Delphinium, Larkspur

Artist: Sarah Red-Laird

Title: Bee Habitat in Cyanotype 39

Location: J Bar L Ranch, Montana

Project: Coexistence & Bee Habitat Regeneration in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Flower: Delphinium, Larkspur

Bee: Bombus, Bumble bee

Materials: Cyanotype, barnwood

Field Season: 2023

Composed: 2023

Beginning in 2023, BGO is starting a multi-year collaboration with the Anderson family, and three Montana ranches that they collectively manage: J Bar L in Centennial Valley, and the Anderson Ranch and Grizzly Creek in Tom Miner Basin.

In 2018 BGO’s executive program director, Sarah Red-Laird, attended a workshop at EcoFarm titled, “Range Riders: Coexisting with Predators,” featuring J Bar L Ranch’s Hilary Zaranek.  As a student in the University of Montana’s “Wilderness and Civilization” program in 2008-2009, Sarah was all-too-familiar with the dynamic between Montana ranchers and wolf re-introduction.  She hung on every word of the poetic presentation on low-stress livestock handling techniques and living within her cattle herd to protect them from bears and wolves (and vice versa, in a way), but what stuck with Sarah was the accounts of ecosystem recovery.  Sarah questioned how Jar Bar L’s management transition to predator coexistence could affect local bee communities, did they recover along with the rest of the ecosystem? 

Hilary’s experience of the return of biodiversity as a result of livestock grazing altercation and reintroduction of wolves, beaver, and bears mirrors those of similar projects in Oregon, Wyoming, and Nevada.  Though there is ample evidence to prove trophic recovery from coexistence, a rigorous long-term study specifically on bees affected by this management tactic has not been published.          

BGO is collaborating with the Anderson family to better understand the dynamic between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s livestock, predators, and bees – to explore the question, could livestock/predator coexistence on rangelands be a key to diverse bee community conservation? 

Rancher and co-steward of J Bar L, Andrew Anderson, was giving me a tour of the property - taking me around to potential spots to study bees and flowers, while I asked him 1.7 million questions about the history and management of the land, the livestock, and the wildlife.

While hanging off the side of a mountain in his Toyota, I noticed a thick swath of Delphinium, absolutely swarming with giant bumblebees.

Delphinium is toxic to cattle when in bloom, but the general ethic of coexistence on J Bar L extends to more than bears, wolves, and coyotes, all the way down to flowers. Instead defining these native wildflowers as weeds and eradicating them through pulling or spraying, the ranch team let’s them thrive while they fence their cows off, far away from this patch that could lead to serious trouble if ingested by livestock.