Rain and hail pelted the California Honey Festival, held recently in downtown Woodland, but that...
Master Beekeeper Sung Lee of Castro Valley, known worldwide on social media as "Sung Lee The Bee Charmer," displayed his observation hive at the California Honey Festival. With him is fellow CAMBP member Leandra Hale of Lake Tahoe. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Master Beekeeper Sung Lee of Castro Valley, known worldwide on social media as "Sung Lee The Bee Charmer," displayed his observation hive at the California Honey Festival. With him is fellow CAMBP member Leandra Hale of Lake Tahoe. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
California Honey Festival attendees delighted in seeing a bee observation hive, displayed by Sung Lee the Bee Charmer of Castro Valley, a Master Beekeeper with the UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
California Honey Festival attendees delighted in seeing a bee observation hive, displayed by Sung Lee the Bee Charmer of Castro Valley, a Master Beekeeper with the UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Before the rains drenched the California Honey Festival, crowds flocked to the UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program booth. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Before the rains drenched the California Honey Festival, crowds flocked to the UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program booth. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Wendy Mather, co-program manager of the California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP) and CAMBP apprentice level Rick Moehrke of Vacaville discuss the merits of beekeeping with festival attendees. Moehrke became a beekeeper last September. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Wendy Mather, co-program manager of the California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP) and CAMBP apprentice level Rick Moehrke of Vacaville discuss the merits of beekeeping with festival attendees. Moehrke became a beekeeper last September. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
CAMBP master beekeeper Sara Cutrignelli of San Martin explains bee behavior to youngsters at the arts and crafts booth, while fellow CAMBP member Paula Brackett, an apprentice level beekeeper, helps youngsters with their creative ideas. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
CAMBP master beekeeper Sara Cutrignelli of San Martin explains bee behavior to youngsters at the arts and crafts booth, while fellow CAMBP member Paula Brackett, an apprentice level beekeeper, helps youngsters with their creative ideas. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Thomas Bigham, 4, (foreground) of Woodland is excited about creating arts and crafts at the California Master Beekeeper Program booth. With him are his twin brother, Max, and sister, Sophia, 7. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Thomas Bigham, 4, (foreground) of Woodland is excited about creating arts and crafts at the California Master Beekeeper Program booth. With him are his twin brother, Max, and sister, Sophia, 7. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Posted on
Monday, May 22, 2023 at
11:47 AM
Focus Area Tags: Agriculture, Economic Development, Environment, Innovation, Yard & Garden
The California Honey Festival is the place to "bee" on Saturday, May 6 in downtown...
Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, and co-founder of the California Honey Festival, talks about honey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, and co-founder of the California Honey Festival, talks about honey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Wendy Mather, program manager of the California Master Beekeeper Program, dresses as a bee at the California Honey Festival. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Wendy Mather, program manager of the California Master Beekeeper Program, dresses as a bee at the California Honey Festival. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The annual California Honey Festival draws an average of 40,000 people. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The annual California Honey Festival draws an average of 40,000 people. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Posted on
Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at
4:28 PM
Focus Area Tags: Agriculture, Economic Development, Environment, Innovation, Natural Resources
If you've recently visited the pollinator gardens at The Hive, a family business owned by Z...
"Queen Bee" Amina Harris of Z Specialty Food is also the executive director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
"Queen Bee" Amina Harris of Z Specialty Food is also the executive director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Josh Zeldner, nectar director at Z Specialty Food, stands by the bee-themed conference table. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Josh Zeldner, nectar director at Z Specialty Food, stands by the bee-themed conference table. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Liz Luu, formerly of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, serves as the marketing manager and the tasting room manager. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Liz Luu, formerly of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, serves as the marketing manager and the tasting room manager. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A wide-angle of The Hive. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A wide-angle of The Hive. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This honey bee appears to be giving a "high five" of approval as it forages on the Pride of Madeira. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This honey bee appears to be giving a "high five" of approval as it forages on the Pride of Madeira. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Posted on
Tuesday, March 29, 2022 at
5:01 PM
Tags:
Amina Harris (109),
bees (218),
honey (59),
Josh Zeldner (3),
Liz Luu (2),
mead (16),
Nature Day (3),
pollinator gardens (2),
tasting room (1),
The Hive (6),
Woodland (9),
Z Specialty Food (5)
Focus Area Tags: Agriculture, Economic Development, Environment, Family, Food, Innovation, Natural Resources, Yard & Garden
You may associate “tasting room” with wine in the Napa Valley, or olive oil in...
