“The only reason for being a bee is to make honey. And the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it.”

Day 5:

“The only reason for being a bee is to make honey. And the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it.”

    Today we went to a totally different ecosystem than the rainforest. After checking our empty Sherman traps we headed on the bus to go to the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. It looked like a normal pine forest. But apparently, because of poor management practices, the bark beetle had destroyed almost 60% of the forests trees. And after that, there were many bad fires that also destroyed the area. In the 1990s, a man persuaded the Belizean government to fund his idea of importing pine tree seedlings from a forest In Australia to this area for planting. Originally, the pine trees had come from Belize and been planted in Australia. So his genius idea was to bring them back rather than use a true, pure, native pine seedling. This makes no sense to me, but he tried it and now this is no longer a forest that can be used to  measure things like climate change.  So we went to work laying transects and measuring the DBH of the trees until Boris pointed out a nice, calming buzz. Sounded a bit like bees. : “The only reason for being a bee is to make honey. And the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it.”- Winnie the Pooh. Yes, I just quoted Winnie the Pooh because everything he said about bees in the Hundred Acre Woods to me as a child, was wrong. These were not honey making bees. These were legit African killer bees!! Turns out, when you are as funny as our group was and have that much fun laughing  loudly, you will attract migrating African bees . Boris instructed us to not move and to be very quiet and I have to admit that it was pretty scary. All ended ok and Angie brought her amazing fried rice to us so all was not lost after all.

    On the way out of the forest, we stopped at a gorgeous man made lake. Belize is trying to gain energy independence from Mexico so they built the controversial Chalillo Dam. The dam feeds three other dam systems as well as hydropower system that powers 40% Belize’s energy. The issues surrounding the dam were basically a game of does the good outweigh the bad? They need a form of their own energy but the building of the dam has been said to have caused higher mercury levels in the water and to have ruined the habitats of wildlife. According to Boris and Dr. Alegria, there is no scientific evidence to support these accusations. I think that the dam has more benefits than negatives but I can see where others may not agree.  I think as with all environmental issues you need to weigh out all aspects- political, social, economic, environmental…etc.

      On the way back, we were lucky enough to see a bunch of beautiful scarlet macaws up in the trees. My favorite part of the day.