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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2017)
6 Spring 2017 Applegater Applegate Valley Beekeepers tend bees organically BY SHANNA ROSE Bees are responsible for one-third of the food we eat. Without bees, we could be faced with a world also without avocados, lemons, apples, melons, berries, and many other foods. The demise of bees worldwide is not news to anyone. CCD, or Colony Collapse Disorder, is a multi-faceted, poorly understood problem with a variety of causes. Neonicotinoids, a common ingredient in pesticides, are directly responsible for the death of bees and other pollinators. They also disrupt bee navigation, which is crucial to survival of a bee colony. Neonicotinoids are already banned in the European Union, and many US states are considering a similar ban. Other possible causes of CCD include lack of proper amounts and types of forage (flower nectar and pollen), environmental toxins, erratic weather patterns, and commercial migratory beekeeping, used for California almond pollination, which can transfer diseases and the varroa mite to various locations. The varroa mite is a relatively new but destructive parasite that some beekeepers fight with chemicals and medications that can further weaken bees. Meanwhile, the mites may adapt and become resistant to the miticides. By discouraging certain practices and advocating others, the Applegate Valley Beekeepers help hobby and backyard beekeepers keep their bees strong, healthy, and better able to withstand mites and other diseases. Hope lies in the beekeeping renaissance of backyard and hobby beekeepers and small farm apiaries. The Applegate Valley Beekeepers and similar groups that practice natural, sustainable, and organic methods of beekeeping could be the link that keeps bees a vital part of our ecology. Some beekeepers harvest honey in the fall and feed their bees sugar or corn syrup for the honey that would otherwise be their winter food. The Applegate Valley Beekeepers advocate waiting until spring to harvest honey and then taking what is left from the bees’ winter supply. Beekeepers who love to garden may find more ways to keep bee populations healthy. Planting herbs like oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary, and mint may help control mites. Growing sunflowers or buckwheat can provide bee forage in July and August, when blackberry blossoms, the primary summer nectar source in the Rogue Valley, are no longer available. In early spring, willow, crocus, poppies, and fruit- tree flowers, like cherry and plum, will help the bees during their expansion period. In summer, squashes, melons, and cucumbers provide forage for bees, who, in turn, provide pollination for higher yields of vegetables. When apple and plum trees are cut down to make room for vineyards, bees lose important forage. As bad as star thistle is for pastures, it is an important nectar plant for bees at a time of the year when little else is available. Knowing that bees use invasive plants like blackberries and star thistle to make delicious honey makes those plants easier to tolerate! Beekeepers feel that bees repay them well for the care they take of them. They find peace in the buzzing of the hive or the frenetic movements of a swarm. To not disturb or accidentally crush bees during a hive inspection, beekeepers must learn mindfulness, moving slowly and purposefully. Beekeeping is a balm to the multitasking mind. Stings are a small consequence of learning how to work with bees—a reminder to be more present. The Applegate Valley Beekeepers are a good support for the backyard or hobby beekeeper who chooses to tend bees in a more natural and sustainable manner than is generally done with commercial operations. With a range of experience, members help one another as mentors and students, farmers and homesteaders, working professionals and friends. Shanna Rose • shanna2rose@gmail.com Sap tap wrap This year we had four days of sap tapping weather— January 28 - 31—with temperatures ranging from the high 20s to the high 40s. I set 25 taps in 23 trees and collected a total of 75 gallons of sap. One tree with two taps produced seven gallons in four days! Laird lights off I was able to use my barrel-stove evaporator for the the syrup season. first time, and it performed at least as well as my propane range. With the evaporator in operation six or seven hours a day, I was able to keep pace with the incoming flow. The syrup was finished on the propane stove with the temperature kept below the boiling point. After a final filtering, I was able to bottle five quarts of medium-dark syrup with a great flavor. All in all, it was successful, though short, season. If you are interested in tapping our local big-leaf maples next