What if there was a place…a public space…where hobbyists and commercial beekeepers could legally place their hive boxes? Imagine what that could do for our native bee population here in San Diego. On June 18th 2014, The San Diego Board of Supervisors began exploring the idea of public land use for beekeeping. Last May, the Board instructed County advisers to look into the possibility. The advisers were directed to research and provide the following:
1. An inventory of County owned properties suitable for beekeeping possibilities.
2. To provide a chart of beekeeping requirements in other jurisdictions.
3. To recommend language to be included in the legislation that would encourage beekeeping on public lands and support Assembly Bill 2185
For those not in the know, AB2185 was passed in 2014. The bill encourages Apiculture (Safe Beekeeping Practices) on Public Lands in California that are managed by the Dept of Fish and Wildlife and The Department of Transportation. With the spirit of this bill in mind, county advisers listed 10 county owned sites for consideration. They are:
Boulder Oaks Preserve. Santa Ysabel East Preserve. Sycamore Canyon. Tijuana River Valley Regional Park. Barrett Junction Site. Campo Burn Site. Julian Burn Site. Descanso Facility. Rancho del Campo Property, and the Edgemoor Property.
After reviewing the list of possible locations, Bill Horn pointed out that there are other sites that were excluded because they didn’t meet the current 600 foot distance requirement from structures. He encouraged the advisers to include more sites by only requiring a 300 foot distance requirement. Dianne Jacob agreed and asked the advisers to continue to research site possibilities by reducing current setbacks. She reminded the advisers to liaison with the San Diego Beekeeping Society in order to develop a 3 tiered ordinance to reduce the current setbacks. She motioned that they return back in 4-5 months. The motion was passed unanimously by the board.
If you would like to know more about what happened at that meeting, check out the links below:
http://sdcounty.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2 (Click on the June 18th video…then Forward the progress bar to 01:01:20 to find the beginning of the beekeeping discussion) or try:
http://sdcounty.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=1621 (go to 01:01:20 on the progress bar)
The County advisers have some work set out for them. It is their goal to reduce the current distances while still providing for public safety, and encouraging safe beekeeping. We at Bee Best Bee Removal are highly in favor of this goal. We would love to see public lands zoned for beekeeping. We hope that the ultimate outcome of any new legislation will support the spirit of AB2185.
So what do you think? Are the current setback requirements too strict? How do you feel about using public lands for beekeeping purposes?