The newly constructed HIVE, owned by Z Specialty Food, Woodland. (Photo by Elizabeth Luu)
The newly constructed HIVE, owned by Z Specialty Food, Woodland. (Photo by Elizabeth Luu)
Napa Valley has its wine tasting rooms, but Northern California now as a honey and mead (honey wine) tasting room at The HIVE, Woodland. (Photo by Elizabeth Luu)
Napa Valley has its wine tasting rooms, but Northern California now as a honey and mead (honey wine) tasting room at The HIVE, Woodland. (Photo by Elizabeth Luu)
Amina Harris, the self-described "Queen Bee" of her family-owned Z Specialty Food, is photographed in the tasting room of The HIVE.
Amina Harris, the self-described "Queen Bee" of her family-owned Z Specialty Food, is photographed in the tasting room of The HIVE.
Posted on
Wednesday, November 3, 2021 at
4:07 PM
Focus Area Tags: Agriculture, Economic Development, Environment, Innovation, Natural Resources
Reposted from the Berkeley ESPM News
![A campaign poster for wildfire prevention with Smokey the Bear and the slogan](https://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/sites/ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/files/469px-Smokey_Bear_Only_You_campaign_hat.jpg)
“ONLY YOU!” For nearly eight decades, Smokey Bear's face and words have served as an emblematic warning about preventing forest fires, but his age-old motto only describes a tiny piece of the current challenge California faces today. California's devastating wildfires have made global headlines for their ever-increasing size and destructiveness. Much of the political and scientific discussion around these fires, both historic and current, has focused on the state's management of conifer forests. Recent media attention includes former President Trump blaming California's wildfires on poor forest management, specifically on not “raking” forest floors, and the back-and-forth on fires and forest management in California in the 2020 presidential debates. These discussions and the long history of fire science have created the general belief that wildfires are predominantly a challenge affecting conifer forests in California and the people who live in and around them.
A new study appearing in the journal Diversity and Distributions challenges these perceptions. In the study, scientists from the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management (ESPM) at UC Berkeley found that the majority of recent wildfires in California have occurred outside of conifer forests. Moreover, the authors showed that fires burning outside of these forests potentially pose a greater threat to biodiversity and are more likely to occur in areas of dense human infrastructure (e.g., near houses). In short, the prevailing focus on forests is misleading and carries potentially dangerous consequences, the authors conclude. They call for a more nuanced approach to wildfire to protect California's unique biodiversity and people.
“Forests are just one piece of the incredible mosaic of ecosystems that make up California,” said the study's lead author and current ESPM graduate student Kendall Calhoun. “Ecosystems outside of conifer forests, like California's oak woodland savannahs, also provide key ecosystem services to the people who live around them and support an incredible amount of biodiversity. Understanding how ecosystems outside of conifer forests respond to fire is critical to their future conservation.”
To conduct the analyses, Calhoun and the research team mapped out California wildfires from the last twenty years (2000-2020) and examined the land cover composition of each wildfire. They also overlapped the wildfire dataset with areas designated important for conserving biodiversity—specifically, those named Areas of Conservation Emphasis by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Their results illustrate that burned shrubland, hardwood, and conifer ecosystems all overlap with areas of special conservation concern for several wildlife species. Tailored management for each of these coarse ecosystem types could be critical for future conservation as megafires become more frequent and extreme, they assert.
The authors found that shrubland wildfires accounted for the largest amount of area burned and that non-conifer wildfires made up nearly two-thirds of the total area burned during this time period. In contrast, research on non-forest California wildfires from the last twenty years made up only 30% of the academic literature. This mismatch highlights a need for more representation of these unique non-forested ecosystems in future wildfire research and management.
“We were surprised that nearly 70% of studies on wildfire in California have focused on conifer forests, but such forests comprise only a third of fires,” said ESPM professor and the study's senior author Justin Brashares. “By many metrics, fires outside of forests pose a higher threat to human well-being and biodiversity. Funding for management and research on the majority of fires occurring in the 68% of California that is not forested should be a state and federal priority.”
Previous research has found that the most effective wildfire management strategies are those that are ecosystem or region specific. The authors argue that to properly face the growing issue of megafire in California, researchers and land managers across the state must expand and diversify strategies to create ecosystem-specific wildfire management strategies and policies. To be successful, the authors add, these strategies must also draw on indigenous knowledge and leadership, which could help identify tools that can protect landscapes, wildlife, and people from future extreme wildfires.
Additional authors of this study include current ESPM PhD candidates Amy Van Scoyoc, Phoebe Parker-Shames, and Millie Chapman; recent ESPM PhD graduates Carmen Tubbesing, Alex McInturff, Christine Wilkinson, and Dave Kurz; and Kaitlyn Gaynor, an ESPM alum and current postdoctoral fellow at the National Center of Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.
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Posted on
Thursday, October 7, 2021 at
1:41 PM
- Author:
UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources
Focus Area Tags: Environment