SFGATE - On a Saturday morning in mid-April, driving into Joshua Tree National Park’s Ryan Campground, the scenery was striking: Giant, rounded boulders. Scurrying lizards. Spiky cholla cactus, shrubby creosote and, of course, the park’s namesake Joshua trees. But on the short walk from car to campsite, a more concerning life form came into view.
Bees. Hundreds of them.
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“Last year, the American beekeepers lost over 60% of their bees, so you’re heading into pollination Armageddon,” Boris Baer, a professor at the UC Riverside Center for Integrative Bee Research, told SFGATE. But the feral honeybees in Joshua Tree, which have escaped from farms and manage to survive in harsh desert conditions, give him hope.
“I think there is the potential that these bees, one day, could really save our butts,” Baer said. “They could actually save millions of lives.”