Reed remembered
Editor: Chris Reed turned the sometimes tedious experience of having to stand in line into FUN! He will be missed by so many whose lives he touched. The legacy of his big-hearted Spirit will be carried on by Tiffany and Anthony, the apples of his eye.
“Chris, I will miss your presence and your larger-than-life waves from the green and white Bronco. And now, I picture you charming the angels.”
Maria Poore
Sonoma
Editor’s note: Dave Neubacher is a fifth-grade teacher at El Verano School. His class recently gave this speech at a City Council meeting.
Students get buzzed about bees
We are a group of fifth-grade students from El Verano Elementary School who want to share a concern we are worried about. Our class has studied about what we can do to help the environment. Many local groups have asked for help from us over the years.
It all started when we were invited Kunde Winery to listen to some speakers about “Honey Bees are in Trouble!” We listened and took notes and were surprised with the information they shared. Because of the workshop, we are worried about the recent prediction by experts stating that honeybees may go extinct by the year 2035. Our goal today is to have you, as one of the most important decision making bodies in our community, become aware of the problem and maybe help us do something about it. This may not compare to the problems our world is having today with Climate Change and Global Warming but IT IS IMPORTANT.
A graph we have from the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Agricultural Statistics Services shows the decline of bees from 1945 to the year 2007. The graph clearly shows a prediction of their disappearance in 2035. We want you to know this is a prediction … not something we all know will happen. We did notice this has been slowly happening for the last 60 years or so.
A few years ago there were major news stories about the disappearance of honeybees. No one knew why. Some were even suggesting cell phones signals were causing it. No one talked about it for a while, so a lot of people may think perhaps scientists had come up with a solution to the mystery. This is not the case …
Our current research shows it is clear the problem is anything but solved. Colony Collapse Disorder, as it has been called, is affecting 35 states in the United States, as well as Europe, South America, India, and China. We’ve already lost 35 percent of the bees in the United States, and we’re losing 8 percent more every year. Honeybees were being predicted to be extinct in the United States by 2035 even before Colony Collapse Disorder. Now many scientists say it’s likely to happen much sooner.
We would be fools to tell you we know what is causing the honeybees to die. It seems there is no one cause but possible causes include:
CHEMICALS – pesticides and herbicides honey bees pick up when they gather pollen
SPRAYING MITES – scientists feel this may kill the mites that hurt the bees, but also may be affecting the bees
RADIATION – increased cell phone use and wireless towers may throw the bees off course
GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS – the pollen collected from these crops may not have the nutrition the honeybee needs. Proof of this we ran across many times in our research showed bees collecting from organic crops are not experiencing the same decline as bees that visit genetically modified crops.
GLOBAL WARMING – perhaps warmer weather is causing the mites, viruses, and fungi to grow more. These take a toll on bee colonies and their hives!
We have six ways to help the honeybees:
1) Plant a bee-friendly garden.
2) Raise awareness and share with others. Get them involved!
3) Buy local honey products. Use honey instead of sugar.
4) When honeybees come to feast on pollen, leave them alone! Don’t chase them away or bother them. Never step on them, just let them do their work!
5) Have a bee problem? Contact a beekeeper before calling an exterminator.
6) If you have to use pesticides at home, try to use ones without overdoing it.
We are doing a lot of things to help honeybees at El Verano School and are trying to raise awareness in our community by sharing what we know. For instance, we have written a law for Jared Huffman’s “There Oughta Be A Law” contest and sent it in with research. Our law states people with a honeybee problem should be required to call a beekeeper to remove honeybees before they consider calling in an exterminator to kill the honey bees! We have purchased thousands of seeds to give each and every child at El Verano School a few seeds which grow into bee-friendly plants. We made a brochure written in English and Spanish to give to as many people as possible to raise awareness! We wrote to every politician who represents our community and asked them to help. We already got letters back from a few. We’ve actually become the very first “Bee Friendly Farming School.” We are registered and will receive an award in the spring!
Children and adults all over the world may be even cheering because there may not be as many bees alive to sting them. Honeybees just have a bad rap since they rarely sting. These bees only sting if they are threatened. They die when they sting. You hurt them … they sting you!
We want people to take the time to do something about the honeybee problem. It is important we do something to help solve this dilemma, and fast. Remember we get the bees’ services for nothing. They never charge us a penny! These bees are the only insects to produce food for humans. Don’t you think we owe it to the bees to figure out how to save them?
Want to help? We are asking you to help the honeybees by sharing awareness and possibly planting bee friendly seeds whenever the city of Sonoma does erosion control or just clears an area in town.
We know you are all busy and we want to thank you for reading this letter. We hope the city of Sonoma, that is known all over California for its environmental efforts, will help out these honey bees. To us they are NOT THE BAD GUY, just a victim of the times.
El Verano School wants to thank you again for reading this letter and for all you do for our community!