Friend,

Bees are famously hard workers -- but scientists are learning they like to have a little fun, too.

Between long hours spent pollinating most flowering plants, bees dance to communicate with each other and even play games, seemingly just for the joy of it.1,2

But one thing these precious pollinators can't do is protect themselves from the deadly pesticides that are causing them to die off at devastating rates. We need to save the bees before it's too late.

We have a plan for a big, bold year of action for the bees in 2023 -- but it's going to take resources. Generous donors will MATCH all donations made to Environment Colorado's Year-End Drive until midnight tomorrow, up to $100,000 nationwide.

Friend, will you double your impact by donating now?

Bees carry entire ecosystems on their small shoulders as they pollinate all kinds of plant life and even crops we rely on for food. They're also vanishing before our eyes.

Beekeepers across the United States reported losing more than 39% of their honeybee colonies last year.3 The American bumblebee has declined by 89% over the past 20 years and disappeared completely in eight states.4

It's no mystery why. Climate change and habitat loss play a role, but experts point to the use of neonicotinoid pesticides (called neonics for short) as a major factor. As the use of neonics has surged in recent decades, agriculture in the U.S. has become 48 times more toxic to bees.5

Neonics attack bees' brains and cause permanent, irreversible damage.6 It makes everything a little harder for bees -- pollinating, reproducing, communicating by dance, even finding their way back home. And to make matters worse, the damage is felt across generations of bees, contributing to their dramatic decline.7

There's no coming back from extinction, Friend. But together, we can help give bees a chance. Donate to our Year-End Drive today -- and when you do, your donation will be MATCHED up to $100,000 nationwide.

Thanks to the support of people like you, our campaigns to save the bees have already come so far:

• Earlier this year, our national network helped win laws restricting bee-killing neonics in New Jersey and New York. Those states now join Connecticut, Maryland, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine on the list of states with similar restrictions.
• We helped win commitments from Lowe's and The Home Depot to take bee-killing neonics off their shelves, and we've generated more than 100,000 petition signatures to Amazon urging it to do the same.
• We helped win federal protections for pollinators on 11 million acres of Department of Defense-owned land. We're also calling on the government to reinstate a ban on the use of neonics in wildlife refuges -- the places where bees should be safest.

But there's still so much more to do. We're ready to go even bigger and bolder in our campaigns to save the bees -- but what we're able to accomplish in 2023 depends in part on the resources we have at hand going into the new year.

Friend, will you donate today to help us start next year strong? When you do, your gift will be MATCHED, from now through Dec. 31, immediately doubling your impact for the bees.

Thank you,

Ellen Montgomery

1. Beekeeper Paul, "Bee Dance: Discovery, Purpose & Details of The Bee Waggle," Honeybee Hobbyist, November 11, 2022.
2. Sofia Quaglia, "Do bees play? A groundbreaking study says yes.," National Geographic, October 27, 2022.
3. Xcaret Nuñez, "Honeybees are still on the decline, recent survey found. That could sting crop production," KCUR, August 18, 2022.
4. Asha C. Gilbert, "American bumblebees have disappeared from these 8 states. Now they could face extinction.," USA Today, October 14, 2021.
5. Lauren Aratani, "Pesticide widely used in US particularly harmful to bees, study finds," The Guardian, August 6, 2019.
6. Katie Hunt, "Pesticides damage the brains of baby bees, new research finds," CNN, March 3, 2020.
7. Amy Quinton, "Pesticides Can Affect Multiple Generations of Bees," UC Davis, November 29, 2021.

Your donation will be used to support all of our campaigns to protect the environment, from saving the bees and protecting public lands, to standing up for clean water and fighting climate change. None of our work would be possible without supporters like you. Environment Colorado may transfer up to $50 per dues-paying member per year into the Environment Colorado Small Donor Committee.