To whom it may concern,

The Colorado State Beekeepers Association represents over 3,000 beekeepers and we are  in strong opposition to the closing of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC). BARC has served a wide variety of Americans with research and testing services that are directly applicable to our success in Agriculture. Fragmenting the lab and research teams that deliver essential services that advise us as we work to try to keep the beekeeping industry functional and regain a sense of sustainability would be incredibly detrimental – especially in the face of unprecedented issues in the last year and uncertainty as another winter looms.

We urge you to maintain the function and services of BARC – we have particular interest in the apicultural research and services, but BARC offers a unique location for our USDA experts and other employees to complete their work and perform controlled experiments with limited confounding variables. All of this is a function of the complete research center and all of the work done there, as well as the property’s unique usage as BARC.

Sincerely,

The Board of the Colorado State Beekeepers’ Association