Friday, June 26, 2020
CapitalPress.com 3
‘Sting’ operation nabs man alleged to be beehive thief
In a case of ‘citizen
detective work,’
beekeepers, farmers
and police solved a
mystery and caught an
alleged thief
RECOMMENDATIONS ON KEEPING HIVES
SAFE
ADVICE ON PREVENTING HIVE THEFT:
Tim Hiatt, Legislative Chair of Washington State Beekeep-
ers Association: Consider embedding GPS sensors inside
beehives so they can be tracked if stolen.
Sheriff Wade Magers: If your hives are stolen or you sus-
pect illegal activity, call your local sheriff’s office immediate-
ly. Don’t wait.
By SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN
Capital Press
A man charged with
stealing hundreds of bee-
hives across the West has
been arrested in Washington
state in a joint “sting” effort
by authorities and local
beekeepers.
Officials say the bees
could be worth more than
$200,000, and the suspect
has likely victimized more
than 30 people across Cal-
ifornia, Washington, Mon-
tana, Idaho and Oregon.
Lincoln County Sheriff’s
Office in Washington state
arrested Perry Davis Bayes,
56, Sunday and charged him
with possession of stolen
property in the first degree,
a class B felony. It is not
yet known if he has a law-
yer and court dates remain
uncertain.
Pollination is a big busi-
ness — hives rent for $200
to $300 — and agricultural
detectives say hive heists
have resulted in millions
of dollars in losses for bee-
keepers in recent years.
This story, officials say,
is an example of “citizen
detective work” — with
beekeepers, farmers and
officers working together to
solve the mystery.
The trail to find the thief
started at Columbia Pollina-
tion, saddled between Moses
Lake and George, Wash.
April 6, Dave Smouse,
Courtesy of Dave Smouse
This is the original photo in which Dave Smouse recognized his stolen beehives on a
farmer’s property and used the photo to track down the location.
the company’s owner and
beekeeper, said he discov-
ered more than 200 of his
hives were missing on a
property along Interstate 90.
Smouse said the only
marks left behind were “real
skinny” vehicle tracks.
His loss of beehives was
worth more than $25,000.
Smouse said he called
the Grant County Sher-
iff’s Office. An officer told
Smouse he’d look into it, but
the theft remained unsolved.
More than a month later,
on May 31, another Wash-
ington beekeeper’s hives
were missing.
Bud Wilhelm, an Oth-
ello, Wash., beekeeper, had
64 of his hives stolen in Lin-
coln County and 84 stolen in
Grant County.
Wilhelm said report-
ing the case was compli-
cated because it spanned
two counties and separate
sheriff’s offices didn’t often
work together on cases.
Early in June, Wilhelm
said he called the Lincoln
County Sheriff’s Office. The
officers were eager to help,
Wilhelm said, but Sher-
iff Wade Magers told the
Capital Press that without
the help of beekeeping and
farming communities, the
agency likely wouldn’t have
cracked the case.
The mystery was unrav-
eled, Magers said, “through
teamwork, creativity and a
bit of luck.”
Through an online group,
Wilhelm met Smouse.
When the two exchanged
their stories of stolen bees,
they noticed something in
the crime scene photos: the
same unique tire tracks, an
unintended calling card.
“We realized: Hey, this is
the same thief. So we linked
together to track him down,”
said Wilhelm.
Wilhelm contacted farm-
ers in his area and asked
them to take pictures of the
honey bees on their land,
thinking perhaps they might
unknowingly be hosting sto-
len bees.
He was right.
June 6, Smouse recog-
nized his hives in a photo
submitted by a farm.
But Smouse couldn’t
get ahold of the farmer. He
recognized the hill range
and could tell the crop was
canola, so he set out to find
it, thinking it would be
simple.
“Turns out, there’s lots of
canola fields,” Smouse said.
Finally, he found a farm
that matched the photo.
