PAGE 6
MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OUTDOORS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ogden beekeeper Vic Bachman, left, and partner Nate Hall prepare to remove a 12-foot-long beehive from an A-frame cabin in Eden, Utah. It was the biggest beehive the Utah beekeepers have ever removed, containing about 60,000 honeybees.
SALT LAKE CITY — It was the biggest beehive that Ogden beekeeper Vic Bachman has ever removed — a dozen feet long, packed inside the eve of a cabin in Ogden Valley.
Hive containing 60,000 bees found outside Utah cabin
"We figure we got 15 pounds of bees out of there," said Bachman, who said that converts to about 60,000 honeybees.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bachman was called to the A-frame cabin last month in Eden, Utah. Taking apart a panel that hid roof rafters, he had no idea he would find honeycombs packed 12 feet long, 4 feet wide and 16 inches deep.
They didn't want to kill the honeybees, a species in decline that does yeoman's work pollinating flowers and crops.
So they called Bachman, owner of Deseret Hive Supply, a hobbyist store that can't keep up with demand for honeybees. Bachman used a vacuum cleaner to suck the bees into a cage.
The honeybees had been making the enclosed cavity their home since 1996, hardly bothering the homeowners. The cabin was rarely used, but when the owners needed to occupy it while building another home nearby, they
decided the beehive wasn't safe for their two children. A few bees had found their way inside the house, and the hive was just outside a window of a children's bedroom.
"It doesn't hurt them," he said.
The job took six hours. At $100 an hour, the bill came to $600.
"The bees were expensive," said Paul Bertagnoli, the cabin owner. He was satisfied with the job.
"It's the biggest one I've ever seen," Bachman said. "I've never seen one that big."
Utah calls itself the Beehive State, a symbol of industriousness. Whether this was Utah's largest beehive is unknown, but Bachman said it would rank high.
He used smoke to pacify the bees, but Bertagnoli said honeybees are gentle creatures unlike predatory yellow jackets or hornets, which attack, rip apart and eat honeybees, he said.
"They just want to collect nectar and come back to the hive," Bertagnolli said. "Most people never get stung by honeybees — it's a yellow jacket."
Bertagnoli reassembled the hive in a yard of his North Ogden home, while saving some of the honeycomb for candles and lotions at his store. He left other honeycombs for the cabin owners to chew on.
"We caught the queen and were able to keep her," Bertagnolli said. "The hive is in my backyard right now and is doing well."
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
ENVIRONMENT
Moist air reduces fire
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAMARILLO, Calif. — Cool, moist air moving into Southern California on Sunday helped firefighters build containment lines around a huge wildfire burning through coastal mountains.
Firefighters from Stockton, Calif., put out flames off Hidden Valley Rd. while fighting a wildfire May 3 in Hidden Valley, Calif.A huge Southern California wildfire burned through coastal wilderness to the beach on Friday then stormed back through canyons toward inland neighborhoods when winds reversed direction.
Fire crews took advantage of improved conditions as the high winds and hot, dry air of recent days were replaced by the normal Pacific air, significantly reducing fire activity.
The National Weather Service said an approaching low pressure system would bring a 20 percent chance of showers Sunday afternoon, with the likelihood increasing into the night and on Monday.
East of Los Angeles in Riverside County, a new fire that broke out Saturday afternoon burned 650 acres of wilderness south of Banning. It was 30 percent contained Sunday. Banning has been flanked by a nearly 5-square-mile fire to the north, which destroyed one home shortly after it broke out Wednesday. That fire was fully contained late Saturday.
The 44-square-mile blaze at the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains was 60 percent surrounded Sunday morning.
Full containment was expected Monday, according to Ventura County fire officials.
In Northern California, a fire that has blackened more than 10 square miles of wilderness in Tehama County was a threat to 10 unoccupied summer homes near the community of Butte Meadows, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
"The fire isn't really running and gunning," said Tom Kruschke, a Ventura County Fire Department spokesman.
The progress made led authorities to lift evacuation orders Saturday for residences in several areas.
Nearly 2,000 firefighters using engines, bulldozers and aircraft worked to corral the blaze.
Nearly 1,300 firefighters were on the lines, and the blaze, which started Wednesday, was 20 percent contained.
Thunderstorms were expected to bring erratic winds but little rain to the area about 200 miles north of San Francisco.
Firefighting efforts were focused on the fire's east side, rugged canyons that are a mix of public and private lands, Kruschke said.
The change in the weather was also expected to bring gusty winds to some parts of Southern California, but well away from the fire area.
Despite its size and speed of growth, the fire that broke out Thursday and quickly moved through neighborhoods of Camarillo Springs and Thousand Oaks has caused damage to just 15 homes, though it has threatened thousands.
The fire also swept through Point Mugu State Park, a hiking and camping area that sprawls between those communities and the ocean. Park District Superintendent Craig Sap told the Ventura County Star that two old, unused ranch-style homes in the backcountry burned. Restrooms and campgrounds also were damaged. Sap estimated repairs would cost $225,000.
On Friday, the wildfire reached the ocean, jumped Pacific Coast Highway and burned a navy base rifle range on the beach at Point Mugu. When winds reversed direction from offshore to onshore, the fire stormed back up canyons toward inland neighborhoods.
The only injuries as of Saturday were a civilian and a firefighter involved in a traffic accident away from the fire.
"It came pretty close. All of these houses — these firemen did a tremendous job. Very, very thankful for them," Shayne Poindexter said. Flames came within 30 feet of the house he was building.
wildfires in the state so far this year — about 200 more than average.
Residents were grateful so many homes were spared.
The blaze is one of more than 680
HEALTH
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Valley fever cases increase
FRESNO, Calif. — California and federal public health officials say valley fever, a potentially lethal but often misdiagnosed disease infecting more and more people around the nation, has been on the rise as warming climates and drought have kicked up the dust that spreads it.
The fever has hit California's agricultural heartland particularly hard in recent years, with incidence dramatically increasing in 2010 and 2011. The disease which is prevalent in arid regions of the United States, Mexico, Central and South America
— can be contracted by simply breathing in fungus-laced spores from dust disturbed by wind as well as human or animal activity.
The fungus is sensitive to environmental changes, experts say, and a hotter, drier climate has increased dust carrying the spores.
"Research has shown that
Longstanding concerns about valley fever were heightened last week when a federal health official ordered the transfer of more than 3,000 exceptionally vulnerable inmates from two San Joaquin Valley prisons where several dozen have died of the disease in recent years. A day later, state officials began investigating an outbreak in February that sickened 28 workers at two solar power plants under construction in San Luis Obispo County.
when soil is dry and it is windy, more spores are likely to become airborne in endemic areas," said Dr. Gil Chavez, Deputy Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at the California Department of Public Health.
Although millions of residents in Central California face the threat of valley fever, experts say people who work in dusty fields or construction sites are most at risk, as are certain ethnic groups and those with weak immune
systems. Newcomers and visitors passing through the region may also be more susceptible.
In California, according to the CDC, valley fever cases rose from about 700 in 1998 to more than 5,500 cases reported in 2011. The disease has seen the sharpest rise in Kern County, followed by Kings and Fresno counties.
Nationwide, the number of valley fever cases rose by more than 850 percent from 1998 through 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2011, there were more than 20,400, with most cases reported in California and Arizona.
Out of the 18,776 California cases between 2001 and 2008, 265 people died. according to the state health department.
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