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A beehive placed on an Ashe Coun-ty Christmas tree farm last June to monitor the effects of pesticides on honey bees was healthy and active when opened early April, offering a living rebuttal to critics who link tree farms to a recent rash of “hive kills” in the region.
“Christmas trees get villainized a lot,” said N.C. State Cooperative Extension Agent Travis Birdsell. “I think it’s an image problem, when you drive by and see somebody in a (hazmat suit) spraying.”
On April 2, the Jefferson Post ran a story in which local beekeepers suggested use of pesticides on tree farms might be responsible for un-precedented bee losses.
But, while other beekeepers in the area reported losses of 50 percent or more since last fall, N.C. State Co-operative Extension Forestry Spe-cialist Dr. Jill Sidebottom found her Omni Farm test hive robust enough
to split into two hives.According to beekeepers, the lat-
est hive kill epidemic is symptomatic of colony collapse disorder, the mass dying-off of honey bees that hit the U.S. in 2006.
While the exact cause or causes of CCD are not known, beekeepers na-tionwide are looking at pesticides as a prime suspect. In March, beekeep-ers sued the Environmental Protec-tion Agency for approving registra-tion of pesticides they claim harm honey bees and other pollinators.
Sidebottom’s experimental hive is part of her research in integrated pest management on tree farms. Sur-rounded by 180 acres of trees man-aged with pesticides, the bees have fared well, she said.
The test hive was sealed only when treating the five-acre stand of Fraser firs nearest the bees, to spare them direct, concentrated doses of pesti-cides, she said. A control hive, set up in Wilkes County, did not survive the winter.
In addition to the test hive, Side-bottom has also studied populations
of honey bees and other pollinating insects at tree farms in Ashe, Allegh-any, Avery, Watauga and Mitchell counties. Using a large catch net, she sampled flying insect populations in six tree fields and found a diverse cross-section of pollinators includ-ing honey bees, bumblebees, mining bees, large and small carpenter bees, sweat bees, yellow-faced bees, digger bees, butterflies and others.
“The take-home message is Christ-mas trees are great habitat for polli-nators,” Sidebottom said.
According to Birdsell, this is due to evolving practices in tree farm management.
In recent years, tree farmers have increasingly adopted cultivation of flowering ground-cover — like clo-ver, flowering mustard and purple deadnettle — to control tall grass and weeds around trees as an alternative to herbicides, said Birdsell. Ground cover also keeps the soil cooler and fixes nitrogen to tree roots.
Ninety-five percent of tree farmers
Dylan Lightfoot | Jefferson PostExtension Forestry Specialist Jill Sidebottom opened her Omni Farm beehive in early April to find a robust colony. The hive was set up in an area surrounded by Fraser firs to monitor the effects of pesticides on bees.
Photos by James Howell | Jefferson PostThe Praise Brigade was recognized for receiving the governor’s award, while and C & C Dairy were recognized as the volunteer business of the year. Praise Brigade members in attendance included (front row, from left to right) Deidra Winebarger, Kayla Bare, Katie Welch, Lydia Edmisten, Emma Goodman and Paige Anderson. Representatives from C and C Dairy include (back row) Trathen Cheek (left) and Rodney Cheek (right).
Volunteers recognized at awards ceremonyJames HowellStaff [email protected]
Volunteers from around the county were honored by the Ashe County Board of Commissioners for their long hours donated to volunteer work during the 28th annual Ashe County Commissioner’s Volunteer Awards Ceremony, held Thursday, April 25, at the Ashe County High School auditorium.
“Tonight, we will be honoring 180 people who have made our county a wonderful place in which to live,” said Ashe County Commissioner William Sands. “Vol-unteers make a difference in Ashe County each day. In fact, each day in Ashe County, over 1,000 hours of service are given by volunteers like you.”
