Latest news with #IzzyRoss
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Florida bees hard at work in Michigan cherry orchards
Tens of thousands of bees teem inside a hive just placed in the Wunsch Farms cherry orchards on Old Mission Peninsula. May 1, 2025. (Photo: Izzy Ross/IPR News) This coverage is made possible through a partnership between IPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization. Rain is pelting the cherry orchards at Wunsch Farms on the Old Mission Peninsula. Michal Peterson is wearing a full suit of rain gear. On the back of a flatbed truck are bee hives, stacked two or three high and dripping wet in the downpour. Peterson uses a Hummerbee forklift — 'pretty much a forklift on steroids' — to offload them and drop them off around the rows of budding cherry trees. He hands me a veil so I don't get stung. Peterson works for Hilbert's Honey, Co., distributing beehives on orchards across northern Michigan, work he's been doing for 18 years. 'The wild honeybees aren't really around much. You got some butterflies, the monarchs and the bumble bees, but it's just another extra pollination to insure the farmer,' he said. Pollination is an essential part of many farming operations. That's because pollinators — from bees to bugs to birds — are crucial for plant growth and reproduction. Cherry trees, for example, need pollination in order to develop: More pollination means more fruit. And the honeybees Peterson is setting up in northern Michigan are actually from Florida. Commercial honeybees are considered livestock by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and shipping colonies to different crops around the country is a common practice. For instance, hundreds of thousands of colonies were sent to California's almond orchards in 2017. But the process comes with complications and concerns. European honeybees are not native to North America, and can disrupt ecosystems and out-compete native species for resources. Non-native bees face a number of threats as well: pesticides, diseases and parasites, and weather. Some years have seen high mortality rates, including this year, when some commercial operations reported high losses. Peterson said they coordinate with those running the farm to reduce their bees' exposure to pesticides. 'He tells me when he's done spraying, and I can put the bees in,' said Peterson. 'Right now, they're probably going to spray after it stops raining, for fungicide or whatever. That don't really hurt the bees. It's the poisons that they put out.' Tens of thousands of bees teem inside one of the hives. Hilbert's hives usually have between 30,000 and 100,000 bees. They generally try to place the hives in the orchards when it's cool out — early morning or late evening — so the bees are less active. On a chilly, rainy day that's less of a concern. The cherry trees aren't yet in bloom. 'By next week, you'll start seeing them kind of popcorn out of their shell and have white buds coming out,' Peterson said. 'So this is about the right time, as you can see, the rain don't stop me. [The bees] have to go in a certain time so they can get acclimated to their surroundings.' When Peterson began, he was in between jobs, and knew he wanted to work outside. His brother-in-law, a fifth generation beekeeper, reached out to ask him for help. 'I learned from the best, I feel,' he said. Peterson clearly loves his job. 'The view is amazing,' he said, though we couldn't see much in the downpour. 'While I'm putting in bees, it's really beautiful out here,' he said. 'I always get excited when I have to put bees in the cherries.' Hilbert's Honey is based in Traverse City and LaBelle, Florida, and Peterson is trying to get back down to Florida to make a second trip — his second this season. He and his family rear queen bees in Florida and help pollinate watermelon crops there as well. 'I have a list of pollinations to do, and I'm almost done with this one,' he said. 'We do pollination up [US-31] and all the way up north of Northport. We try to stay local, try to help the local farmers. We also do almond pollination in the wintertime in California,' he said. 'The bees travel more than we do.'
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal appeals court upholds 2023 Great Lakes Fishing Decree
The sun sets over Lake Michigan in October 2023. (Photo: Izzy Ross/IPR News Radio) This coverage is made possible through a partnership between IPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization. A federal appeals court ruling on Thursday means the latest version of the Great Lakes Fishing Decree will stand. The decree deals with the allocation, management, and regulation of certain parts of the Great Lakes governed by the 1836 Treaty of Washington. Under that treaty, Ottawa and Chippewa nations ceded millions acres of land and water to the United States, which in turn recognized their rights to hunt, fish and gather there. Seven sovereign governments are subject to the decree: the U.S., the state of Michigan, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Bay Mills Indian Community, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians began an appeal of the order and decree in the fall of 2023. The tribe said it had not consented to the deal and had effectively been shut out of negotiations and that the decree violated its treaty rights. Tribal representatives have also said it restricts fishing rights and won't meet the needs of tribal members. But Bill Rastetter, an attorney with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, applauded the decision from the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 'I think that we're all living with it and I think we're all working cooperatively,' he said. 'But at the same time, I think it was really important, from the Grand Traverse Band's standpoint, to protect our ability to control access to the natural resources in our area.' Rastetter said the court's ruling clarifies that while treaties are the law of the land, the decree still stands because it's dealing with a shared fishery. 'We have the ability to withhold our permission if necessary to protect the natural resources,' he said. 'That's essentially the situation we're in today, that there's a scarce resource, and we have to make sure that whatever is there is sustainable, and one way to deal with that is to restrict the folks who have access to it.' The first Great Lakes Fishing Decree was approved in 1985, followed by a second decree in 2000. After years of negotiations, four tribes, the state and the federal government agreed to the latest version in 2022, and U.S. District Court Judge Paul Maloney issued an opinion approving it in August of 2023. Ryan Mills, an attorney with the Sault Tribe, said they're disappointed in the decision; they wanted to defend their treaty and fishing rights in a trial. 'This decree is a 24-year decree,' he said. 'We've kind of tied the hands of our legislators here, our board of directors, in what they can do to try to help preserve and regulate their fishery.' Other concerns include reporting requirements for tribal commercial and subsistence fishers; Mills said state fishers don't face the same restrictions. He also said the tribe hoped certain treaty waters closed under the last decree would be opened up for fishing. 'Although we are able to use a lot of our traditional gear, Sault Tribe was hoping there'd be more flexibility in how the tribes themselves could regulate the type of gear, and the seasons and the amount of harvest,' he said, adding that much 'was still dictated a lot by the state of Michigan in their asks during negotiations.' The court dismissed a separate appeal from recreational fishing groups earlier this week. Mills said the tribe's board of directors will discuss next steps, which could include an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