season, give me a call. Laird Funk • 541-846-6759 Give back to nature—plant native! BY SUZIE SAVOIE and other Ceanothus The Applegate for California Valley is located in tortoiseshells; the Klamath-Siskiyou bleeding heart Ecoregion, which (Dicentra spp.) for contains more than Parnassians; stinging 3,500 plant species, nettle (Urtica dioica) of which 280 are for red admirals; endemic, meaning pearly everlasting they are native here (Anaphalis spp.) or and grow nowhere pussytoes (Antennaria else on earth. A spp.) for American biological assessment painted ladies; and by DellaSala and canyon live oak others (1999) ranked Local guidebook written by (Quercus chrysolepis) the Klamath-Siskiyou Tom Landis and Suzie Savoie. for California sisters. as the fifth richest The small amount of protected coniferous forest in the world in terms habitat in the United States is not enough of species diversity. Much of the plant diversity we see to ensure the survival of native plants in our region is a result of pollination and pollinators. Our own backyards of flowering plants by a variety of and properties need to provide habitat pollinators, including bees, moths, as well. Lawns in the US are estimated butterflies, beetles, flies, hummingbirds, to cover 63,000 square miles, about the true bugs, ants, and spiders, many of size of Texas. Most people landscape with which have co-evolved with the plant ornamental plants that have very little, if species they pollinate. Co-evolution has any, ecological value for native species. By created specialization—90 percent of planting natives we can turn our lawns, the insects that eat plants can develop backyards, or back forty into habitat for and reproduce only on the plants with wildlife and pollinators. The task of transitioning a which they share an evolutionary history. A commonly known example of this is yard, garden, or large piece of property monarch butterfly caterpillars that eat back to native plants can seem daunting. Thankfully, southern Oregon has many only milkweed plants. The evolution of pollination resources to help you learn how to create has created mutualistic relationships beneficial habitat. The Siskiyou Chapter between plants and pollinators with Native Plant Society, the Siskiyou shared benefits. For example, a bee Field Institute, and the Oregon State gets protein in the form of pollen from University Extension Center’s Land a plant’s flower, and, in return, the Steward Program are great places to learn plant gets a mechanical pollen transfer about native flora and land stewardship. Folks who just need a little from a pollinator, aiding in the sexual reproduction of the plant. Because most introductory information to get started of these mutualistic relationships are should check out this local guidebook: highly specialized, conservation of native Native Pollinator Plants for Southern plant diversity is extremely important Oregon. Through our mutual work with for the protection of native pollinator Southern Oregon Monarch Advocates, Tom Landis and I wrote this guide populations. Co-evolution and specialization to feature practical native plants that have benefitted pollinators in many ways, can be found in local nurseries or but with specialization comes risk. If the through native seed sources. The guide larval host plant or floral food source that provides information on plant form, a pollinator is reliant on disappears, so nectar resources, bloom time, host- does the pollinator. plant status, and propagation methods. Once common along the Oregon Printed copies of the guide are available coast, the Oregon silverspot butterfly fell by emailing klamathsiskiyou@gmail. to only four populations by the 1990s com, or you can view or download the due to habitat loss and degradation. The guide for free at klamathsiskiyouseeds. Oregon silverspot has only a single larval com. Special thanks go to the Siskiyou host plant: the blue violet (Viola adunca). Chapter of the Native Plant Society for Without the rearing program at the providing funding for the initial printing Oregon Zoo, it is likely that the Oregon of the guide. The second printing has silverspot would be extinct. Landscaping been paid for through support from that includes blue violet instead of other Southern Oregon Monarch Advocates exotic ornamental plants would help this and donations from native plant and species recover within its historic range. pollinator enthusiasts such as you! This spring, give back to nature— Examples of host plant larval specialization for butterflies in the plant native! Suzie Savoie Applegate include wild parsley (Lomatium klamathsiskiyou@gmail.com spp.) for Anise swallowtails; deerbrush BORED? Check out our ONLINE CALENDAR jam-packed with events all over southwest Oregon. www.applegater.org