Before the role-call of the 180 volunteers, Ashe County Manager Dr. Pat Mitchell recognized the im- Youth volunteer of the year Kena Patrick (left) and senior
volunteer of the year Betty Ball (right) stood together af-ter receiving their awards during the volunteer ceremony.
Photo courtesy of OGH | Jefferson PostThis year, the Out Grow Hunger program is asking Ashe County gardeners to plant and extra row to fight food inse-curity locally through a “community of gardens.” Last year, OGH collected and distributed over 22 tons of fresh garden produce to the county’s needy.
Fighting hunger one garden at a timeDylan LightfootStaff [email protected]
Ashe Outreach Ministries is kicking off its Out Grow Hunger program this spring with a goal to surpass last year’s total of 45,000 pounds of garden produce and other food items donated to fight food insecurity in Ashe Coun-ty.
“I’d like it if we hit 60,000 this year,” said AOM Direc-tor Rob Brooks.
Where do people turn during a mental health crisis, or for informa-tion about human service agencies like legal aid or child care?
It’s easy. Just dial 2-1-1.Three short months ago, the 2-1-1
service, a universal telephone num-ber for health and human services, became available for Ashe County
residents. Since then, 2-1-1 has been utilized on several occasions to transfer callers to appropriate agen-cies to meet their human services needs.
“People are starting to use 2-1-1 more. It is steadily increasing,” said Glenda Luther, Ashe County’s volun-teer coordinator, also serves as the data entry manager for 2-1-1 in Ashe County. Luther also said the number New marketing resources from the 2-1-1
service now contain simple, more color-ful graphics than their previous tools.
Service plans on releasing marketing tools in coming weeks
See BEES | Page 2
See AWARDS | Page 2
See GARDEN | Page 4
See 2-1-1 | Page 4
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Page 2 — The Jefferson Post Shopper, Tuesday, May 7, 2013
have implemented this practice, with the result that tree growers are using fewer chemicals, he said.
“We’ve worked very hard, the whole industry has, to work with the bees,” said Birdsell. “We have more pollina-tors in this area than anywhere else in the state.”
“The average tree farm only gets sprayed 1.3 times per year,” Birdsell said.
The problem comes when a grower does need to treat for an insect or mite pest when bees are present, said Sidebottom. Bees are most at risk when pesticides are applied during the day while ground-cover is flowering.
When certain types of pests require daytime spraying, growers should first apply a reduced concretion of herbi-cide to burn back flowers without killing the ground cov-er, she said. Honey bees and other pollinators will then not be drawn to forage when pesticides are applied.
While most insecticides used on Christmas trees are toxic to bees, neonicotinoids — strongly implicated in the CCD debate — are not widely used in the tree indus-try, Sidebottom said, although some growers have used “neonics” to control elongate hemlock scale, an insect pest afflicting hemlock trees.
In Ashe, the third largest Christmas tree producing county in the nation, Birdsell suggests open lines of com-munication between tree growers and beekeepers: “If you’re having a problem, if you know you have a Christ-mas tree grower near you, let them know you have bees.”
From Page 1
Bees
portance of volunteering. Mitchell said her father called volunteerism “civic rent,” and said “when the time is appropriate, you need to give back.”
“I want to express appre-ciation to the many volun-teers who have supported Ashe County,” said Mitch-ell. Mitchell also thanked Glenda Luther, the coun-ty’s volunteer coordinator, for her work with the Vol-unteer Initiative Program.
“We’re fortunate to have a volunteer initiative pro-gram in Ashe County,” said Luther.
Volunteers were divided into eight different groups, which included business volunteer group, church/religious volunteer group, community organization, human service, school/mentor volunteers, youth volunteers, individual vol-unteers and senior volun-teers.
Although every volun-teer’s name was called during the ceremony, each sub-group had a winner for the 2013 year, and Gary Poe voiced a short essay for each winner, wrapping up in applause from the au-dience.
The business volunteer group of the year for 2013 was C & C Dairy.
