I mentioned in my last post on A.m.m. that the 'woods were full of A.m.m.'
colonies in my part of North Carolina back in the early 1980s.  I have the
1929 soil survey for the county in which I live (Franklin).  At that time
the county was 19% forested, but now it is 60% forested and the forest
products industry is the number 1 industry in the county, composed of pine
and hardwood saw timber, hardwood veneer, pine bark, and pine straw.  I
mention this because my bees make the main honey crop from trees - red
maple, tulip poplar, and American holly.  I like to say wood really is a
renewable resource.

Part of this reforestation can be attributed to government reforestation
programs.  I was the county agent in this county in 1986 when the
Conservation Reserve Program came out and in the first year we planted over
26,000 acres in trees and wildlife plantings, and those trees are coming on
to market now. A lot of this land was eroded farm land producing low yields
of soy beans. The CRP and similar programs are still being used to plant
trees and other conservation plantings.

 I have been working on a beekeeping development project in Moldova for the
past 2 years and we are in the process of establishing 2 groups of
certified organic beekeepers.  Certification is being carried out by a
subsidiary of Ecocert in Europe.  Most Moldovan beekeepers keep their bees
in compounds in villages, at least in the winter, in part due to
free-ranging livestock.  One of the requirements of organic certification
is that the bees be kept away (3 km) from villages in a forested setting.
Moldova is only 11% forested and finding suitable forested bee yard sites
for organic bees is a serious limitation.

Bill Lord
Louisburg, NC
Chisinau, Moldova.

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