[Arthalion]

Aside from a few specialized pollinators, most bees do not reside in forested areas

That's the other issue. California has over 1000 native species of bees and wasps, but most of them are special pollinators. Since most of this land was seasonal marshlands and desert before irrigation and modern farming transformed it, most of the species here are very specialized (many only pollinate a single type of plant). An environment with temperatures that stay from the high 90's to the low 100's from early July to September (with zero rainfall) typically has few year-round flowering plants and is very unkind to nonspecialized bees.

Before the importation of bees, most of the Central Valley was covered in wheat because it was one of the few things that could be reliably grown here. Since then, the valley has almost completely been given over to pollinated plants. An elimination of imported honey bees would be an economic and social disaster for our area, and would seriously affect food prices across the entire country.

[Carry_Okie]

Since most of this land was seasonal marshlands and desert before irrigation and modern farming transformed it, most of the species here are very specialized (many only pollinate a single type of plant).

California plants are often toxic to species not accustomed to them (IIRC, about 700 California native plant species are toxic to humans). The native bees I've seen here are very docile, black, and without stripes.

[GreenFreeper]

We found 308 species of bees in our study area including 2 possible new species (they are currently being veryfied by the bee expert. Sites with honeybees had significantly lower diversity than sites without honeybees. I'm sure you are correct about the importance of the honeybee, I've just had some run ins with beekeepers that weren't too happy about some of the inferences of my work. Could have many implications regarding property rights considering the proximatey of some hives to state and federally owned natural areas.