Washington (CNN) The buzz at the White House on Tuesday morning is that sometimes it stings more to be without bees than it does when they're around.

In an effort to help the declining bee and butterfly populations, the White House announced new steps to protect the pollinators --which, among other measures, calls for the planting of new bee-friendly gardens at federal offices across the country.

"Pollinators are struggling" John Holdren, White House science adviser writes in a blog post on the White House website announcing the goals of the new strategy: to reduce the honey bee colony losses to no more than 15% within ten years and increase the Eastern monarch butterfly population to 225 million by 2020.

In June of last year, the Obama administration created a "pollinator" task force to investigate ways the federal government could do more to help protect Monarch butterflies, honeybees, and other insects.

The recommendations of the task force, released Tuesday, is the result of that year-long investigation and calls for a look at certain pesticides and land-use practices which could potentially be harmful and one of the reasons the populations are in jeopardy.

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