Seed Bomb Florida Canyon Adventure 12-19-13

Finished Seed Bombs

On December 19^th, 2013, the Roosevelt Bee Group met up with the Roosevelt Garden Club and Ranger Carina Weber. We made seed bombs, which are a small bundle of compost, clay, seeds, and water. Our seed bombs were thrown into Florida Canyon on January 20^th. The flower seeds that we put in the seed bombs include: White Sage (Salvia apiana), Blue Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum), Palmer’s Sage Wort (Artemisia palmeris), California Buckwheat (Erigonum fasciculatum), Wart Stem Ceanothus (Ceanothus verrucosus), Deerweed (Lotus scoparius), and Broom Baccharis (Bacharris sarothroides). All of these are native plants that grow in San Diego. This was a really fun event! Hers’s the “recipe” that we used to make our seed bombs.

Seed Bomb “Recipe”

Ingredients

5 parts dry clay, preferably powder

3 parts fine compost

1 part seeds, preferably of native plants

Just enough water to hold it together

1 Part Native Plant Seeds

5 Parts Clay

3 Parts Fine Compost

First, you put the clay on your work surface. Next, you add the compost, and then the seeds. It’s great to spread native plants, so bee sure to use seeds of native plants whenever possible! Always be sure that you are not putting seeds from invasive plants in your seed bombs. You can face fines for spreading invasive plants, especially on public lands. Next, you add a tiny tiny tiny amount of water. If this is not enough, add a tiny tiny tiny bit more. Repeat previous step until your seed bombs form a sort of dough. It is important to not let your seed bombs fall apart, but if you add too much water, your seeds could sprout prematurely or rot. Let the seed bombs dry for a few days, and then find an empty space and throw your seed bombs! Save the bees!

Thank you, volunteers!

The First Florida Canyon Adventure

Summary By Zachary Zollman

On November 21st, 2013, we walked across the street to Florida Canyon for the very first time. Green trees decorated the hillside as three members of bee group picked up trash. We were accompanied by Ms. Sarah Hiveley, our amazing advisor, and Ranger Carina Weber, who would be helping us for the next few months, and hopefully, years. We received a brief history of Florida Canyon, and found out that Florida Canyon is home to an endangered cactus. We found a suitcase, museum passes, and all sorts of other trash. We are looking forward to continuing our restoration events!

Zoo Field Trip 11/14/13

Summary by Lillian Shallow

Photographs by Zachary Zollman

     The Roosevelt Bee Group recently accompanied Ms. Sarah Barnard on a trip to the world renowned San Diego Zoo. It was a wonderful and very educational trip. Unfortunately, the zoo's observational bee colony has mysteriously died, and we suspect that it has suffered a terrible case of CCD (colony collapse disorder), so there weren't any bees on exhibit. However, we did have the opportunity to observe some wild bee hives that the San Diego Zoo has allowed to inhabit their property. We were only able to find two; one in "The Lost Forest", and the other near the primate exhibits on the "Monkey Trail." We do know that there are others, but we do not know how many because the zoo does not do any type of research on these bees, but graciously allows them to live at the zoo.

     As for the currently empty observational hive, the Bee Group brainstormed ideas and theories about why the colony died, and how to improve the hive. We also learned many fun facts about bees, such as the fact that the zoo generally has hives of Cordoba bees, which are European and therefore they are not as resilient to disease. This may have led to the downfall of the hive at the San Diego Zoo.

     In conclusion, our trip to the zoo was very informational, and provided our group with a new outlook on observation hives in general. In the end, we were left with this question; What makes observation hives work, and why or why not?

This enclosure used to house a bee hive. We got a chance to see it in the San Diego Zoo's Insect House.

This is first of the two wild bee hives that we found living at the San Diego Zoo.

This is the second of the two wild bee hives that we found living at the San Diego Zoo.

This is a panel about the role of insects in ecology. It pointed out that insects can pollinate our plants, eat our garden pests, and decompose our waste.