A SOUTH West beekeeper has suggested the government should look into producing a map of the jarrah forest and when it flowers to help beekeepers who collect jarrah honey.
Southern Forests Honey beekeeper Simon Green told the Mail he was unaware of a record system that logged when certain parts of jarrah forest flowered.
“It would be nice to see some information come back into the mapping of which areas are flowering and when, so that it can actually be a part of the process of planning,” he said.
“The jarrah forest goes from Pinjarra all the way down through to the south – the only way I know if it’s buttered up and it’s ready to flower is by actually doing the miles myself.
“There’s another couple of hundred beekeepers all doing the same stuff for miles, and to my knowledge there’s no actual map.”
Mr Green said he hoped to see some of that information put in a useful format so apiarists could use it within their industry.
His suggestion comes ahead of the flowering of jarrah (occurring in the next few months), and after the WAFarmers Beekeeping Section called on the Department of Parks and Wildlife to safeguard the future of the jarrah industry.
WAFarmers Beekeeping Section president Leilani Leyland said there were approximately 200 jarrah sites in WA with a potential retail value of $30 million in a flowering year, but activities by DPaW and the Forest Products Commission were threatening this income.
“Beekeeping is one of the most sustainable industries, but by constantly burning and logging this resource, the state government is jeopardising this small but important and valuable industry,” she said.
“It can take up to 30 years from seed to blossom for a mature jarrah tree to produce the honey required to replace logged trees, and a 200-year-old jarrah will produce far more nectar than a 30-year-old one as they have finished growing and will put their energy into reproducing not foliage.
“We urge the state government to take into account the beekeepers’ use of the state forest as a resource as part of their planning process, and try and work the burns around the flowering cycles of the trees.”
Mr Green said apiarists do get notices of prescribed burns, but only within a short period of time, and although he fully supports prescribed burns, hoped the government could work closer with beekeepers to ensure the future of their bees and honey.
“It’s a shame when you see a patch of jarrah that is all buttered up and it’s going to yield really well and it gets burnt, and then the patches that are not buttered up they for some reason are not burnt that year,” he said.
“If consultation with industry could be at a level where the prescribed burns took place in bush that was not flowering, and then we had the opportunity to bring our bees in on the stuff that is flowering, then that would be a good result for the beekeeping industry.”
A Parks and Wildlife spokesperson said DPaW advised apiarists in advance of prescribed burns that may impact on their apiary sites.
“Jarrah trees can flower every year but significant flowering events occur on a four to six year cycle, with most trees within any region flowering at the same time,” the spokesperson said.
“The variation in flowering, the lead time required in planning prescribed burns, and the community expectation that the department delivers on its prescribed burning program means that it is not practical to reschedule burns around flowering cycles, particularly where these apply over broad areas of the jarrah forest.”