Location: Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection
2023 Annual Report
Objectives
1.) Conduct research on general pollinator health and recovery. [NP305, Component 2, Problem Statements 2A, 2B, 2C]
2.) Conduct research aimed at restoring critical pollinator habitat. [NP305, Component 2, Problem Statement 2A]
3.) Generate economic revitalization through beekeeping and STEM focused programming for Appalachian youth. [NP305, Component 2, Problem Statements 2A, 2B, 2C]
Approach
Objective 1: Center staff will manage queen bee breeding and research program to survey and identify genetic material for a locally adapted pest-resistant strain of honey bee. Center staff will collect and review data on hundreds of honey bee hives in central Appalachia from more than 100 individual beekeepers as well as the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective’s own extensive breeding apiary. These data also will provide quantification of best practices as well as important baseline data for our research and breeding programs. Development of beekeeping practices that limit or eliminate antibotics and synthetic chemicals will also be pursued.
Objective 2: We will quantify pollinator usage of and preference for native plants found in and unique to central Appalachian ecosystems, particularly in forested areas, and utilize them for habitat restoration projects. Center staff will initiate and manage a native plant horticulture program, involving collecting seeds and plant materials from native varietals of pollinator-preferred plant species based on survey work. We will grow those plants at the Center’s facilities (including greenhouse and shade house facilities). These plants will be used in pollinator habitat restoration projects in central Appalachia. The Center will provide this information and other current research outputs to provide regionally specific educational outreach and materials for general public use for planting and restoring critical pollinator habitat throughout the region.
Objective 3: The Appalachian Beekeeping Collective program, an economic development program, will provide expertise and programs for local people in Central Appalachia to learn beekeeping. This program will provide bees, hive boxes, equipment, continuing education, and support for new beekeepers. This program will also provide STEM educational instruction focused on pollinators and beekeeping for youth. Programs include classroom-based activities throughout the school year as well as through Camp Waldo, an annual residential summer camp for 4th-7th graders.
Progress Report
Our objectives have evolved and changed over the year due to staffing issues. This progress report describes what we have accomplished over the past year. For Objective 1, we are collecting honeybee colony health data from selected hives across southern West Virginia and Virginia. Appalachian Headwaters and our partners manage approximately 800 hives. We collect data points on factors including queen’s brood patterns, size of brood chambers, queen source, queen age, hive temperament, anticipated honey production, actual hive honey production, and hive treatments. These data help inform several decisions, including which hives to use for the genetic stock for queen rearing and which partners to help with apiary expansion. They also provide information about the efficacy of natural beekeeping methods, treatment methods, and patterns of disease and growth within the region. Our program has continued to evolve such that we are focusing less on active research by our own staff; we instead preserve data so tests and comparisons can be performed over the years by interested scientists. Likewise, our bee breeding program this year has shifted from breeding our own queens, instead relying on purchasing high quality queen bee stock from a variety of breeders with genetics we intend to incorporate into our program. For example, this summer, our beekeepers have tried to incorporate Buckfast and Caucasian queen cells to graft to improve hive temperaments, after finding our hives have become increasingly aggressive.
We also note our Head Beekeeper regularly presents at West Virginia beekeeping association meetings around the region and virtually around the country. He has been invited to be the key note speaker at the worldwide beekeeping conference, Apimondia, in Santiago, Chile later this fall. Apimondia is the conference organized by the International Organization of Beekeeping Associations, which brings together scientists, specialists and beekeepers from around the world.
For Objective 2, Headwaters staff have developed a nursery program based in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, and several restoration sites throughout southern West Virginia. These sites include the Mammoth Preserve, in Raleigh and Fayette counties, which is a more than 5,000-acre former surface mine site. Appalachian Headwaters has reforested approximately 2,500 acres of mined land on this site by ripping compacted soils open to loosen, so seedling trees of native hardwood forests can take root, returning the disturbed land to deciduous forest more closely resembling the natural forest that once thrived here. Headwaters staff and interns have conducted annual pollinator research surveys at the Mammoth site and are developing relationships with scientists to expand this program. We have also worked with the United States Forest Service and expert scientists at the University of Kentucky to reforest approximately 465 acres of rare red spruce forest at Sharp Knob in the Monongahela National Forest (Pocahontas County, West Virginia). At our Headwaters Park site in Greenbrier County, Headwaters staff are restoring a 160-acre former agricultural site to host a variety of native habitats, including meadow, forest, and wetland ecosystems. These habitats will be part of the Headwaters Park public education and community science hub. We are finishing the construction of an education center at this site, which will host lab space and classroom space, and provide opportunities for community science programming focused on pollinators and native ecosystems. We intend this building will be completed within the next several months.
This summer, we piloted a summer ecologist fellowship through which we host academic partners on site for 10 weeks of teaching and community science programs. We hosted Dr. Ami Thompson, an entomologist from North Carolina Wesleyan University, as well as four interns dedicated to the project. We intend to expand this project in future summers with additional scientists and interns. Headwaters staff focus primarily on community science and education programs, rather than pure research. However, we are also working with ARS to develop a joint position for a scientist focused on pollinator and native plant interactions.
For Objective 3, the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective program, a training and support program for partner beekeepers in central Appalachia, has supported approximately 250 partner beekeepers over the last several years. We currently have approximately 105 active partners. Hundreds more have taken our free beekeeping classes. Last year, the Collective produced approximately 12,600 pounds of honey. We are expecting this summer’s production will be down due to the weather. Our honey has won several awards, including the Good Food Award from the Good Food Foundation this spring. We have also begun selling the honey wholesale to retail outlets, in addition to direct-to-consumer. Additionally, our staff conduct regular pollinator educational programming for children around the region in classrooms, through virtual programs, and during our summer camp program, Camp Waldo. Camp Waldo hosts more than 100 children each year for several weeks of pollinator and native ecosystem programming. We are making plans to expand this program with an additional a day camp in 2024.
Accomplishments
