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Mark Welsh is no stranger to the difficulties of beekeeping.
The Omaha beekeeper has been caring for hives for the last nine years — and he understands that not every colony makes it through the cold winter months. But the winter of 2024-2025 was particularly brutal for him.
“I had 12 hives going into the winter,” Welsh said. “I lost nine of them."
He wasn’t the only one. About 1.6 million colonies died across the U.S. between June 2024 and March 2025, according to surveys from bee research nonprofit Project Apis m.
The losses hit commercial beekeepers as well as backyard honey producers, with many losing 60% to 80% of their colonies.
“Last year there was a really swift and sudden cry for help from beekeepers,” said Danielle Downey, executive director of Project Apis m.
For decades, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Center has been the one to answer such cries for help — a place where beekeepers turn when major disasters happen. Six months after the massive die-off, scientists from the USDA facility identified a likely cause: viruses spread by pesticide-resistant mites. But now, the Trump administration plans to close the research lab, leaving beekeepers to question the future of federal research.
‘A really deep history’
The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center has been the site of major developments in food and farm research in its 100-plus-year history. The Thanksgiving turkey was developed at Beltsville, as well as the first methods used to keep butter cold and fresh. Researchers there linked trans fat consumption to increased cholesterol and uncovered the smallest known plant disease agent.
The facility opened in 1910 as the “Government Farm,” but the history of its bee research laboratory begins earlier. Federal honeybee research in the Washington, D.C. area started in 1891, and the lab was relocated multiple times before permanently landing at Beltsville in 1939.
“There's a really deep history of that station for supporting U.S. agriculture that's unique,” Downey said.
In July 2025, the USDA announced the entire Beltsville Agricultural Research Center would close over the next few years. The announcement states the department’s work near Washington, D.C. – including at the 6,500 acre Beltsville campus – is “underutilized and redundant, plagued by rampant overspending and decades of mismanagement and costly deferred maintenance.”
At the time of the announcement, the USDA had 4,600 employees working in the Washington, D.C. area and expected no more than 2,000 to remain there after the restructuring. Employees would be relocated to other hub locations under the plan, which the USDA also said will lower the cost of living for employees.
A number of farm groups have publicly opposed the plan, including the Maryland Farm Bureau, which sent a letter to the USDA imploring the department to consider modernizing the Beltsville facility, rather than closing it. Members of Maryland’s congressional delegation have also argued the proposed closure is illegal, unless the Trump administration gets approval from Congress.
Over the years, the Beltsville bee laboratory has been a critical partner for other federal agencies, universities and nonprofits.
During the recent colony die-offs, for instance, Project Apis m. collaborated with the federal facility to test samples of bees. But last year, Downey said communication from the USDA was sparse. Press releases were few and far between, requests went unanswered and many USDA employees feared for their jobs.
“[The USDA is] where we would hear from leadership about how bees are doing,” Downey said. “And if there was a crisis, it would be the USDA that really is a big voice about raising awareness and trying to get support for our agriculture – so that was a really big change.”
In a statement to Harvest Public Media, a USDA spokesperson said the proposed Beltsville closure “right-sizes the USDA footprint, eliminates unnecessary management layers, consolidates redundant or duplicative functions, and, most importantly, allows USDA to deliver on its mission to the American people within the bounds of its available financial resources.”
USDA press did not respond to Harvest Public Media’s questions about where bee lab researchers from Beltsville would be moved or how long the closure would take.
‘A question of commitment’
The proposed closure couldn't come at a worse time, according to Jeff Pettis, who worked as a bee researcher at Beltsville from 1996-2016. He led research at the bee lab for nine of those years.
“The industry has never been this stretched to keep healthy bees,” Pettis said. “And that's what Beltsville was all about – was maintaining bee health.”
During his time at Beltsville, Pettis worked on pesticides used to kill mites, queen health, bee bacterial diseases and more. He said Beltsville is in a unique position to help beekeepers, both scientifically and out in the field.
“It's really invaluable to have that much expertise right there close to Washington for policy issues,” Pettis said. “It's an aging facility, no doubt, but when those buildings were renovated – they were beautiful, old brick buildings, and they turned out beautifully. It's just a question of commitment, and I think there's a lack of commitment right now by the current administration.”
The land Beltsville sits on is also highly valuable.
“We're just outside the beltway,” Pettis said. “And if it were developed for housing or something, it's just unfathomable the amount of money that the government can sell that land for. So that's always been a suspicion.”