“C & C Dairy in Fleet-wood has worked with the N.C. Cooperative Exten-sion, Ashe County Center for several years,” said Poe. “There use of best practices has made them good stewards of the land and evironment as they are always looking ahead so that C & C Dairy can be in operation for future genera-tions.”
The Chestnut Hill Bap-tist Church Ladies Circle was awarded the religious group for 2013.
“This small group of ladies meets monthly to establish a project for the month. Each month, they are enthusiastic and pas-sionate about their calling to help others,” said Poe.
The community organi-zation for 2013 was award-ed to Peak Creek Ruritan Club.
“The Peak Creek Ruri-tan Club, founded in 1984, believes that the commu-nity is the backbone of the American way of life,” said Poe. According to him, club members contributed 3,535 hours in volunteer work last year.
The human service vol-unteer of the year was awarded to Angela Taylor for her work at High Coun-try Health Care Hospice.
“Angie has been a vol-unteer for High Coun-try Health Care Hospice since August of 2010 and has been such an asset to our volunteer program. In 2012, she shared the gift of 300 hours of her time in various roles,” said Poe.
“Our school/mentor vol-unteer of the year is Terry Kimmer,” said Poe. “Terry volunteers often at Genera-tions Developmental Child Day Care and has a close relationship with the chil-dren in every classroom. He frequently joins them in play, both in the classroom and outdoors on the play-ground.”
Poe also announced the youth volunteer of the year for 2013 is Kena Patrick.
“As an Ashe Memorial Hospital volunteer, Kena brings joy to patients and families. Kena has dedi-cated over 300 hours of service. It is apparent how much of an impact she has made on not only the patients, but also the staff and volunteers she works along side,” said Poe.
The individual volunteer of the year was awarded Joann Crawley for long hours spent at Ashe Coun-ty Public Library.
“Joann has been a library volunteer for several years. She has put in an estimated 3,120 volunteer hours over the past five years. Joann spends two days of every week helping to prepare books for circulation,” said Poe.
Finally, the Ashe County senior volunteer of the year was awarded to Betty Ball.
“Betty Ball has been a volunteer for Ashe Ser-vices for Aging’s Meals on Wheels program for 14 years. Betty goes by a local grocery store three times a week to pick up breads so that some of the clients will have extra to eat,” said Poe.
Also recognized at the Volunteer Awards Cer-emony were winners of the Governor’s Award. Win-ners included The Praise Brigade, Fletcher Memo-rial Baptist Church Youth, High Country Health Care Hospice, Bernadette Zim-merman and Hewey Tes-terman.
“What we say every year is Ashe County is very blessed to have such a won-derful group of volunteers. A lot of places here rely on our volunteers and couldn’t operate as efficiently with-out them,” said Luther.
Sons of Pitch, a barber shop quartet, provided en-tertainment for the evening.
From Page 1
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The Jefferson Post Shopper, Tuesday, May 7, 2013 — Page 3
RFID technology is working at the librarySuzanne MooreAshe County Librarian
In recognition of every-one’s right to privacy, the library implemented radio frequency identification de-vice (RFID) technology on May 1.
The Friends of the Li-brary, who helped fund the new system, spent over 300 hours tagging every book in the library. This service adds convenience and privacy for patrons and allows faster scanning, providing quicker check-outs. There are two new self-checkout stations available, giving patrons the option to access their library accounts for the purpose of borrowing items without staff assistance. There will be volunteers and staff avail-able to demonstrate using the new equipment for pa-trons as well as circulation assistants behind the front desk to answer questions. Patrons can also manage their own accounts from the library’s website, which makes it possible to pay fines, renew materials and place holds without having to come in.
The public library’s role as an information provider is delicately intertwined with key concepts of privacy and confidentiality. Library users historically have ben-efited from a reasonable expectation of privacy while accessing and receiving in-formation.
