First,
bees are yellow and black. After all, those are the universal
“honeybee” colors. When I talk about “green” bees, I don’t mean that
the bees are colored green. I mean that these honeybees are doing
so-called “green” activities. In this case, the honeybees are
reclaiming land badly damaged by strip mining.
The type of coal mining called strip mining doesn’t involve the familiar coal shaft. Instead, in strip mining, the top layer of a rather large area of land sheered off. Then, a second layer is sheered. The surface hole becomes deeper and deeper with each new layer removed.
Because each sheer “strips” a slightly smaller area of land than the last, the edges of the resulting hole look a bit like giant stair steps. The result is a giant unnatural valley, sometimes, with a “pond” forming in the very bottom of the hole. The sides of the hole have been sheered to rock, so there is no soil to support growth of anything after the mine hole is abandoned.
Strip Mine Spoil
Strip
mining leaves the surface of the land in such an ugly condition that it even
earned the name “spoil.” So, a “strip mine spoil” is a giant
depression, with solid rock walls, left after the mining operation is finished.
Federal law requires that strip mining companies restore the land to its previous condition. But this requirement is deceptive in the sense that really no restoration project could ever accomplish that goal.
What can be done is to fill the spoil with earth and plant a variety of wild plants and flowers. Nature itself must take the surface through several stages of development before you could honestly say that the land was “restored” to its former glory. This is the slow way.
One way around the long wait is to “restore” and land by introducing a “higher use” such as building a golf course, airport, or prison on the “restored” surface. But, even if these “higher uses” are good shortcuts to “restoration,” the natural and aesthetic value of the land is lost.
But let’s go back to the first way to restore the land . . . the slow way. Wild flowers planted on the restored surface will produce new seed. With each passing year, the land will become more densely covered with flowers and grasses. As the years pass, the dense surface growth provides natural compost with trees slowing growing to significant heights throughout the area.
One thing wild plant life can always use is pollinators. You need the natural plant life to produce as much fertile seed as possible. You can’t really get the fertile seed without some pollinating honeybees. In fact, introducing bees into the equation always seemed like a good idea. But, soon, other uses for the bees became apparent.
What other uses?
Beekeeping on the reclaimed surface land seemed necessary to provide enough pollinators to assure the greatest seed production for the following year. Mining companies, in both West Virginia and Kentucky, with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, helped beekeepers establish beeyards on the reclaimed surfaces.
But
the Pritchard Mining Company of Hernshaw, West Virginia has gone farther and
“diversified” -- adding beekeeping and honey production to its list of
business activities along with its long-established mining
operations. Honey production has been strong. There is still plenty of room to expand by
adding more hives and beekeepers. Of course, as Wade Stillner
of the Department of Agriculture explains, the program has its enemies. But these are only natural enemies like the iconic honey bear.
The State of Kentucky developed a formula to be applied by the “Coal Country Beeworks Program.” The program used partnerships with coal companies and direct grants to place commercial beehives at five mining sites in Kentucky.
West Virginia has even bigger goals for their project. The state plans to introduce beekeeping training for veterans and out-of-work coal miners. And, with the installation of more hives, the state hopes it will be able to provide honey for its schools.
And how are the honeybees handling all this? I can only imagine their delight in the wide open spaces available on the reclaimed land. A large area, thick with wild flowers and grasses, may irritate me as I try to step through it -- without stumbling or falling. But, to the honeybees, that same field is an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of goodies.
These days, honeybees live in beeyards at our airports and enjoy luxury accommodations at many of the finest hotels, not just in America, but throughout Europe. Urban and suburban residents are taking up amateur beekeeping. And, now, the bees have gone “green” using their natural skills to assist in reclaiming partially restored strip mine spoils.
So, in spite of all of the honeybees’ current problems with disease and declining populations, the future seems much more hopeful. As so many sympathetic souls have joined in a direct effort to raise bee populations, we’re learning that, in each case, these same bees have something valuable to give us in return.
About the Author
No comments:
Post a Comment