Eriogonum, Wild Buckwehat
Artist: Sarah Red-Laird
Title: Bee Habitat in Cyanotype 45
Location: J Bar L Ranch, Montana
Project: Coexistence & Bee Habitat Regeneration in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Flower: Eriogonum, Wild Buckwehat
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?
After giving me a tour of the “hot spots” of flower biodiversity on the ranch, Andrew Anderson set me up with a quad for the day and I set out to select my transects that I will study for years to come.
My mind was completely blown when I went back to check out some sandy hills on the east side of the ranch. There were more varieties of wild buckwheat than I had ever seen.
Living in the sand among the flowers were a treasure trove of wild soil nesting bees and wasps. You can see a Dialictus (metallic sweat bee) they were all over my fingers, arms, and hands like jewels!
There are 37 species of wild buckwheat in Montana, and many of them are listed as a “species of concern.” I am so looking forward to finding as many as I can in the Centennial Valley, getting to know their bees, and sharing what I find.
If you would like to get to know the wild buckwheats of Montana, use the Montana Field Guide website, and type “Eriogonum” into the search bar.