By COLIN M. STEWART
By COLIN M. STEWART
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
The passage of a bill providing additional funding for the University of Hawaii at Hilo highlights the important role that the Big Island plays in the field of honey bee research.
House Bill 2100, introduced by state Rep. Clift Tsuji, D-South Hilo, Puna, and chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, passed its final reading on May 4 and was sent to the governor’s office on Monday, where it awaits his signature.
The measure provides a total of $30,000 for University of Hawaii bee research programs on Hawaii Island, Maui, Oahu, and Kauai during the 2012-13 fiscal year. Half of that amount is targeted specifically at UH bee hive research on the Big Island.
In testimony provided to legislators in March, chairman of the state Board of Agriculture Russell Kokubun explained that Hawaii’s bee populations are currently under siege by a pair of pests that could have lasting impact on honey bees — and the many crops that are reliant on them for pollination.
“Small hive beetle arrived in the state in 2010 and has already been detected on the Big Island, Maui, Molokai, and Oahu,” he said. “It has added another major management problem for beekeepers, who are still trying to cope with the arrival of varroa mite in 2007. Small hive beetle is not easily controlled by chemicals and current trapping methods are messy, expensive, and labor intensive.”
According to UH-Hilo Entomology Professor Lorna Arita-Tsutsumi, who heads the College of Agriculture’s beekeeping program, the funds will allow her students to expand their ability to research ways of fighting the pests, in addition to performing other important experiments and expanding public awareness of the difficulties honey bees face through their affiliation with Alan Wong’s Adopt a Beehive program.
Currently, she said, there are 25 bee hives at the college’s apiary on a 110-acre Panaewa farm that are used for hands-on beekeeping laboratories. The farm also contains a 1-acre bee friendly educational garden, called Mapuhonehone, which has a variety of plants that are used by honey bees and man alike, plants that are tied to the history of beekeeping in Hawaii, and other requirements for honey bees, such as water.
Meanwhile, through the Adopt A Beehive program, UH-Hilo beekeeping students maintain hives and extract honey from them. Members of the community may adopt a hive by donating money to the program, and then a student will be responsible for updating that person on the progress of the hive, as well as providing them with first dibs on some of the honey and other products that result from the hard work of the hive’s busy bees.
But, because those hives are working hives used by students to gain experience, they can’t be relied on to provide reliable data for research projects, Arita-Tsutsumi explained. So, the beekeeping program plans to complement those hives with an additional 25 hives specifically for research projects.
“The hives in this apiary will be used for applied research projects to develop control measures and devices to help maintain healthy honey bee colonies,” she said.
Students will be able to design their own traps and lures for bee pests like the small hive beetle and varroa mite, and then test their effectiveness in protecting a real hive, she said. For instance, they could investigate how the shape, size or direction of the entrance of a trap can dictate its effectiveness.
“An area on the UH-Hilo farm has already been designated for this apiary and this bill will provide monies to support a functioning research apiary. Since the research will be conducted on the bee hives at the farm, researchers and students will have the opportunity to conduct meaningful, applicable experiments to improve honey bee wellness and productivity for Hawaii,” Arita Tsutsumi said.
Bill sponsor Tsuji said Friday that while the amount of money covered in the bill is small, it can have a very major impact.
“This is a worldwide problem,” he said of dwindling bee populations. “Scientists have found that up to 90 percent of some feral bee populations have been wiped out by things like colony collapse disorder. And Albert Einstein said that if honeybees become extinct, human society will follow in four years.”
However, Tsuji said, Hawaii Island has been lucky in being relatively pristine until recently, when the small hive beetle and varroa mite were found here. Hawaii Island serves as one of the largest exporters of queen honey bees in the world, he said, and UH’s research projects can serve to protect that important industry.
“About 400 queens per year are exported to the continent from here in Hawaii, this tiny state, and the Big Island in particular, and they play a significant role in pollinating the agricultural world,” he said.
In total, he said, honey bees are responsible for annually pollinating about $15 billion in U.S. crops alone.
In addition to the appropriations for the hives, Tsuji said, the Legislature also approved $25,000 in capital improvement funding to construct agricultural shelters at the Panaewa research facility.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.