42 BEES
out of the way for you or moved for you,” says Udal. She advises farmers to
keep a few undisturbed areas around fields to host the bees. Avoid mulching these areas to encourage their habitat and homes. The second group of bees
are cavity nesters, such as the mason and leafcutter bees. These bees are active in summer months, pollinate fruits and vegetables and, like the ground-nesting bees, are defined as solitary. Often, species such as the blue orchard mason bee are more efficient and effective pollinators than honeybees. “They are very resourceful,”
Udal says. The third category of bees
is the recycled nesters, which are unable to create their own nests. This group includes bumblebees. “They often can’t build
their own home, so they rely on others,” she notes. Potential nesting sites include old mouse nests, for example. Recycled nesters like long
grass and compost piles because of their warmth and security. These are bees
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farmers definitely want to encourage. “They perform a specific
type of pollination called buzz pollination or sonication,” Udal says. “They get in there and push down on the petals.” This type of pollination
releases stubborn pollen that other bees can’t access, making them very efficient with blueberries and cranberries.
Building populations
The best way to naturally encourage pollinators is to create or maintain habitat for them. This is the preferred option for Udal, who calls the use of honeybees rather than native pollinators a Band-Aid solution.
Bees want a diverse diet. The tips on encouraging them to stay in farm fields aren’t new, but bear repeating. Udal explains that mono-crop systems are a “nutritional desert” for bees outside of the two or so weeks of bloom. Plus, the pesticides used in these systems can have a “very negative effect on pollinators.” “You want to have diversity
in size and colour in flowers,” she says. “Strategize around bloom times. Native plants are designed for fertilization diversity.” Udal’s list of bee-friendly plants includes red flowering currant, salmonberry, oceanspray, lupine, clover and alyssum. “They love weeds,” she adds. “Anything that has a
nfrom page 41
really strong fragrance is often attractive to pollinators. Preserve as much habitat as possible. Create hedgerows.” Preservation doesn’t have to be costly to be effective. Udal says farmers who turned a tenth of their land into a diverse pollinator oasis saw crop yields that more than compensated them for the land removed from cultivation.
Board acclaimed LEPS chair Tracy Stobbe
presented information about the society activities following Udal’s presentation. This included an update on the revitalized Manure Link program, which matches horse, cattle and other livestock managers with gardeners, landscapers and growers to arrange for manure transfer. “The new website has been consistently receiving positive postings, and feedback from users is very positive,” LEPS’ annual report notes. Those interested in Manure Link, which operates across the province, can visit [
www.manurelink.com]. A variety of other programs
like Nature’s Classroom, Seed to Plate and Farm Camp were successful in reaching close to 500 students and explaining the importance of food systems and farming. These programs are expected to continue in 2018. The evening concluded with acclamation of the 2018 board of directors, which remained unchanged from 2017.
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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JUNE 2018
Keeping up with the times
Technology changes us It’s no secret that things
are changing and what we now consider normal could not even have been
Wannabe Farmer
by LINDA WEGNER
imagined when I was a kid. Consider the changes in these farming-related areas: horses and hand-ploughs are mostly museum items; total dependence on day light in order to work in the fields isn’t the issue it once was, at least in many parts of the country; and the need for the multiple numbers of farm labourers is pared down by monstrous and often self- propelled machinery. I want to start off this
month’s piece by shouting out my support to those farmers involved in commercial production of food. Some of you work thousands of hectares of land; others, a few acres that produce enough to sell through local stores and other outlets. We need both since no amount of small farm operations could feed our world or even our own Canadian population, while the diverse geography of some parts of our province facilitates the cultivation of huge commercial operations. We rely both on vast fields of grain and cereal crops as well as fields of hay and clover (et al.) to feed us and all those animals that provide our meat-sourced protein and on small local (or sometimes, backyard) plots to supplement grocery store purchases. It’s interesting to note that in some ways consumer demands are beginning to return to more labour-intensive but definitely more locally- grown food and processed food products. Because we live in a globally focused market, those phenomena will never replace our modern-day farming regimes but it is interesting to note the trend in many areas of the country and province. In the February 2018 edition of Country Life in BC, Tom Walker contributed a story about a Shuswap-area workshop hosted by the
Young Agrarians (YA). In the article he quotes Darcy Smith. “The mission of Young Agrarians is to grow farmers, With the cost of farmland increasing across the province and 74% of farmers saying they are going to retire in the next 10 years, the challenge is how do we keep that land in farming?” A
CTVNews.ca article echoed these concerns in an article titled Soaring farmland prices threaten future of farming in Canada. It’s reassuring to know that young(er) people haven’t thrown up their hands in despair. One young man in our community returned to his childhood hobby of growing a row or two of edibles to sell to his family and neighbours after nearly two decades as a successful real estate agent. Born and raised on the Upper Sunshine Coast, he exemplifies the hard work and dedication necessary to grow healthy food. After visiting his property and viewing the newly- constructed 55,000-square- foot green house, as well as acres of already producing land, my gut reaction was, “Wow!” “I’d like to see Powell
River have its own food supply like we did almost 100 years ago,” he told me. “I think it’s crazy that we don’t.” At the other end of the
age spectrum, a recent award-winning farmer, Lisa Daniels, is excited that she is retiring from her off-farm work this month and will have more time to dedicate to growing demand for their garlic and humanely- slaughtered chickens and hogs.
On the other hand, I
recently attended a newly launched event in our area that touted a definite opinion: no more meat! I attended mostly out of curiosity, but I admit there were aspects of the event that prompted my early departure and again it involves each person’s right to an opinion. I close by noting that
every person who is dedicated to ethically providing 10 or 10 million people with food is worthy of support. Big or small, you’re the best!
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