It all started with beekeeping. When Bob Colligan’s daughter, then six, asked “Can we get bees
this year?” it didn’t happen. During the next year, however, she asked again! Finally it
happened. Much to her surprise, when she did experience a bee sting episode dissuading her
from her hobby, her father ended up carrying on the art and science of beekeeping, as he did in
his early college years.
Are beekeepers farmers? Yes, Bob shared. Honey production is a branch of agriculture and
pollination is the act of transferring pollen between flowers moved by wind, water, birds, insects, butterflies, bats and other animals. Bob’s view of this field has evolved to where we are today as we’ve essentially interrupted nature, relying 100% on honey bees to feed the population. Good environmental practices going back to the 1920s would be needed in order to restore habitat to support native bee populations. Instead, the population of native bees has been decimated, Bob indicated. Their survival is threatened by climate change, habitat loss, disease, pollution and pesticide use. One-third of the food we eat comes from animal or insect-pollinated crops.
How do we restore the ecosystem? Our focus switches to create one that sustains the
inter-dependent web. I asked about pollination with almonds, for example. Today, in order for
pollination in California’s Central Valley, honey bees are trucked across the country from places
like Maine, Georgia and the southern and eastern states to California. Bob emphatically said
that when we consider that carbon footprint, it is huge.
Locally at the Unitarian Universalist Church of East Aurora congregation, he describes how a
green community is being created for the entire community. It’s largely an educational effort, to enhance the community’s knowledge of planting natives and to raise awareness of the
indigenous people, whose growing practices and culture fostered the land and protected the
earth for generations. This conscious way to interact with the land offers a model for sustainable living.
So, what about the purpose of the pollinator garden and choices of plantings? Keystone trees
(those native to America) and other natives act as hosts. For example, an Asian plant may
pollinate one or two species, while an Oak tree would be host to as many as 350 moths and
butterflies.The butterflies may lay 100 eggs, which will produce caterpillars, which will be eaten
by birds. The more fruit planted, depending on the insects, the more caterpillars - completing the whole cycle.
We live in a time of change and environmental crisis. Nonetheless, Bob’s personal effort, along
with Green Sanctuary co-leader Carlo Piech, aims to inspire people to retain a fair amount of
native plantings on a local level. It’s about replacing “a lot of lawn” per Bob, to create a host for
native pollinators.What’s up for Spring?
It’s that time for getting pollinator seeds, tarps on the fields, then June’s cover crop of
buckwheat, for Bob’s bee endeavor. Plans are to turn a portion of his daughter’s Dirt Rich Farm
into prairie, a process that will foster many native species.
This story circles back to Bob’s vision and that little girl, now a farmer, who wanted to raise
bees. To be able to maintain and increase the planting of lots of native species on his acreage
and at the Green Sanctuary, thus creating habitat for more pollinators to thrive, would make him very happy.
To educate ourselves and others, and to make an impact in a world with so many challenges “in some small way” as my interviewee voiced, would be his and our great hope.
For more information on Native plants and pollination, please go to:
-By Michele Bjella
ACES Board Member
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