A weed killing - beekeeper’s dilemma.

Are dandelions a wildflower, an exotic weed, or a honey bee forage plant?  What about knapweed, or Canada thistle? Not that long ago, I would have said without hesitation “exotic weeds”! And while most days I still feel that way, I have come to see these plants in a new light.

Early Spring Dandelion

I have been trained as a land manager, and a big part of that is noxious weed control. In my current position, I maintain a herbicide applicators license with our state Department of Agriculture, and administer the noxious weed control program on the state lands within our administrative unit. Roughly 65,000 acres. 

To that end, several times a year I go to training sessions and seminars to learn the latest trends and developments in the weed killing world.  Often this means listening to enthusiastic presentations about the latest and greatest chemicals the industry has to offer.  There are chemicals for everything these days, and if you take everything the vendors say as gospel, chemicals are the answer to all our troubles.

Luckily, there are more than just chemicals in the weed killer’s arsenal. There is also grazing, mowing, bio-controls (weed killing insects) and of course hand pulling. This is what we in the business call Integrated Pest Management (IPM).  As a weed manager IPM is very important, as over reliance on one method or chemical will result in a new generation of super weeds.   

So, we can all agree that noxious weeds are bad and must be dealt with. Or can we?

A beekeeper may see things differently. The first blooms of spring are hugely important to honey bees. This is a time when honey bee colonies are very weak and food sources are scarce. The end of winter / beginning of spring is when honey bees starve.  To a honey bee emerging from the hive on an early spring day and seeing (or sensing) a dandelion in full bloom and ripe with nectar, must be pretty amazing after months of cold weather and no blooms.

Later in the summer after all the native plants have long since quit blooming and bolted, knapweed and thistles continue to thrive. Long into the droughty days of autumn, these exotics provide excellent nectar and pollen that bees use extensively. These plants provide much of the honey we harvest in the fall; in fact many people actually prefer the honey from some very noxious weeds such as knapweed.

So what’s a beekeeping - weed manager to do? For me it’s a tough question, but for now I will continue to fight noxious weeds with every tool I’ve got. The damage to native ecosystems from noxious weeds is tremendous and costly in many ways. Noxious weeds as a rule are poor feed. They out compete native plants and create monocultures. Noxious weeds effectively remove thousands of acres per year from production of livestock and wildlife.  

That being said, if I ever get a chance to place some bee hives near a field with knapweed, I’ll do it!

KJ

Go plant a tree. You'll be glad you did.

Last weekend I planted an apple tree. Maybe that does not sound like much, but give it some thought.
Planting a tree is one simple act that can have lasting impacts for many years to come. Not only does a tree provide the obvious benefits of shade and fruit (in the case of a fruit tree) but it can also provide countless other benefits. Trees convert CO2 into O2 (that's carbon dioxide into oxygen for the non science types out there). That ability by itself should be enough to make us all stop and say "wow" but there's more. Trees purify water, stabilize soil, provide habitat, feed wildlife, increase soil productivity, store carbon, increase property value, reduce temperature fluctuations, create mulch, provide jobs and fight crime.
Provide Jobs and Fight Crime? Yes, it's true. There are more jobs directly related to trees than the fabled auto industry, and it's been proven by the US Forest Service's Urban Forest Program that neighborhoods with trees have less crime than neighborhoods without trees. Trees are literally leafy green job making-crime fighters. Given that resume, if a tree ran for public office I think we'd all be better off!
The benefits of a tree are hard to realize immediately. In the era of instant gratification, planting a tree is a long term investment. It is a forced slow down. It takes many years for a seedling to grow into a tree. Fruit trees take 3 years or more to bear a crop after planting. But, what you may not see right away are the countless little things that tree is doing everyday. From learning to appreciate the seasons by watching the bud - leaf - bloom - fruit cycle, to reminding you to take a moment and water the trees, trees improve the quality of our lives everyday. One of my favorite things about spring is going out to my little orchard and checking the bud swell. How many more days until leaf burst? Until bloom? Until fruit? In the springtime at work, I am lucky enough to get to check on seedlings I've planted in years past. Conducting survival surveys it's called and it's an activity that can leave me excited and inspired, or downtrodden depending on the results. It's a harsh world for a young tree. The environment is full of hazards from deer and elk to drought to insects and disease, even a late frost can spell death for a seedling. The fact that any seedling makes it to tree is a miracle, but they do.  Both planted and naturally regenerated trees are growing everyday, in fact there are more trees growing in our country today than at any other time in recorded history. A fact that is not without it's downside when you consider overcrowding of our forests and fire hazard - but that's a topic for another post.
I have had the unique opportunity to plant thousands of trees in my life. From a childhood on a tree farm where spring planting was a right of passage, to my education and career as a Forester, to a homeowner with an interest in growing my own foods, I seem to be constantly digging holes for trees. And yet I still love it. To me there are few things more satisfying than revisiting a tree I've planted, and seeing it's growth. So my advice to you is: Go plant a tree. You'll be glad you did.

Counting the days until the bloom.

