LUPINUS ARGENTEUS, SILVERY LUPINE
Bombus californicus, Brown-belted bumble bee
Artist: Sarah Red-Laird
Title: Bee Habitat in Cyanotype 59
Location: J Bar L Ranch, Montana
Project: Coexistence & Bee Habitat Regeneration in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Flower: Lupinus argenteus, silvery lupine
Bee: Bombus griseocollis, Brown-belted bumblebee
Materials: Cyanotype, bee collection, barnwood
Field Season: 2024
Composed: 2024
Beginning in 2023, BGO started 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?
Silvery lupine isn’t part of our seed mix, but I love that it is a staple on the Anderson Ranch. It’s, in-fact toxic to livestock. However, there are so many other plants that are attractive to cows, they are not interested in eating it.
Silvery lupine is an important native plant, highly attractive to bumble bees. It’s a cold tolerant plant that comes out early in the spring, just like bumble bees! The bee featured in this piece is a Bombus griseocollis, Brown-belted bumblebee.