Photo By Braden Simmons | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Park Rangers Stone Fagan and Ashley Webster remove panels...... read more read more
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CARTHAGE, Tenn. -- Cordell Hull Lake is about an hour east of Nashville.
The location, like some other U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District lakes, juxtaposes the hustle and bustle of the city with a peaceful and scenic woodland setting.
But make no mistake; there’s still a noticeable “buzz” of workers that keep themselves just as busy as the city folks: They just opt to work in honeycombs rather than office cubicles.
“Bees have always fascinated me and I saw this as an opportunity to learn more about bees, positively impact the environment, and then hopefully spread this knowledge to surrounding communities,” said Stone Fagan, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers park ranger at Cordell Hull Lake.
Cordell Hull Lake has recently acquired beehives as a part of a pollination effort at the site. The hives arrived after Fagan spoke with Ashley Webster a fellow park ranger about her previous experience applying for grants the two worked together to apply for a grant from HoneyBee Tennessee to kickstart the apiary project.
The rangers at the site all work as a team and take turns tending to the bees to ensure that the hives remain healthy and functional. With the hive being young, it is important to balance checking the health of the hive and providing additional food, with not being too disruptive.
“This has been a team effort from the start and continues to be such. From offering to feed the bees to offering suggestions and resources, this has fully been a team effort,” Fagan said.
At least once a week a park ranger will put on one of the site’s beekeeping suits, a large white covered jacket and fitted gloves, and check on the hives around midday when the least number of bees are typically in the hive and to be disturbed. They check the health of the hive and ensure there are no concerns with the larva, eggs, structure or food supply.
In its current stage, the primary concern of the apiary is to ensure the bees have enough honey to sustain the colony both day-to-day and for the upcoming winter in order to give the hive a chance to survive and continue growing.
“Tending to the bees has been a rollercoaster. You want the bees to succeed, but you also can only intervene so much,” said Webster.
The primary goal of the hives is to aid the surrounding area in pollination efforts for local biodiversity as well as forest conservation efforts.
However, the project has also led to additional unplanned benefits in the partnerships it has fostered with not only the HoneyBee Tennessee program but with the Eagle Scouts as well.
“Our partnership with Honeybee Tennessee has been crucial in the conception of the apiary. From supplies to expert knowledge, this nonprofit has been vital to the success of the project. A local eagle scout also contributed handmade benches for the beehives to rest on, as well as a gate for added security,” said Fagan.
The hives have been on the site for a little over a month and there is still optimism that the benefits will be seen in the future and eventually the project may even expand.
“Our hope moving forward is to have two seasons of successful thriving hives and then looking into expanding our apiary,” said Webster. “Once we build a mobile observation hive taking the bees to the campgrounds and office for programs with kids and adults should hit home with the public on how important bees are to our ecosystem and society.”
The public can obtain news, updates and information from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District on the district’s website at www.lrn.usace.army.mil, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nashvillecorps and on X (formerly Twitter) at www.twitter.com/nashvillecorps. Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest Nashville District employment and contracting opportunities at https://www.linkedin.com/company/u-s-army-corps-of-engineers-nashville-district.
| Date Taken: | 07.25.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.25.2024 15:31 |
| Story ID: | 477040 |
| Location: | CARTHAGE, TENNESSEE, US |
| Web Views: | 64 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, The buzz of Cordell Hull Lake: USACE’s new pollination effort, by Braden Simmons, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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