AUGUSTA, Maine -- A bill signed into law last week bans the use of neonicotinoids, neonics for short, in outdoor residential landscapes. The pesticides are seen as harmful to bees and other pollinators.

Anya Fetcher, state director for Environment Maine, said when neonics are sprayed on plants or applied to seeds, the toxins impair their brain functions, and can be harder to find their way back to a hive, to collect food, to produce new queens.

She added these days, bees are losing more and more of their habitats to development and agriculture.

"Bees are more and more relying on urban gardens and green spaces for healthy and nutritious habitat," Fetcher explained. "And so that's why we need to make sure that our backyards and our lawns and gardens are safe spaces for them to come."

She pointed out Maine's new law is the nation's strongest statewide restriction on neonic use. While some states such as Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut and Vermont have removed neonics from the shelves, she noted licensed applicators such as landscapers and gardeners can still use them in those states.

Fetcher stressed pollinators are critical for many key food crops, and help preserve healthy ecosystems. In Maine in particular, she said broccoli, squash and wild blueberries rely heavily on bees.

"Our food systems are very dependent on these natural pollinators," Fetcher asserted. "Not to mention the beauty of Maine, our wildflowers and our greenery, a significant reason that people live and visit Maine."

Close to 90% of wild plants and three-quarters of food crops globally rely on pollinators. She hopes more states and municipalities will follow suit in banning the use of neonics in favor of alternatives.

Teams of researchers and volunteers will fan out at dawn Friday with their smartphones and binoculars on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus for a 24-hour biological scavenger hunt, known as "BioBlitz."

The annual event comes as new research shows Florida's natural habitats are disappearing at unprecedented rates, with Southwest Florida among the regions most affected. The fifth annual event builds on last year's discovery of 144 species, including the rare two-striped forktail dragonfly and confirmed river otter activity on campus wetlands.

Mercedes Rasler, a senior biology student at the university, hopes to focus her camera to capture another circling osprey, one of the region's most visible raptors.

"We see a lot of ospreys, a lot of red-shouldered hawks, those are kind of our cool raptors," Rasler reported. "In terms of other species, we've got northern mockingbirds, we've got grackles, blue jays, lots of iconic species, but then also some species that people may not know right away."

This year, participants equipped with the iNaturalist app aim to surpass previous records while contributing to a global database supporting conservation efforts. Anyone, regardless of location, can participate by downloading the app and documenting species in their own area.

Oscar Johnson, assistant professor of ornithology at the university, explained the scientific value of BioBlitz, through its not-so-secret goal of empowering "citizen science" to document biodiversity.

"It's a combination of an event where we can get a lot of people outside and looking at nature, learning about nature, looking at cool bugs, birds, mammals, plants, anything that we can find that's living," Johnson outlined. "Learn about identification, natural history."

The event aligns with similar conservation efforts at other Florida schools and organizations. With ongoing budget constraints and staffing reductions across wildlife agencies, state officials said volunteer-collected data now play an increasingly important role in species monitoring efforts.

Wildlife conservationists are working with landowners and concerned Texans to recover at-risk species.

Currently, more than 1,100 animals from salamanders to mountain lions to birds need protection. Grahame Jones, executive director of the Texas Conservation Alliance, said the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is at the forefront of the work, and added that the agency created a comprehensive program to save the near threatened Guadalupe bass "through stockings in different rivers and creeks, restoration projects in watersheds and rivers, and then the management of invasive plants and how that might affect the rivers. And then also bringing in the public to help them."

The department is updating its Wildlife Action Plan that helps manage and conserve various species to keep them off the threatened and endangered lists. A survey is on the department's website.

The Parks and Wildlife Department is also working to save the threatened Texas horned lizard, or horny toad. John DeFillipo, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation, said the agency is partnering with landowners to help repopulate the reptile.

"So, they will release these small horny toads on their property and also the work, which is unique on the horny toads, they coordinated with zoos across the state, and they raised them and released about 1,000 hatchlings," he said. "And then these hatchlings, since they're so young, they're able to produce in the wild."

Jones added that it's easier to keep population numbers up than it is try to recover a species.

"Once they get on a threatened list or endangered species list, the rules change and it's more expensive and there's all sorts of caveats and issues that come up," he said."So the goal is to keep these species off those lists."

Wyoming's practice of feeding elk over winters is a century old but the spread of disease has increased concerns. Now, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition is rolling out a new solution.

The group launched a voluntary program in 2019, incentivizing ranchers who live near elk feedgrounds to ship their cattle elsewhere during winters, allowing elk to roam on their native winter range instead.

It keeps cattle and elk from commingling, which can lead to the spread of dangerous diseases such as brucellosis and Chronic Wasting Disease.

Teddy Collins, Wyoming conservation associate for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said the program is beneficial to the elk and cattle ranchers.

"It is very timely to have these agreements as a tool in the toolbox for state wildlife officials to try and move away from this process that has been around for a hundred years, but has negative repercussions," Collins emphasized.

Collins noted Chronic Wasting Disease was detected in four of the state's 21 feedgrounds this winter. A rancher in Lincoln County signed on in the fall, adding to the two agreements Teton County ranchers have signed since 2019.

The agreements are tailored to each rancher. Generally, cattle leave the property for more temperate areas of Wyoming or Utah from around Dec. 1 to April 1. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition shares associated costs with producers.

"These are voluntary agreements and they are incentive-based," Collins explained. "Each agreement is unique to the needs and the topography and the business of the individual producer."

Producers are, he added, "quite satisfied" with the program so far.


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