For Emma Egstad, the bees she tends to in her Portland apiary are not only the buzzing pollinators she's dedicated her time to raising and educating people about, they're a "mirror for the state of the planet."
And right now, that mirror isn't showing a very promising picture, researchers say.
According to a nationwide bee colony survey released in May, Oregon beekeepers lost 32.3 percent of their bees from summer 2016 to the end of winter this year, on par with the national average of 33.2 percent. For backyard beekeepers with smaller operations, the losses were even greater, with 45 percent of their colonies lost, according to the research nonprofit Bee Informed Partnership.