The Olympian Logo

Bees and jetliners chart a parallel course | The Olympian

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Customer Service
    • About Us
    • Buy Photos and Pages
    • Contact Us
    • Plus
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Newsletters
    • Newspaper in Education
    • Subscribe
    • Subscriber Services
    • Archives

    • News
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Databases
    • Death Notices
    • Education
    • Local News
    • Military News
    • Obituaries
    • Politics & Government
    • State
    • Traffic
    • Watchdog
    • Weather
    • Opinion
    • Cartoons
    • Editorials
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Opinion Columns
    • Submit a Letter
    • Sports
    • College
    • High School
    • Mariners
    • Preps Stats
    • Seahawks
    • Sounders
    • UW Huskies
    • Politics
    • Living
    • Announcements
    • Food
    • Health & Fitness
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel
    • Entertainment
    • Arts & Culture
    • Comics
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Events Calendar
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Restaurants
    • Outdoors
    • Fishing

  • Classifieds
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Cars
  • Homes
  • Place An Ad
  • Mobile & Apps

Living

Bees and jetliners chart a parallel course

By Craig Sailor - Staff writer

    ORDER REPRINT →

September 10, 2014 07:10 AM

As Bob Redmond points out, a queen bee he’s just found he has to raise his voice. A British Airways 777 is about to land on top of him. Or so it would seem.

Actually, the steady stream of jets landing on Sea-Tac Airport’s main runway are 200 yards to the east.

The beehive that Redmond is investigating is one of the 25 on the airport’s property. Called Flight Path, the hives are a joint venture between The Port of Seattle and The Common Acre, a nonprofit that engages the general public with agriculture. Redmond is the director and lead beekeeper at The Common Acre.

Flight Path is intended to develop hardier varieties of European honeybees and in turn improve habitat for native pollinators such as bumblebees — putting Sea-Tac’s 1,500 acres of wild lands to better use.

SIGN UP

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Olympian

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

While honeybees are not native to North America, they are the only insect commercially managed on a large scale for food production. And they are vital to it — pollinating the majority of food consumed in the U.S.

“They are a poster child for pollinators. They are really fascinating and sexy. And they are the work horse of our food system,” Redmond said. Like a jetliner carrying cargo, bees ferry nectar and pollen from source to hive, he pointed out.

On this visit to the hives, Redmond checked for brood (baby bees) and honey.

While native pollinators can’t be managed as directly as honeybees, they are just as important, Redmond said. “They are really good at preserving our native plants and habitats,” he said. And, their benefit to agriculture is just beginning to be appreciated.

Studies have shown that a farm that keeps habitat for native pollinators is more productive than one that doesn’t, Redmond said.

The airport’s undeveloped land is used for safety zones and noise mitigation. Mostly untouched, they have become defacto nature preserves. But, over the years, much of the land was invaded by non-native plant species which can crowd out natives.

Part of the airport’s larger plan is to replace invasive plants with native plants — about 200 acres have already been planted — and install nesting habitat for native pollinators, said Steve Osmek, the airport’s wildlife biologist.

The 9-hole Tyee Golf Course, just south of the airport, will be permanently closed on Oct. 27 and planted with flowering shrubs and small trees. It’s part of the airport’s ongoing efforts to make it and the surrounding area less attractive to wildlife that are hazardous to planes.

“We want to do more than let it go to noxious weeds and eliminate wildlife. What animals can we co-exist with? What can we do to benefit these species in need?” Osmek said. While the airport wants to discourage large birds such as gulls, geese and raptors, they want to encourage smaller ones such as songbirds.

The 25 hives that Redmond oversees are in three locations on the airport’s property. Surrounded by runways and urban development they live in an oasis of sorts. The habitat also provides an opportunity to study them. The Common Acre is gathering data on the different types of pollinators on the airport’s grounds and what they feed on.

Aside from a honey harvest, the hives are used to breed new queen bees. For the past two years, Redmond has been able to supply local beekeepers with queens.

The queen, which lays all the eggs in a bee colony, sometimes needs be replaced when she grows old. Also, many of the queens in use in the Northwest come from California and are acclimated to milder weather or are just of inferior quality.

To increase public awareness of the importance of pollinators, The Common Acre opened an art and educational exhibit in the exit to concourse B at Sea-Tac in June. It includes the work of 24 Northwest artists working in a variety of media. It will run through December.

  Comments  

Videos

This boy can’t use his legs, but he can climb walls

Watch as about 100 shelter dogs are loaded on a plane to Michigan

View More Video

Trending Stories

Woman dies after wreck on highway in Thurston County

February 17, 2019 11:20 AM

Infant girl, plus woman holding her, suffer gunshot wounds after man ‘shows off’ handgun at party

February 17, 2019 09:48 AM

Where’s the Lacey Albertsons? It’s gone, now that senior housing project is under way

February 18, 2019 02:53 PM

Woman who died in Thurston County wreck has been identified

February 18, 2019 04:59 PM

Local business owner says she is running for Lacey City Council

February 18, 2019 02:03 PM
Local display advertising by PaperG

Read Next

Travel

Hermitage Club puts you in center of private ski resort

By SAMANTHA FEUSS Tribune News Service

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM

The Hermitage Club at Haystack Mountain is a premiere destination for any New England visitor or local. Southern Vermont is easily accessible, just two hours from Boston and four hours from New York City, and puts you right in the center of the East Coast's only private ski resort. Members enjoy year-round entertainment surrounded by the natural beauty of the mountains.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Olympian

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE LIVING

Home & Garden

Surprises and mortgages from the ‘seventh circle of hell’: Things I wish I knew before buying my first home

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM

Home & Garden

Interior designer Michelle Dirkse creates one-of-a-kind textiles from local artists’ work

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM

Travel

Flowergeddon 2? Borrego Springs braces for another Super Bloom

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM

Travel

March magic: Nebraska’s sandhill crane migration gives new meaning to ‘flyover country’

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM

Travel

New York’s Finger Lakes region has it all: history, adventure, outdoors

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM

Home & Garden

Treasures: O’Connor paintings can bring small amounts of money

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

The Olympian App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Contests-Promotions
  • Vacation Hold
  • Rewards
  • Pay Your Bill
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Photo Store
  • Archives
Advertising
  • Information
  • Place a Classified
  • Local Deals
  • Place an Obituary
  • Today's Circulars
  • Special Sections
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story