By Frank Hanson
Happy New Year! With thoughts thinking about a wonderful spring in the near future we have a great opportunity to hear from Julie Tennis on our Pacific Northwest bees.
Unfortunately, both native bees and honey bees are currently declining due to a number of threats. Please join us on Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. for an ONRC “Evening Talk” with Julie Tennis on how we can each help our bees for our mutual future.
“Helping Bees Helps Us All” – There are more than 200 species of native bees in Western Washington, and all of them benefit from three simple steps we can take to make their lives easier: providing food, habitat, and areas free from chemical contamination. Julie’s “Helping Bees Helps Us All” presentation will provide an overview of some of the more common types of bees we have in our area and some specific suggestions on how we can support them.
Tennis is the owner and operator of Bee Haven Apiaries, a beekeeping business with 27 honeybee colonies in two states. She has been keeping bees since 2008, running what she refers to as “honeybee retirement communities.” While most beekeepers manage their colonies for honey production or pollination services, Tennis prefers to let the bees live out their lives naturally, without chemicals and without replacing queens. Excess honey is sold to local farmer’s markets to help subsidize the cost of maintaining these colonies. She has been educating the public about bees and beekeeping for six years through workshops, presentations and her website, BeeMentor.com.
Her goal is to instill in others a sense of empathy and admiration for bees. The more we understand and care about these animals, the more we will do to help them survive. Our actions ultimately affect the reproductive success of the plants that feed all of us, from birds to bears to humans. Many of you have had an opportunity in the past to work with Tennis in the professional teacher training arena as she is also the Coastal Region FieldSTEM Coordinator for PEI –Pacific Education Institute from Olympia, WA.
Evening Talks at ONRC is funded through the Rosmond Forestry Education Fund, an endowment that honors the contributions of Fred Rosmond and his family to forestry, ongoing educational awareness, and the Forks community. Refreshments will be served and a potluck of your favorite dessert is encouraged. For more information, contact Frank Hanson at 374-4556 or fsh2@uw.edu. The ONRC is located at 1455 S. Forks Ave., Forks.
