MEDFORD, Ore. - Bees are enjoying their days in the sun on a clean-energy farm in southern Oregon.

The Eagle Point solar farm outside Medford is the largest "solar apiary" in the country, incorporating designs that benefit pollinators. It's home to 48 bee colonies interspersed among solar panels, which are generating enough energy to power more than 2,100 homes annually.

Rob Davis, who directs the Center for Pollinators and Energy for the nonprofit Fresh Energy, connected North Carolina-based Pine Gate Renewables with a beekeeper in southern Oregon. Davis said this isn't just a potted plant in the corner of a 40-acre field.

"It does obviously recognize that these are managed landscapes and that the site is first and foremost an energy-generation facility," he said. "But within that context, there are significant ways to manage the vegetation so that it's incrementally and meaningfully beneficial to honeybees and all the native pollinators and wildlife."

Davis said this idea has been growing in Europe in recent years and now pollinator-friendly solar projects are under way in a dozen states. While upfront costs could be a barrier, he said, adding pollinators to solar farms has many upsides, including increased soil health from native plants and lowered maintenance costs. The projects are reducing the number of times a farm needs to be mowed, which also decreases the risk of a mower colliding with a panel or kicking up a rock and damaging it.

John Jacob, owner of Old Sol Apiaries, said bees and other pollinators face immense pressures right now, in some cases dying off at catastrophic rates. Part of the problem, he said, is the large number of monoculture farms that give bees only one source of food to choose from. Eagle Point offers his bees the opportunity for a diverse diet. Jacob said another issue on farms is pesticides.

"A lot of the crops we get paid to go to are sprayed, and while it's a good income for commercial beekeepers, the downside is that it places a significant amount of stress on honeybee colonies," he said. "So these are places where we can take our bees to help their overall health and to recover from their pollination duties."

Jacob said healthy hives also help surrounding farms. Bees' growing scarcity is driving up pollination costs for farmers. The honeybees at Eagle Point are producing a lot of honey too, averaging 100 to 200 pounds of per colony. The rest of Josephine County colonies average about 30 to 40 pounds.

More information is online about Fresh Energy, Pine Gate Renewables and Old Sol Apiaries.


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As Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin pushes forward on plans to withdraw the Commonwealth from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), environmental activists are raising concerns over the plan.

The multistate compact aims to reduce greenhouse-gas pollution through carbon allowances and capping carbon dioxide emissions. It also funds Virginia's Community Flood Preparedness Fund, a program supporting strategies to mitigate and prevent flooding.

Andrea McGimsey, executive director of Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, said pulling out of RGGI would end the initiative.

"Our rainfall is just getting a lot harder, we're seeing these deluges like we've never seen before, and the science backs that up," McGimsey pointed out. "Our communities are flooding more and more, and we need to prepare for that, because we know it's going to get worse."

A report commissioned by the governor found participation in the program will drive up energy bills for Virginia residents by about $2.39 cents per month, and more than $1,500 per month for industrial customers. The report's authors also contended the project has not borne out its intended benefits.

Annette Osso, managing director for Resilient Virginia, countered it is because the program is relatively new. Virginia completed its enrollment in RGGI in January 2021, and the Flood Preparedness Fund has only completed three grant rounds so far.

"You're either going to pay for it later, after a flood, or you're going to spend some money up front now to put in the mitigation," Osso contended.

One path the governor could take to back out of RGGI involves Virginia's seven-member Air Pollution Control Board.

Zander Pellegrino, northern Virginia organizer for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said Youngkin has been filling the board with his appointees, a process which will conclude tomorrow.

"He's going against the will of the General Assembly," Pellegrino emphasized. "There were numerous attack bills that were introduced this past legislative session that tried to do exactly this, that tried to repeal RGGI. He lost. They were voted down."

The Chesapeake Climate Action Network is organizing a protest outside the state Capitol building tomorrow to protest Youngkin's efforts to pull out of RGGI. At noon, demonstrators will march backward around the building to symbolize the direction they say Youngkin is taking the Commonwealth.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Communities in Maryland have been awarded portions of a $1 million grant to support infrastructure projects such as improving local waterway health and increasing green space in urban areas. Environmental advocates said it can help improve quality of life.

The Chesapeake Bay Green Streets, Green Jobs, Green Towns grant was awarded to 13 projects across Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

Jana Davis, president of Chesapeake Bay Trust, a Maryland-based partner in the grant, said a lot of the awarded communities will use the funds for stormwater runoff control, which can address flooding.

"It encourages water to soak into the ground instead of flooding local streets," Davis explained. "Getting water to flow through the ground and get filtered helps clean the water so that when it enters natural systems it's cleaner than rolling off the surface of a parking lot where it picks up pollutants and goes right into the local stream or bay."

Stormwater management projects include green roofs and vertical rain gardens. Maryland recipients include community organizations in Baltimore, Mount Rainier, Preston and Columbia. The towns of Emmitsburg, Galena, Glen Echo and Millington also received a share of the grant.

The grant is supported in part by the Environmental Protection Agency and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. It also will help local communities increase the amount of green space, such as tree canopies and conservation meadows.

Davis argued every community should have green space within walking distance of all residents.

"It's so important to have an oasis that's green, that provides both a beautiful space to spend time," Davis contended. "But also a place where air quality is locally just a little bit better, where there's shade and where community amenities can be found, whether it's a park bench or a water feature."

Research has shown tree canopies and urban forests can help cities retain stormwater, provide habitat for animals, reduce summer temperatures and store greenhouse gases. Increasing tree canopies is a goal of cities such as Baltimore. Officials want to get the city to 40% canopy coverage by 2037.

Mapping migration routes is important for conserving species such as pronghorn, so supporters hope Congress will fund mapping efforts.

The United States Geological Survey has published two volumes on migration of ungulates, or hoofed mammals, in the western United States. Michael O'Casey, Pacific Northwest field manager for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said the second volume highlights Sheldon-Hart Mountain pronghorn movements in southeast Oregon.

"It shows this really neat connection between two of the first wildlife refuges in the country that were set aside for big game, specifically for pronghorn," he said. "The map in that Volume Two really highlights the need for connectivity between those two refuges."

The Biden administration zeroed out funding for wildlife migration mapping in its 2023 budget. Advocates for mapping hope Congress will set aside $5 million so USGS can continue work with state and local stakeholders on developing maps for big game species in the West.

Matt Kaufmann, a USGS wildlife biologist, said migrating species are facing more obstacles in the form of fences, traffic and development.

"The mapping gives us a road map to identify the threats that the migrations face, and also identify some of the conservation opportunities," he said, "and without a map, it's really difficult to proactively manage and conserve these migrations."

Kaufmann said migrating animals travel across privately owned land, public lands and tribal reservations, making management complex. But he said ungulate herds are important to western ecosystems, providing prey for large carnivores such as wolves.

"Most of them are also harvestable game animals," he said, "and the harvestable surplus that is produced by migration provides millions of dollars in revenue to the state wildlife agencies that manage those herds, and also billions of dollars in tourism revenue to wildlife viewers."


Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.