Vicia villosa, Bombus vosnesenskii

Artist: Sarah Red-Laird

Title: Bee Habitat in Cyanotype 21

Location: Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts & Agriculture

Flower: Vicia villosa, Hairy Vetch

Bee(s) in cyanotype: Bombus vosnesenskii

Bee(s) observed on flower: Bombus vosnesenskii (Yellow-faced Bumble Bee), Apis mellifera (Honey bee)

Materials: Cyanotype, Barnwood

Field Season: 2023

Composed: 2023

Pine Meadow Ranch was acquired by The Roundhouse Foundation in 2017. Prior to this acquisition, this 260-acre ranch was ranched, farmed and cared for by aviatrix and rodeo stalwart Dorro Sokol, who died in 2017 at age 90.

Many of the buildings at Pine Meadow Ranch were built in the 1930s. They include a bunkhouse, caretaker’s cabin, woodworking sheds, tack rooms and a home designed by one of Oregon’s preeminent architects, Ellis F. Lawrence. Lawrence was the mind behind a score of historic buildings around the state, including the University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene.

Today, Pine Meadow Ranch continues to operate as a working ranch and is developing and expanding arts, agricultural and ecological projects using the assets of the property. Their goal is to preserve the land, the views, and historic buildings of Pine Meadow Ranch for years to come.

In late August / early September of 2023 I was an “Artist in Residence” at the Pine Meadow Center for Arts and Agriculture.

While in residence, I lead a workshop for the community members that included a studio tour and pasture walk, connected with and visited local beekeepers and ranchers, worked on a collaborative art project, and produced about 30 pieces for the “Bee Habitat in Cyanotype” collection (this is one of them!!).

In the year prior to my residency I worked with ranch operations director, Pam Wavrin, to plant 40 acres of "Regenerative Bee Pasture" 🌿 for me to pull some inspiration from, and for the ranch to be able to demonstrate what a highly diverse pasture can look like to the local ag community.

The pasture was highly compacted, with low soil nutrients and organic matter, so this is just the first step.

Here is a color-coded guide of what was planted, and what came up, and here is an iNaturalist project page with photos and locations of the flowers that came up from our seed mix.

Vetch was dominant in the section of the ranch with low organic matter and soil nutrients, and scarce on the plot with less compacted soil - treated with compost and mulch.

“Weeds” always have a story to tell us about our soil!

I'm excited to stay in contact and support the process as the soil recovers and becomes an exceptional place to feed bees, cows, and people!

Some farmers and ranchers grow vetch as a livestock forage, and others view it as toxic. It’s native to mainland Europe, and was introduced to the US by colonialists and now occurs in every state!

It’s also popular cover crop as as it is both winter hardy and can fix as much as 200 lb/acre of atmospheric nitrogen.

Vetch attracts both native bees and honey bees, and makes a delicious, light honey that is highly sought after!