The farmer, who has
Jerome Rosa leaves Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association, search for replacement underway
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — The removal
of gray wolves from Ore-
gon’s endangered species
list is a defining moment of
Jerome Rosa’s six-year ten-
ure as executive director
of the Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association.
The decision permitted
the killing of problem wolves
that prey on livestock in East-
ern Oregon, which was a key
policy objective of the OCA.
“That was really monu-
mental,” Rosa said.
A framed copy of House
Bill 4040, which nullified
an environmentalist law-
suit over the wolf delisting
in 2016, hangs on his office
wall in Salem.
Rosa will soon take down
the framed bill and pack it
with his other belongings
when he leaves the OCA to
take over as executive direc-
tor of the Arizona Cattle
Growers Association next
month.
As OCA’s leaders begin
looking for Rosa’s replace-
ment, they say his work with
legislators and regulators
exemplifies his value to the
organization.
Rosa “elevated the profes-
sionalism”
of OCA and
he “had a
big presence
at the Capi-
tol that will
be missed,”
Jerome
said Todd
Rosa
Nash,
the
group’s pres-
ident-elect and a Wallowa
County rancher.
Whoever
steps
into
Rosa’s shoes must establish
a solid connection with law-
makers, industry leaders and
the OCA’s rancher members,
Nash said.
“Communication in all of
that is huge,” he said.
It’s not an easy time for
the cattle industry, which
had faced several tough eco-
nomic years even before the
coronavirus outbreak, he
said.
The organization’s next
executive director will need
an in-depth understanding
of the problems facing cat-
tle producers and ability to
navigate the legislative land-
scape while also managing
OCA’s finances, staff and
regular meetings, said Tom
Sharp, a Harney County
rancher and the group’s cur-
rent president.
“We’re looking for a lot
of capability,” Sharp said.
“That’s a lot I’m asking for
and a lot that we’re looking
for.”
During Rosa’s time at
the organization, he’s been
instrumental in hiring and
overseeing the OCA’s staff,
Sharp said. “The employ-
ees just keep getting bet-
ter and more competent at
doing a great job for our
membership.”
The OCA will be conduct-
ing an open search, inviting
applicants to interview for
the position rather than sim-
ply offering the job to some-
one in the cattle industry,
said Rodger Huffman, the
organization’s treasurer and a
Union County rancher.
The group will be look-
ing for someone with sim-
ilar dedication and com-
passion as Rosa, who was
always eager to discuss
challenges and concerns
with OCA members, Huff-
man said. “We could text or
call Saturday night or Sun-
day morning, it really didn’t
matter.”
chosen not be named, was
shocked to learn he had sto-
len bees on his property. He
pointed Smouse to the bees’
source: Perry Davis Bayes.
Smouse, Wilhelm and
the sheriff’s office soon
learned that Bayes was sell-
ing honey, bee starter kits
and other equipment across
the West.
Smouse had found many
of his bees, but Wilhelm’s
hives were still missing.
Online, Wilhelm found a
former employee of Bayes,
who led him to 128 of his
148 stolen hives in northern
Idaho. The former employee,
those familiar with the case
say, was likely naive rather
than an accomplice.
On many of the stolen
hives, Bayes had allegedly
painted over original logos,
covered brandings and
sometimes even chopped up
hives, moving bees to new
containers.
It was time for an arrest.
June 14, the Lincoln
County Sheriff’s Office
staged a sting. The depart-
ment has limited staff and
hours, so officers partnered
with the beekeepers for the
stakeout.
Officers posed as farmers
owning land where Bayes
kept allegedly stolen bees.
Max Cherney, director of operations at Nectar.buzz, a pol-
lination technology company: If you’re a beekeeper, apply
this fall to participate in an experiment testing hive tracking
technology.
Bud Wilhelm, beekeeper: Mark your hives clearly and doc-
ument your process. Burnt-in branding is harder to cover up
than stencils.
