PORT TOWNSEND — An environmental coalition will conduct a public bee funeral this weekend in downtown Port Townsend.
The Jefferson County Environmental Coalition, in protest of aerial spraying they believe killed honeybees last August, will host the event Sunday.
It will start at noon at the Eaglemount Farm, 751 Old Eaglemount Road, and move to the Haller Fountain at Washington and Taylor streets in Port Townsend at 2 p.m. From there, the group will walk to the Pope Marine Plaza, 621 Water St.
Suquamish tribe members and the Sacred Water Canoe Family will sing, drum and bless the funeral.
Ellen O’Shea, the head farmer at the Eaglemount Farm, said thousands of her honeybees disappeared along with many birds and other insects, and several fruit trees were damaged after a logging operation conducted by Pope Resources last August.
“Our honeybees were decimated,” O’Shea said. “They can go outside for miles, looking for nectar and protein.
“Within 24 hours of the spray, we noticed there weren’t any bees, and we had several trees hit by the drift.”
She and others blame Pope Resources, saying it was spraying by that company that did the damage.
Adrian Miller, the vice president for corporate affairs and administration for Pope Resources, said the Poulsbo-based company uses licensed contractors and forestry-based chemicals that do not leave their property.
“Pope Resources is very confident this did not occur,” Miller said.
“We are very careful and use a licensed contractor. We also have employees on site during these applications.
“We do a lot of due diligence in applying and have little risk in the chemical leaving our property.”
Bees can fly up to a couple miles in search of food and bring back potentially toxic chemicals to the hive, Port Townsend beekeeper Eric Davis said.
Formal complaints can be made with the state Department of Agriculture.
O’Shea said her neighbors and others have experienced similar symptoms. She said a cherry tree and two apple trees had ripened fruit on them, and the fruit rotted on the trees. Bark is cracking on maple and alder trees and starting to come apart, she said.
“We lost 75 percent of our squash and anything in our garden,” O’Shea said.
Miller disputes the claim that Pope Resources was responsible and said the Eaglemount farm is more than a mile away from the herbicide application.
“There are herbicides and pesticides that, when applied under certain conditions, can be volatilized,” Miller said. “If it volatilizes, drift can occur. It’s most noticeable in certain agriculture crops.
“It’s not that it doesn’t happen,” he added. “That’s one of the reasons we use licensed commercial applicators, and we also have our own staff on site to ensure drift doesn’t occur.
“The chemicals we use in forest practices do not volatilize.”
O’Shea said she’s taken such measures as to pull a large sheet over planted crops this year. Several farms helped to start the Jefferson County coalition and joined with the Kitsap Environmental Coalition to challenge the spraying. The groups have started social media pages and testified in front of the state Legislature and the Department of Natural Resources, she said.
This year, they have placards in place and plan to collect samples to potentially build a legal case.
Davis, reached in San Diego on Thursday as he attended a conference, said he moves 50 to 100 hives to Pope Resources property from May into September.
“There are a lot of things going on with insects, and they’re not just new,” Davis said. “With bees, hives collapse, and we don’t know exactly why.”
Until the United States outlaws pesticides, Davis said he will work through it.
He also acknowledges Pope Resources for planing beneficial weeds such as fireweed, which helps to block out noxious weeds when trees are growing from about a foot tall to 10 to 15 feet tall, he said.
“The fireweed is thick enough that the trees do great,” Davis said. “The need for spraying is less. Go for the friendly weeds and the friendly plants, because that’s beneficial.”
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Jefferson County Managing Editor Brian McLean can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 6, or at bmclean@peninsuladailynews.com.
