Beekeepers are using empty public land around Seattle-Tacoma Airport to breed and distribute healthier strains of honeybees.
Seattle-Tacoma Airport is home to many kinds of flights, but we’re not just talking about Boeing 777s. The large tracts of empty land on the site are now home to a half a million honeybees, part of a project intended to improve the health of the region’s pollinators.
In 2011, Bob Redmond of The Common Acre, an organization that works to strengthen community through art and gardening projects, called the commissioner of the airport with an idea. He had heard about beehives being placed around Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, and thought it would be a good idea to borrow. Airport staff agreed.
Why put bees around an airport? The loud and potentially hazardous activity at an airport does not mix well with residential or commercial development, so airports tend to be surrounded by large, bare tracts of land. The land around Seattle-Tacoma Airport is publicly owned, but access to it is restricted. That’s great for beekeepers, who prefer to keep their hives away from the general public.
The project, called Flight Path, boasts 18 beehives housing 500,000 bees. The bees will contribute to the ongoing conservation projects of the Port of Seattle, which operates the airport.
“We really see this as a win-win for the community,” Christina Faine, media specialist for the Port of Seattle, said.
The project is a response to the declines in the honeybee population due to a condition known as “colony collapse disorder.” Just last winter, 31 percent of honeybee colonies in the United States were lost, according a study by The U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Redmond says he hopes that airport projects like Seattle’s will breed hardy, genetically diverse bees that can later be distributed to beekeepers.
While one apiary won’t fix the causes of colony collapse disorder—which are complex and poorly understood—it will improve local pollination and hopefully inspire more individuals and organizations to keep bees.
“My dream is that this becomes a pilot project—no pun intended—that other airports can look at and replicate,” Redmond said.
Bees may seem irritating to some when they form hives near residences and sting people, but they are an invaluable part of the ecosystem.
According to Redmond, bees pollinate 70 out of the 100 plants that make up 90 percent of the human diet. Without bees to pollinate our produce, we would be limited to a narrow range of foods. And that’s not to mention honey.
In January, Seattle-Tacoma Airport will host a bee-themed art and education exhibit in concourse—you guessed it—B. The exhibit, which opens in January 2014, will illustrate the connection between food and transportation.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today during our fundraiser. We have 5 days to add 340 new monthly donors. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.