The right to privacy is not specifically addressed in the Bill of Rights. However, this expectation is borne out through court cases that interpret the Fourth Amend-
ment and extend its purview to include privacy rights in our modern world. The con-cept of privacy is essential to everyone seeking informa-tion and protection of their First Amendment rights in today’s public libraries.
During Choose Privacy Week, libraries across the country are inviting every-one to answer the critical question, “Who’s tracking you?” Everyone should have the right to know who’s collecting their informa-tion and choose how their private data is used. Visit www.privacyrevolution.org for more information. There will be a selection of books related to privacy issues dis-played on the library’s sec-ond floor.
Dates to remember in May:
A series of Straw Bale Gardening programs will begin in May, led by agricul-ture extension agent Travis Birdsell. This is an all-ages project. Join us for planting at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 18. The harvest from the garden will go to “Outgrow Hunger” and benefit Ashe County.
Otaku’s United, an An-ime/Manga Club for teens, meets at 4:30 p.m. on Tues-days.
Parents bring your chil-dren to our Family Fling programs, at 11 a.m. Satur-day, May 11. Enjoy stories and be creative with fun art projects. A special fam-ily program takes place at 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 23, to celebrate the stories and songs of Bob Dylan. Scot Pope and Suzanne Moore will perform on harmonica,
bongos and guitar.Join us for “Get Crafty”
classes. All ages and experi-ence levels are welcome. Su-zanne’s crochet class meets at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 11. A “Get Crafty” Program Guide is available on the li-
brary’s website, or call 846-2041 for more information.
Adult programming offers “Pace Yourself” Computer Classes at 11 a.m. on Tues-days.
Tai Chi classes are available at 1 p.m. Satur-
day, May 11.Meditation techniques
will be demonstrated at 12:20 p.m. on Thursdays, May 16 and 23.
The Spring Reading Chal-lenge continues through the month of May. Do you have
a hard time deciding what to read next? Are you in a read-ing rut and want to discover new books and authors? Do you simply enjoy discussing books with fellow readers? Try these reading challenges for fun and prizes.
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Page 4 — The Jefferson Post Shopper, Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Puzzle Solutions
Ashe woman has ‘A Brush With Kindness’Ashe County Habitat for Hu-
manity’s first project under its new initiative, A Brush With Kindness (ABWK), was start-ed and completed on Saturday April 20.
The ABWK program pro-
vides an opportunity for low income homeowners in Ashe County to apply for help in repairing or maintaining the exterior of their homes.
Adhering to Habitat’s phi-losophy of providing a hand
up, not a hand-out, homeown-ers will repay Habitat with a modest monthly payment to cover the cost of the building materials. Also a part of the ‘the Habitat way,’ the repay-ment amount will include no
profit and no interest, and all work will be completed by vol-unteers.
On Saturday, five hearty vol-unteers braved the wind and chilly temperatures at the be-ginning of the day to complete
work on the roof of a manufac-tured home just off of Mulatto Mountain Road. The front half of the roof had been replaced at some point, but the back-side was not done at the time and was in disrepair.
unite commercial producers, home gardeners, churches, community or-ganizations, and local governments, creating a community-wide effort to eliminate food insecurity, address child nutrition and empower the poor.”
The concept is simple: home gar-deners commit to planting a few more vegetables this season, and donate the harvest to local food pan-tries. “We just ask people to grow an extra row,” Brooks said.
“Instead of a community garden, this is a community of gardens,” he said. “We ask people to grow and give. If enough people grow and give, everybody will have enough to eat.”
Last year, about half of the food donated to OGH — over 22 tons — came from Ashe gardens and farms, he said.
Brooks calls grow-and-give do-nations “food tithes.” “Everybody thinks about going to church and put-
ting something in the offering plate,” he said, but most don’t think of offer-ing home-grown vegetables.
