Port of Seattle press release:

Sea-Tac Airport’s newest residents, 500,000 honeybees, have joined ranks with the 777s and other aircraft that call the airport home.

Made possible through a partnership with the Port of Seattle and the nonprofit The Common Acre, the project — named Flight Path — makes Sea-Tac one of the first airports in the country to feature an apiary. 

Six hives sit at three vacant, undeveloped sites near the airfield.

Like most airports, Sea-Tac has large tracts of open land that provide an added buffer for both safety and noise mitigation such as the runway protection zones

With open space around the airfield and bee populations in decline, the airport is uniquely suited to host honeybees and other pollinators. The long-term goal is to promote hardy bee populations in the region by increasing their genetic diversity and supporting them with adequate habitat.

“As a leader in sustainability, we are pleased to become one of the first airports in the U.S. to host bees,” said Port of Seattle Commissioner Bill Bryant. “Bees are a critical part of the food chain and connect with our goal of growing sustainably and increasing the economic contributions of the port while reducing our environmental footprint.”

Honeybees pollinate approximately one third of all U.S. crops that humans eat and three quarters of all of the flowering plants in the world. As a key part of the food chain, bees provide a regional benefit and further the Port’s goal of helping the local economy through a robust agriculture industry and related jobs.

An estimated $15 billion worth of freight, including agricultural products, is exported through Sea-Tac each year. In the face of the massive national and regional decline of bees, the program will contribute to the number of healthy bees in the region.

Deforestation, disease, urbanization, invasive species and harmful agricultural and land management practices all contribute to the decline of honeybees. The project will raise and select for the highest quality queen bees to help strengthen hive health for other beekeepers in western Washington.

Bees at Sea-Tac also will contribute to the port’s local conservation efforts at the airport’s wetland mitigation sites where nearly 150,000 plantings and other restorative projects have been underway since 2007.

“We’re excited to work with the Port of Seattle to support pollinator health,” said Bob Redmond, director of The Common Acre and lead beekeeper for Flight Path. “This project is a poster child for land stewardship: the habitat, the bees, and our food system all benefit.

“The port’s leadership is exemplary — I hope Flight Path becomes a model for other projects in the region and nationwide.”

Seattle-based non-profit The Common Acre advocates healthy agriculture through practical programs like this one, as well as through arts and education programs. In addition to the conservation elements of Flight Path, The Common Acre also is launching an arts program to educate and inspire youth and adults.

Bees and Aviation

To increase public awareness of the importance of honeybees, Sea-Tac Airport will host a bee art and educational exhibit on concourse B. The exhibit, slated to open in January 2014, will include work on
the subject of flight and bees by local artists Mandy Greer, Jason Puccinelli, David Lasky, Celeste Cooning and many others.

The parallels between the aviation industry and bees are illuminating. Air traffic controllers at Sea-Tac direct an average of 850 planes each day, transporting 33 million people and 283,500 metric tons of cargo a year.

Honeybees also rely on efficient operations, each hive logging up to 200,000 flights a day and requiring visits to two million flower blossoms to generate one pound of honey.

Like planes, bees have wings, fuselages and landing gear. They use terminals, runways, and complex navigation and communication systems. Bees transport cargo from a hub to the home port. These pollinators consume fuel for their journey, and gather resources at both ends of their trip.

The 2013 budget for promoting this conservation effort at Sea-Tac is $500. In May 2011, Chicago’s O’Hare Airport was the first U.S. airport to start an apiary. German airports, including Hamburg, Munich and Dusseldorf International, led the effort, with the first airport apiary programs starting as early as 1999.