KJ

Make mine a real tree

When it comes to Christmas trees, for me it's got to be the real thing. It may be because I was raised on a Christmas tree farm, in a family of tree farmers. It may be because I'm a Forester and have devoted my education and career to the growing, maintaining and harvesting of trees. Maybe it's because I've never had anything else. I'm not sure, but I do know that somehow it just wouldn't be right without a real tree in our house at Christmas time.


Searching for the right tree.

It all starts with my favorite part, Christmas tree hunting. For me this is a great day in the woods with Whitney and the dogs, and by now it's a family tradition. With hot cocoa in thermoses, we head out to one spot after another that we've thought would have good prospects, we spot trees, we shake snow from their branches, we compare their qualities and finally sooner or later the perfect tree jumps out at us. Or at least that's what is supposed to happen but like hunting most things, usually that's not exactly the way it goes.

In years past, we've chosen trees by headlights and flashlights because it got dark before we found the right tree. One time several years ago, we wound up having two trees because we picked one for Whit's house in Missoula and one for my place in Plains and then kept them both when we celebrated the holiday together. One year we helped Whitney's parents pick a tree that traveled clear back to Oregon with them. A couple times we've even gotten trees where it wasn't exactly legal (don't tell). And this year our tree was enjoyed by two different Christmas parties before coming home to our house. The point is choosing the right tree is often as much fun as having the tree in the first place, and no two years are exactly alike just as no two trees are exactly alike.

After the tree is chosen, it's time to cut and trim the tree, load and haul the tree and finally get it into the house and set up in the stand. All this even before it gets decorated! I guess from that perspective it's no wonder some people choose imitation trees. But if you're like me, and you're into the tradition of choosing a tree to bring into your home to be decorated and celebrated during the Christmas season, the time involved in the process is all part of the joy of the season. Yes, I really do turn on Christmas music and pour a glass of eggnog while decorating the tree (I'm that kind of dork)!

Our 2012 Christmas Tree

Yes, a tree must die in order to come into the house and become a Christmas tree. But in it's place there will grow a new tree because that is perphaps the tree's best and most important quality. They regenerate! Everyday, year in and year out trees are seeding, sprouting, and growing. That is one trick a fake tree will never be able to do.
So if your reading this and you have a fake tree in your home, then by all means enjoy it. But for the rest of you go out and get a real tree. Support tree farmers or your public lands by purchasing a permit to harvest a tree. And this year, while you're celebrating Christmas, celebrate also our greatest renewable national resource. Our trees.
KJ

Harvesting Larch Cones, with a bang!

I'll be the first to admit my blogging lately has been lacking. In the summer we try and cram as much as possible into every day and finally fall exhausted into bed late every night. I will though, try and get back into it, since I do enjoy sharing with you and hearing your feedback on our experiences and posts. Soon, I'll get back to news about the bees, the garden crops, and I'll tell you all about our adventure of introducing the young hens into the big flock, but tonight I wanted to tell you about one day harvesting larch cones with rifles!

Western Larch (Larrix occidentalis) is one of our native trees here in Western MT and is one of my favorite all around trees for several reasons. Chiefly, it is beautiful. With a growth form similar to conifers (pines, firs and such) the larch is special because it shows off every fall by turning from green to yellow and finally golden before loosing it's needles for the winter. Secondly, the larch is a wonderful timber tree and produces tight grained, high quality wood that has been sought after by builders for generations. It is an important wildlife tree, and finally the dead dry larch is some of the best firewood available in the Rocky Mountain region.   

One aspect of Whitney's job with the Forest Service, is reforestation, which includes collecting cones for seed, that will be sown and grown at the nursery in Coeur 'de Alene, ID. The seeds from Whit's trees wind up getting planted all over the region reforesting areas that were burned, logged or deforested by beetles. In most cases cone collection is done by tree climbers who ascend the tree via rope. But the larch is different. Since the branches are too brittle to support a person's weight, the tree mush be felled to access the cones. But you have to be sure the cones are good before you fell the tree. So, how do you do that when the cones are 70 - 100' up? With firepower!

Whit takes aim at a larch branch with her 6.5x55 Swede

One Saturday this summer, Whit needed to go out and check the cone crop in a stand of larch to see if there were enough seeds in the cones to make cone collection viable. Since it was a Saturday and I wasn't busy, I went along for the fun.  Often the job of shooting down branches is left to the Law Enforcement Ranger, but in this case we got the okay to do it ourselves.


She got this beauty with two shots!

We headed up the mountain and arrived at the stand just as the afternoon winds kicked up (I had forgotten there was a Red-Flag warning for high winds that day!). Undaunted, Whit got out her trusty Swedish Mauser and with just 2 shots dropped a branch loaded with cones!
On the next branch, she nearly dropped it with 2 shots again, but let me hit it a few times since I was starting to feel left out. ;-)

cutting the cones to look for seeds.

Once we had a good sample of cones to work with, Whit cut them open to inspect the seeds. In this case the seeds were too few and of too poor quality to warrant dropping any trees. Larch like all fruit bearing trees have good years and lean years, it just turns out this was a lean year for the trees in that stand. So in the end, no trees were dropped to find out the seeds were poor, and we had a heck of a good time getting the job done!
Until next time, thanks for reading.
KJ