Through OGH, churches can re-ceive food tithes from their members and donate them to AOM. Donations are distributed to the needy through AOM and the other food pantries in the county — The Sharing Cen-ter, Ashe Really Cares and Jefferson Methodist Church.
“I want people to understand the need is great,” Brooks said.
In the last five years, demand for food assistance in Ashe has doubled, according to Department of Social Services figures and reports from lo-cal food pantries.
The OGH program is only in its second year, Brooks said, but neigh-bors have been sharing food in this way “since man harvested the first crop.”
But food assistance is only half of the OGH mission, said Development Manager Jane Gardner. The program also donates seeds and hand tools
to needy families starting their own gardens, and helps with tilling.
Food preservation classes through the N.C. State Cooperative Exten-sion teach families to can, dry and freeze food for their own pantries, said Gardner.
“We’re trying to help families be more self-sufficient,” she said.
Out Grow Hunger has a number of educational gardens beginning gardeners can visit to learn the ba-sics of tilling, planting and tending a successful garden, she said. Mentors also volunteer time to help families get their gardens started.
The program is also looking for experienced gardeners who want to volunteer as mentors this year, Gard-ner said.
For more information on how you can contribute to Out Grow Hunger or get assistance starting your own garden, call (336)385-3663, or email [email protected].
From Page 1
Garden
of people who use 2-1-1 should increase with the release of new marketing materials.
“The goal of 2-1-1 is to get callers directed to the resources they need. The service is supposed to pinpoint resources like food, heating assistance and mental health care,” said Luther.
Much like 9-1-1, the emergency number to call for help, 2-1-1 is a free confidential service available 24/7 to speak-ers of all languages. Call-ers will be able to receive help for a number of hu-man service agencies, like housing, food, shelter, child care, mental health services, legal aid and a variety of other services.
As database manager, Luther is responsible for adding local agencies into North Carolina’s 2-1-1 da-tabase.
When a caller uses 2-1-
1, they are initially sent to referral specialists at a call center in Durham.
With local agencies add-ed to the 2-1-1 database, operators at the Durham call center can transfer callers in Ashe County to whatever agency is best equipped to handle the caller’s situation. Since 2-1-1 uses a statewide database, callers from Ashe can be transferred to services outside of the county.
Thanks to a grant pro-vided by Blue Cross Blue Shield to United Way, 2-1-1 will launch a new marketing effort, includ-ing simplified graphics and in-depth information, sometime in May.
According to Luther, the new marketing materi-als will include brochures and cards, will be placed in various offices through-out the county, like medi-cal offices, the library and Ashe Services for Aging.
“We’re really excited
about having a lot of those marketing materials in Spanish,” said Lynda Mc-Daniel, chair of the social services board.
She said the Spanish material will be distrib-uted in several places throughout the county, like Spanish-speaking churches and markets.
“I’m very optimistic,” said McDaniel, “the more people hear about 2-1-1, the more likely they are to call.”
McDaniel was instru-mental in bringing the 2-1-1 service to Ashe County. While McDaniel was employed by the state of North Carolina, she at-tempted to establish 2-1-1 as a statewide service.
“I thought this was the type of service we needed statewide,” she said.
According to McDan-iel, 2-1-1 addresses one of four county needs found in the 2008 Ashe County Aging Plan, a report com-piled by an independent
committee made up of senior care specialists, to advise county leaders about services needed in Ashe. The 2-1-1 service resolved the county’s “in-formation and assistance” need, which recom-mended a service refer-ral program. Other needs highlighted in the report included housing, trans-portation and family care support.
McDaniel called 2-1-1 a “cost-effective ser-vice” because of its broad reach and at a cost of only $1,200 per year.
“It’s a really big bang for the buck,” said McDaniel. “Even in really rough eco-nomic times, no county that has ever started 2-1-1 has ever stopped using it.”
The 2-1-1 service is made low cost through what McDaniel called “economies of scale”; us-ing a statewide call center instead of a call center op-erated in Ashe County.
