Native honey industry beekeepers say prescribed burns leave forests with less frequent flowering

07 May 2019

AUSTRALIA – Commercial beekeepers in Western Australia say damage to honey grounds from prescribed burns is having a “profound” impact on the state’s lucrative native honey industry and will devastate bee populations if nothing changes.

Each winter the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions burns land in a bid to decrease fuel loads for the summer bushfire season.

In Western Australia, the State Government has a target to burn 200,000 hectares each year and some stakeholders want that number to increase.

But the commercial honey industry is making a desperate plea to government to reduce the prescribed-burn program as they struggle to find productive sites for honey production.

In state forest in Northcliffe, one of WA’s biggest commercial beekeepers, Mike Spurge, is at work extracting the honey from his hives.

Mr Spurge is a second-generation beekeeper, and has been in the honey industry his whole life.

He described the recent prices for Australian honey abroad as “a new golden era”, but as the price skyrockets, Mr Spurge said productivity was crumbling.

He and many other beekeepers blame prescribed burns for the forests’ less frequent and out-of-pattern flowering.

“As beekeepers we observe constantly, we live and work in the bush, and we see difference in the forest constantly,” he said.

Costing ‘hundreds of thousands’ of dollars

Demand for jarrah honey and its antimicrobial properties has pushed prices from about $5 a kilo to as much as $40, but last year 30 per cent of the jarrah honey grounds were destroyed by fires, according to beekeepers.

Mr Spurge said in recent years he has had to double his hives in order to get the same amount of honey.

“We have to have more staff employed, more vehicles, more transporting the hives to get less honey,” he said.

“The costs are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Prescribed burns should change, not stop

WAFarmers beekeepers section president Stephen Fewster said the industry was not opposed to controlled burns, but wanted better consultation and a different focus on what areas were burnt and when.

“We feel in the high risk areas there should be more of it, we don’t oppose it around towns and that sort of thing, but out in the bush where there is no infrastructure we feel it should be extended out to 10 to 12 years before the burns take place, rather than six to eight years,” he said.

He said burns in coastal areas could take as long as five to eight years to produce honey again after a burn, but forests recovered faster after a cooler burn.

“Our main concern is the timing of some of the burns and the areas that are being burnt, they’re large areas compared to previous years,” he said.

Mr Fewster said other states were experiencing similar issues, and it would be raised on a national scale at the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council annual meeting at the end of June.

State says ‘lives are at risk’

WA Minister for Agriculture Alannah MacTiernan said the State Government must balance myriad interests and industries, including the need to accommodate an expanding wine industry, which she said has asked the Government to delay prescribed burns to protect grapes from taint.

She said she believes the McGowan Government “has that balance right”.

“We absolutely take into account the honey industry we really recognise the value of this industry … and the real export potential of that industry, but we also have to balance the interests of that industry against larger issues,” Ms MacTiernan said.

The Minister said she did not accept that the industry was under threat.

“The mono-flora product that they are producing are getting record prices, we see great opportunity for the bee industry, but we do have to put this in the context of our other obligations,” she said.

“We have to strike that balance — unfortunately we’re not going to be able to give the industry all that they want.”

DBCA denies prescribed burns are damaging

In a statement, the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) denied the prescribed burns were causing impacts to the flowering cycle of forests.

“A decrease in honey flow is a result of seasonal conditions across preceding and current years which affect the flowering cycle of native plants and trees and not as a result of prescribed burning activities,” the statement said.

“While on occasion there may be localised impacts from prescribed burns, DBCA makes every effort to minimise the impact on a broad range of community and stakeholder values, including the beekeeping industry.”

DBCA said it already consults with the honey industry and it will continue to do so, to ensure that both parties are happy, but climate conditions made changing the timing of burn difficult.

7. May 2019/by GFMCadmin