USA Native Habitat

Having just read two news items on US environmental
issues, I tried to comment on the previous posts of
the flowering and landscape snapshots, but the comment
section has been disabled. What I wanted to ask was
what is it that provides for such beauty? Climate,
soil fertility, care, protection to be sure. Perhaps,
thought the most important factor is pollination, and
how is the pollination accomplished? We know that is
the importance of the honeybee. However, just within
the last couple of years, the honeybee population in
the US has fallen by a third; they are dying. We notice
it just in our little gardening area. This year we are
not putting out any gardening plants; they just bare no
fruit. Five years ago we had cucumbers, tomatoes, green
peppers, and squash; last year nothing. The same results
with our neighbors..Why? no bees. There is an article on
MSNBC which led to this post. The main conclusion of the
news report is that the honeybees are dying because of
pesticides. If the honeybee disappears food production
and natural beauty will be drastically impacted.

A second news story this morning is concerned about John
McCain and how he used his influence in Congress to get
a land deal for a few of his big campaign organizers and
contributors. A good friend of his in Arizone had some
bad agricultural land, desert to be exact, lol, and was
worth at best $2,000.00 per acre. But there was land in
a Federal Forest area that was near developments and would
be worth, I forget now, but something in the six figures
amount, say $120,000 per acre. What did McCain do? He
got legislation to swap 50,000 acres of the desert land
for the Federal Forest land. Oops, there goes another
forest....Interesting article on msn.com.......