirseed dealers. The agricultural input industry (e.g.,CropLife, Bayer CropScience, Syngenta) has alsobeen promoting BMPs in the agricultural press, atgrower meetings and directly to growers and agri-businesses.

Growing Forward 2 (GF2) funding support isavailable for grain growers to implement bestmanagement practices to protect pollinators.Scouting services to identify risk levels of soilborne insects are eligible under GF2 CapacityBuilding. These services will complement otherinitiatives to increase growers' adoption ofintegrated pest management practices. GF2 willalso support the modification of planters todecrease the risk of contaminated dust moving offthe field.

The Ministry is evaluating other options toencourage beekeepers and grain growers to adoptBMPs.

B - Invest in Integrated PestManagement (IPM) Research

Underway

Ministry funding is being directed to support thedevelopment of an IPM guide for the identificationand management of soil borne insects.

Ministry staff are collaborating with University ofGuelph researchers to access industry funding tosupport research to evaluate soil borne pestpopulations across multiple sites in the province.

This project will assist in understanding theimplications and risk factors associated with usingtreated as opposed to untreated seed in variouslocations across Ontario.

Updates of key findings will be made available onthe Ministry website.



C - Promote Availability of Non-Insecticide Treated Seed

Completed

The Ministry collaborated with the Grain Farmers ofOntario (GFO) and the Canadian Seed TradeAssociation in the promotion of non-insecticidetreated seed for spring (2014) planting, withincreased varieties now available for the 2014growing season.

D - Encourage Development of NewSeed Treatments

Underway

New Directions Bee Health Program funding isenabling the evaluation of new polymers and theirinteraction with the new Fluency Agent and withplanter modifications.

A summary of this research will be made availableupon the completion of the project.

The Ministry will incorporate any new seedtreatments into the Field Crop Protection Guidewhich is updated every second year with asupplement released in the intervening year. TheGuide is publicly available on the Ministry website.

E - Centralize and Communicate BeeLocation Data

Underway

Through Ministry funding and with collaborationbetween Grain Farmers of Ontario and the OntarioBeekeepers' Association an app is in developmentto improve the ability of grain growers andbeekeepers to connect with each other. The appwill be piloted in the 2014 season and plans are tohave the app fully functional by 2015.

F - Develop Strategy for Pollinator-Friendly Habitats

Underway

The ministry is in the process of removing fiveweeds from the Weeds Control Act which willenhance the habitat for bees around corn andsoybean fields.

There is an opportunity for government andindustry, including the recently announced chair inpollinator conservation at the University of Guelph(December 2013), to work collaboratively on anOntario Pollinator Health Strategy which willinclude pollinator friendly habitats.

G - Investigate Modifications for AirPlanters

Underway

Ministry staff are working closely with industrypartners to increase growers' ability to access airplanter deflector kits prior to Spring (2014)planting.

A guidance document to assist growers to makemodifications to their planters has been developedand widely circulated across Ontario by OMAF,agri-business, the Ontario Soil and CropImprovement Association and the farm press.

Producers who need to modify planters may applyto GF2 for funding support.



H - Promote ISO Standard for AirPlanters

Underway

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers isleading the development of the standard.

The ISO standard is expected to be in place by2015 for application by manufacturers in 2016

I - Stakeholders Promote New FluencyPowder

Underway

The PMRA has made the new fluency agentmandatory for all seed lubrication for the spring of2014.

J - Update the Ontario Pesticide SafetyCourse

Underway

The Ontario Pesticide Safety Course has beenupdated with new information related to protectingpollinators.

Over 5,300 growers have been trained for thisgrowing season on the updated information.

Over the five year certification cycle, more than22,000 growers are expected to receive training onthe revised material.

K - Encourage Crop Rotation Complete

This is a standard cropping systemsrecommendation that is widely implementedacross Ontario.

L - Require Grower Consultation Prior toPurchasing Neonicotinoid Treated Seeds

Underway

Extensive effort, both by OMAF and by theagricultural input industry (e.g., seed andpesticide) has been made to have certified cropadvisors, agricultural input industryrepresentatives and growers aware of therecommended BMPs.

The Ministry funded Soil Borne Insect Guide, whichwill contain descriptions of insects, thresholds andscouting suggestions, will enable certified cropadvisors and the agricultural input industry to beable to provide their growers with information toassist in decisions about the need for seedtreatment.

M - Consider a Temporary Ban ofNeonicotinoids

Underway

The Ministry will host a forum with otherjurisdictions including France, Italy, England andAustralia to better understand how and whydecisions were made regarding restricting or notrestricting neonicotinoid seed treatments and whattheir experience has been.

The Pest Management Regulatory Agency isexpediting the re-evaluation of all uses ofneonicotinoid insecticides and is implementingmeasures under its jurisdiction to protectpollinators until the review is complete.



Specific actions of the Ministry of the Environment, in cooperation with other partners:

Monitoring programs Ontario's Ministry of the Environment is continuingtwo existing monitoring programs and will beembarking on a third program beginning in 2014.

One of the existing programs focuses on analyzingwater samples in 17 agricultural streams for threeneonicotinoid pesticides as part of its routinestream monitoring program (in partnership withOMAF). Preliminary results of this monitoring havebeen shared with Ontario Beekeepers' Associationand other groups.

The other existing program involves the collectionof samples of bees in partnership with PMRA andOMAF, whereby samples of bees are collected foranalysis of pesticides.

The new program is a monitoring program toevaluate areas with high and low bee mortalities -it investigates presence of pesticides in the water,soil and food sources that bees may encounter.The Ministry, with partners, is expected to begincarrying out the field elements of this program thefirst week of May 2014.

OMAF staff are supporting PMRA and MOE byconducting agricultural surveys of growers withinone km of identified bee yards.

For more information:

Toll Free: 1-877-424-1300

Local: (519) 826-4047

E-mail: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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