Published: July 19, 2008 10:37 pm         

Men hope to add bees and butterflies

When retired West Virginia University professor Dr. James Amrine looks at the rails-to-trails that winds through Beckley, he doesn’t only see a reclaimed recreational haven, he sees an opportunity to help revive a struggling ecosystem.

Along with former state legislator and local attorney Paul Hutchinson, Amrine is hoping to introduce a beautiful array of butterflies and an educational observational chamber of bees to the trail.

Amrine has been teaching at WVU since 1977. A year after he began, the bees came calling. Since then, the preservation and thriving of bee populations have been a passion.

“I have been involved with teaching about bees since 1978,” Amrine said. “Since then I have worked with many people, teaching pollination, beekeeping and ways to keep bees healthy.”

Some may remember Amrine from his help developing the Bti black fly spray along rivers in the area, a project which he still holds in high regard. With help from Hutchinson, the Bti program is still thriving.

“The program is implemented through the state Department of Agriculture and $200,000 to help keep the program running is still in the budget today,” Hutchinson said.

But this time around their goal is not to help keep an influx of insects under control, it is to help introduce a new ecosystem to the area to help butterfly and bee colonies thrive. Amrine said that without bees around, humans will struggle more than they think.

“Albert Einstein one said, ‘if honeybees disappear from Earth, humans will follow three years later,’” Amrine explains. “Without honeybees there will be a loss of many products we use, such as almonds.”

So armed with a wealth of knowledge on the subject, Amrine and Hutchinson are ready to help curb the declining bee trend and educate citizens on bees. Along the way, they are going to try and help out another struggling population in the area, butterflies.

For starters, both Amrine and Hutchinson came together and are hoping to bring a little color to the rails-to-trails with the newly introduced butterflies.

“By planting milkweed, butterfly bush and weeds and violets, we can bring along many species of butterflies to the trail,” Amrine explained. “With enough work the area could eventually be declared a monarch refuge.”

The area they are hoping to develop is the old train depot and tunnel off Third Street in Beckley. Within this quarter-mile they want to work with, Amrine says there can be numerous opportunities for butterflies to thrive. Plus, they want a shelter with a bee observation chamber so people can see exactly how a bee colony operates.

But Hutchinson assured that the plans remain greatly informal and they are not here to invade the responsibilities of the city. “It’s just an informal suggestion.”

Amrine has some ideas as to how the community can help get this project up and running.

“A lot of the plants we would need already exist in nature,” he explained. “Half the plants we want to use can be pulled within three blocks of the trail.”