There are other federal bee labs, but Pettis said focused expertise makes Beltsville unique. He worries that restructuring the facility and relocating employees will make experienced researchers walk away.
“People built their careers in a certain location,” Pettis said. “Personally, they don't want to move, so you end up losing people.”
Across the country in Logan, Utah, retired USDA bee researcher Jim Cane spent his career studying wild bees – called “native” bees. While he doesn’t share a specialty with Pettis, Cane said the different focuses of USDA bee labs provide longstanding expertise.
“You've got other specialists right there. You can talk in the doorway in the hall. You can go out to the field together,” Cane said. “You can bring them into your lab and show them something you're not understanding. Someone can come in for training – a potential new scientist – and there's three or four seasoned scientists already at the lab to work with them.”
The funding problem
The stability of federal funding is also a challenge for the future of bee research.
Funding for USDA research tends to fluctuate from year to year, but long-time federal scientists like Cane say overall funding has dwindled in recent decades.
Without adequate federal funding, the burden falls on universities. But ever-increasing competition for grants, limited staff and lack of equipment can make it difficult for universities to make strides in research.
“Nowadays it's horrendously competitive with all the cuts that have happened to the agencies that provide grant money,” Cane said.
The USDA is headed for the same fate as universities, he added.
“USDA programs have just been shredded in terms of research funding, as well as the capable, competent people who were the administrators of the grants programs,” Cane said. “It will be no better than the money that's put into it, in part because that's what hires good researchers, that's what retains researchers and that's what provides the number of units for expertise.”
Some university bee researchers are trying to work beyond their local communities.
Garett Slater is an associate professor and honeybee extension specialist at Texas A&M University. He convinced the Texas Department of Agriculture to fund a disease testing lab for bees, which will be housed at the university.
“I think at this point with the federal government being in limbo, that maybe it does come down to the state level and that we need to kind of develop things in a different way than we've always done it,” said Slater, who was previously a postdoctoral fellow at USDA’s Baton Rouge bee lab.
Hopefully, Slater said, local testing can help Texas – or surrounding areas – get answers quickly in a crisis. Plus, having bee labs with different expertise situated across the country may ultimately create a more resilient research network.
“I think we can really add on to what [the USDA is] doing – like on the diagnostic part of it,” he said. "They really can't process all the samples in the entire country and do what some other labs are doing.”
Bee-keeping the faith
After the massive honeybee die-off that occurred between June 2024 and March 2025, USDA researchers at the Beltsville facility moved quickly to identify its cause. Six months later, they pinpointed the likely culprit: viruses spread by pesticide-resistant mites.
As pesticides become less effective against mites, beekeepers have had to change their processes, said Danielle Downey of Project Apis m.
“After last year's panic, they probably paid a lot more attention to varroa mites,” said Downey. “They sampled more. They used a variety of treatments.”
Though widespread die-offs weren’t reported this winter, Downey said beekeeping has become more risky over the years – a problem for beekeepers whose income relies on pollination contracts or honey production.
“Even if we pulled it off this year, the margins of success and solvency are just thinner and thinner every single year,” Downey said. “But the need for bees doesn't change, and the pressure on those businesses doesn't change. It's just more and more risk.”
Pesticide poisoning, lack of nutrition, climate change and more have raised concerns in the beekeeping community. For clear answers on how to keep the bee industry sustainable, Downey said more research is needed.
Until solutions and answers come – from wherever they may – Omaha beekeeper Mark Welsh is picking up the pieces of last winter’s colony deaths.
He caught a couple swarms to raise in boxes and split the colonies that survived. To give them the best chance, Welsh is taking some advice from researchers.
“When I have bees, I check them with my equipment for mites, and if they have lots of mites, that queen is gone, and I remove her, and I put in another queen that does a better job with the mites,” Welsh said.
There’s only so much Welsh can do as a beekeeper. The rest, he said, is up to the public. Welsh said the best way to start helping bees is to stop using pesticides.
“If you can't stop it completely, make sure you're not spraying plants that are blooming,” Welsh said. “Spray them late in the day, so that the pesticide is absorbed more before the bees get out and start to forage for food.”
The next best thing is getting to know a local beekeeper to support their operation.
“Find a local beekeeper,” Welsh said. “Get to know them, trust them. Buy honey from them because they're the ones that are helping the bees survive in your neighborhoods.”
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
