As Houghton debates the pros and cons of beekeeping within the city limits, discussion has turned to the important role bees play in the landscape, specifically honeybees. Honeybees are often in the spotlight, and it’s easy to see why.

In bug world, they are rock stars. One of a handful of domesticated insects, honeybees live in huge, complex colonies whose workers head out to visit flowers every morning like commuters driving off to the office. Industrial monocultures like California’s almond orchards depend utterly on pollination provided by honeybees. Then there’s honey, of course. Who can argue with honey? And perhaps most importantly, we humans can get up close to honeybees, peek inside their hives and marvel at their mysterious doings.

Meanwhile, the global insect population is in serious trouble, and calls have gone out to “save the bees.” Many news outlets have magnified that message, focusing primarily on the bee we know best, the honeybee.

This alarm is partly justified. In some years, up to half of all hives have failed and need to be replaced. But despite their problems—pathogens, parasites, pesticides and the stressors imposed by the pollination industry—honeybees as a species are doing okay. The number of hives in the U.S. has remained relatively steady for many years.

That doesn’t mean the woes affecting beekeeping—and honeybees—aren’t real. But the media have often conflated economic concerns with environmental ones. Replacing hives is expensive, and the issue isn’t going away.

As biologist and pollinator conservationist Heather Holm wrote, “Hive losses cost beekeepers money and time to replenish their stock. . . . Unless we change the way we grow food and provide habitat for honey bees — and native bees — this trend of hive losses for beekeepers will continue.”

When hives fail, it may be costly and even traumatic, but beekeepers have the option to get more bees. When native bee populations collapse, it's a different story. We might not even be aware of the loss. Which brings us to the differences between European honeybees and their American cousins.

Honeybees, Apis mellifera, were domesticated thousands of years ago and brought over to North America in the 1600s. Most live in built hives housing many thousands of individuals. On the other hand, most of the 3,600 or so bee species native to the U.S. are solitary, often living in tunnels they dig underground or in above-ground cavities.

For thousands of years, native bees evolved alongside North American native plants, providing pollination services and supporting the continent’s intricate ecology. Were the honeybee to disappear overnight, it would be a disaster for big agriculture, but America’s native plant community would be fine. Our backyard gardens might even do better than you'd expect. Native bees already pollinate many of our vegetables, and in some cases are better pollinators than honeybees, said Holm.

While honeybees have been holding their own, however, the same can’t be said for native bees. Between 2006 and 2015, surveys found approximately 25% fewer native bee species in the U.S. The once-common rusty-patched bumblebee is now officially endangered, having disappeared from most of its original range.

There are many reasons for this decline. In addition to grappling with some of the same challenges as honeybees, native bees shoulder added burdens. Humans destroy their habitat when we develop natural spaces, effectively evicting them from their homes or forcing them to eke out a living in less-desirable areas. When we move in, we typically replace native vegetation with nonnative plants that don’t provide the same nutritional value or—worse—lawns that form a virtual deadscape for all bees and other wildlife.

There’s also mounting evidence that honeybees compete with native bees for nectar and pollen. One study suggests that a single hive uses the same resources as 100,000 native bees. This can lead to unintended consequences. One well-meaning hobbyist who starts a hive to “save the bees” could have quite the opposite effect.

Fortunately, this isn’t a zero-sum game.

As Holm said, we can help all bees by “creating, restoring and enhancing [their] habitat.”