Bee Birth

Update: video has been removed from youtube but you can watch it here.

This stunning video comes  from a collaboration between photographer Anand Varma and a honey bee research facility at UC Davis. I've read some articles (none of which I can find and link to now) suggesting that caring for small creatures (like insects) can increase demonstrated empathy in children. This video suggests a possible correlation to that: considering or witnessing organisms as "babies" making us more inclined to think positively or protectively of them.

In his TED talk below, you can hear Varma talk about the assignment that led him to keep and document bees and specifically the mites that threaten bees. This work is also an excellent example of how visualization (art, design, alternative presentations of information) can elevate our understanding of complex ecological systems and situations.

Hey now!

Last week I got an email from a woman at a Unitarian Church in Knoxville, TN. Seems someone had been helping themselves to the berries and vegetables from the church gardens planted "specifically...to provide food for the local WIC program and their food training program." When confronted about their harvesting the "foragers" (and picking from someone else's garden hardly qualifies as foraging) made reference to the Land Scouts' Knoxville Map.

Now listen here folks: foraging isn't just a fancy word for stealing. And if you're taking from somebody's garden without their permission, that's not foraging. That's stealing. So please don't do that. Or, if you insist in doing that, don't call yourself a Land Scout. That's not how we do.

Berries often grow wild and are easy to harvest without destroying the plant or taking all of them. 

Liz - Level 3

Look what Liz grew from a seed ball in her yard! In the fall, Liz can save some of the seeds from the pumpkin to earn her Level 7 badge. Way to go.