Dave Smouse, beekeeper: If you’re a farmer renting or
keeping someone’s bees on your land, watch for theft, be
suspicious of mismatched beehives and pay attention to
the logos/brands on hives.
They texted Bayes, tell-
ing him the field would be
sprayed by a crop duster and
advising him to move the
bees.
Wilhelm and Smouse
camped out overlooking the
field the night of June 13,
watching for Bayes’ vehicle.
About 3:30 a.m., the bee-
keepers say they saw a flash
of lights. The driver turned
off the headlights and pulled
through the field.
As the sun crept up, the
suspect loaded hives onto
his truck using a forklift.
The beekeepers called the
sheriff’s office.
Fifteen minutes later,
according to agency records,
Deputy
Luke
Mallon
arrived.
The beekeepers say they
recall waiting another 15
minutes.
“It was pretty intense.
Nail-biting. We were wor-
ried the thief might leave
before getting arrested or
that he might have a gun. We
didn’t know anything about
this guy,” said Smouse.
Smouse said he had
become friends with Dep-
uty Mallon through the few
weeks of the investigation,
and he felt afraid for Mal-
lon’s life — especially since
the deputy’s wife had a baby
on the way.
“If something happens
to him, I thought, I’ll carry
that for the rest of my life,”
he said.
Finally, Mallon called the
beekeepers: the suspect was
in handcuffs. And there on
the ground were the same
strange tire markings —
from his “ratty old” forklift.
Beekeepers across the
West are getting stolen hives
returned, although they are
still waiting for a search
warrant on Bayes’ phone to
clear so they can track down
the remaining hives.
Sheriff Magers called the
arrest and restoration “a very
sweet ending” to a sticky
story.
Suit claims Colville National
Forest fails to protect wolves
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A federal lawsuit alleges the U.S. Forest
Service has failed to make ranchers co-ex-
ist with wolves in the Colville National For-
est in northeast Washington, leading to con-
flicts with livestock and the lethal removal
of wolves.
Filed by three environmental groups,
the suit names only the Forest Service and
regional supervisors as defendants. The
complaint, however, singles out the Dia-
mond M Ranch, the largest in the region, for
allegedly not adapting to wolves.
Diamond M partner Len McIrvin said
Tuesday the ranch is considering inter-
vening in the lawsuit to make sure that the
claims are vigorously fought and grazing
protected. The lawsuit falsely portrays the
Diamond M as the instigator of lethal con-
trol, he said.
“They act like it’s all Diamond M cat-
tle, yet there are other allotments intermin-
gled with ours suffering losses and depreda-
tions,” McIrvin said.
The 1.1 million-acre Colville National
Forest covers about one-third of Ferry, Pend
Oreille and Stevens counties and includes
810,000 acres for grazing, according to a
new forest plan adopted in October. The
plan replaced a document written in 1988.
WildEarth Guardians, Western Water-
sheds Project and the Kettle Range Con-
servation Group claim the new plan unlaw-
fully fails to consider whether the return
of wolves has made land unsuitable for
grazing.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court
for Eastern Washington. Efforts to obtain
comment from the Forest Service were
unsuccessful.
Wolves, not federally protected in north-
east Washington, receive slight mention
in the new forest plan. The Forest Ser-
vice should have considered the benefits
of wolves and updated grazing plans to
avoid conflicts, said Tim Coleman, execu-
tive director of the Kettle Range Conserva-
tion Group.
“The complaint never alleges that graz-
ing is inappropriate. We’re just trying to get
the Colville National Forest to do its job,”
he said. “Wolves are part of the mix now
and the Forest Service didn’t address that.”
The Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife decides when to shoot wolves to
stop attacks on livestock, including on fed-
eral land.
Even though the Forest Service doesn’t
pull the trigger, “the blood of these wolves
is on the Forest Service’s hands,” said
Samantha Bruegger, WildEarth Guardians
wildlife coexistence campaigner.
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